Sham Grill is a Middle Eastern restaurant and takeaway on Chapel Road in Flat Bush, Auckland, built around the classics of the region: shawarma carved warm from the spit, falafel, kebabs and marinated meats grilled over charcoal. The team describes starting Sham with one goal in mind — providing an enjoyable dining experience for Kiwis in the Auckland area — inspired by traditional Middle Eastern cooking and a passion for different cultures, with homemade dishes made from fresh ingredients and brought straight to the table.
The menu runs from Arabic-style shawarma and falafel wraps and plates to Kiwi-style kebab wraps and plates served on rice, chips or salad, with a choice of up to three sauces from a list that includes garlic aioli, mayo, sweet chili, hot chili, BBQ, tahini and mint. The charcoal grill turns out chicken tikka, lamb tikka and lamb kofta skewers in runs of two to eight, a whole marinated chicken, and a family platter that combines eight skewers and a whole chicken with all the sides. Mezze such as homemade hummus with Sham bread, smoky mutabal, fattoush, tabbouleh and dolma sit alongside burgers, fries, and Middle Eastern sweets like kunafa, baklava, basbousa and mushabak.
Sham Grill opens from 11am to 10pm, with online ordering available for takeaway and bookings taken by phone. The restaurant's branding carries a Halal Food mark, and the team asks customers to note that while dietary preferences are accommodated where possible, food cannot be guaranteed free from allergens such as nuts, gluten or dairy.
Sham Grill brings the smells of the Middle East — sizzling charcoal, warm flatbread, garlic sauce and sweet syrup — to Chapel Road in Flat Bush, Auckland. The team started Sham with one goal in mind: providing an enjoyable dining experience to Kiwis in the Auckland area. The inspiration is traditional Middle Eastern cooking and a passion for different cultures, and the result is a vast menu of homemade dishes made with fresh ingredients and served, as they put it, straight to your table.
It is a menu with room for everything from a quick lunch wrap to a full family feast, and it has two clear personalities: the Arabic kitchen and the Kiwi kebab shop, sitting happily side by side.
Shawarma is the heart of the Arabic side of the menu. The Chicken Shawarma Wrap (Arabic) pairs carved chicken with flatbread, garlic sauce and pickles, while the lamb or mixed version is rolled with pickles, tomato, parsley and onion, tahini sauce and hummus. A falafel wrap with salad and tahini keeps things meat-free.
Order the same dishes as Arabic plates and they become a knife-and-fork affair: shawarma piled over a large flatbread cut into pieces, with garlic dip and pickles, served alongside salads, chips and Muhammara bread. Falafel gets the same generous treatment, which makes these plates an easy way to feed a table with a bit of everything.
The grill section — headed مشاوي, or mashawi — is where Sham shows off. Skewers of chicken tikka, lamb tikka and lamb kofta are marinated and grilled over charcoal, then served with salads, garlic dip, Muhammara bread and rice, in runs of two, four, six or eight skewers, with extras available for hungrier tables.
A whole marinated chicken comes off the charcoal with Muhammara bread, garlic dip, salads and rice. And for groups there is the Sham Grilled (Family): a mixed collection of all the grilled items — eight skewers and a whole chicken — with garlic dip, salads, grilled tomato and onion, Muhammara bread, rice and a 1.5-litre soft drink. It is the kind of platter that turns an ordinary dinner into an occasion.
Around the grills sits a proper mezze line-up: homemade hummus with Sham bread (or topped with lamb or chicken), creamy smoky mutabal made with eggplant, tahini, garlic and lemon, crunchy fattoush, herb-packed tabbouleh, and dolma — vine leaves stuffed with a tasty herbed rice mix. Chips are on hand for the kids, and add-ons cover everything from extra garlic to six pieces of falafel.
Sauce lovers are well catered for. Kebab wraps and plates come with a choice of up to three from garlic aioli, mayo, sweet chili, hot chili, BBQ, tahini and mint, and kebab plates can be built on rice, chips or salad. There are even Kiwi-style falafel wraps loaded with all the salads and sauces, plus a short burger list — crispy chicken, the homemade Sham Burger and a double — for anyone in a buns-and-chips mood.
Finish the Middle Eastern way: kunafa made with shredded phyllo, a creamy cheese filling and ghee, soaked in sweet syrup under a scatter of pistachio, or baklava, basbousa and mushabak from the pastry selection. Drinks run to tea, Turkish coffee, laban and cans of soda.
Sham Grill is open from 11am to 10pm, and online ordering through the website makes takeaway simple — handy, given how well wraps travel. Tables can be booked by phone on 09 558 7119, and the restaurant's branding carries a Halal Food mark. One note from the team: while they do their best to accommodate dietary preferences and restrictions, they cannot guarantee that food is free from allergens such as nuts, gluten or dairy, and cross-contamination may occur.
Whether you come for a two-skewer grill, an Arabic shawarma plate or the full family spread, the idea is the same: honest, homemade Middle Eastern food made fresh and shared generously in Flat Bush.