Grill Kabob’s new Tysons location at Pike 7 Plaza to open in June

Grill Kabob is expanding its Tysons footprint beyond the mall food court.

With 17 years at Tysons Corner Center under its belt, the Afghan kabob chain is working on its first standalone location in the area at Pike 7 Plaza (8385 Leesburg Pike). An exact launch date hasn’t been set, but the restaurant will “definitely” be ready in June, co-owner Wais Shoja says.

“You have a wonderful location there,” Shoja said of Pike 7 Plaza. “You have the Metro close by, it’s a busy shopping center, you have a lot of residential, a lot of office space, so you’re pretty much getting…every kind of angle, every kind of avenue of people coming in.”

Started at Springfield Town Center — then called Springfield Mall — in 1998 by Shoja’s father and uncles, Grill Kabob has grown to 11 locations across the D.C. area, including the Tysons Corner Center stand that has been in the third-floor food court since it opened in 2005.

The Pike 7 site will be the chain’s 12th. Additional locations in Ballston and Ashburn as well as F Street in northwest D.C. will bring the total to 15 by the end of this year.

Shoja says the business has never juggled construction on this many new locations at the same time before, attributing the convergence to pandemic-related delays on the Ballston and F Street restaurants.

“That’s something new and different, but as an expanding family-owned business, there’s things you learn as the business continues to grow,” he said.

Starting with the new Tysons location, Grill Kabob is taking advantage of the major expansion to update its decor and overall aesthetic approach. Visitors can expect more mosaic tiles and “pops” of color in the furniture for a more modern design, according to Shoja.

The menu, though, will feature the same, reliable lineup of kabobs, wraps, rice bowls, and salads that the chain has been serving up for more than two decades now.

A worker in the family business since he was 13, Shoja says his whole family is proud to see how far Grill Kabob has come since that first restaurant in Springfield. While the focus continuees to be on the D.C. area, an expansion to other parts of the country isn’t out of the question.

“We’re always open to looking for new locations,” Shoja said. “If the location is right, if there’s a good opportunity, of course we would love to…We’re continually looking to grow.