Local Lookout: Royal Chicken & Kebab

To say that Saturdays at midnight are chaotic at Royal Chicken & Kebab, downtown on Boltwood Walk, would be an understatement. Walking in, a visitor is met with the strong waft of fresh meat, the shouts of names as orders are prepped, and the cramping of more than 40 kids in a six-by-six foot space. Yet, by 1 a.m., every order has been fulfilled and the restaurant has mostly cleared. In an attempt to learn more about this well-oiled machine and a college favorite (including ours!), we sat down with Rafi Gholam, the owner of Royal Chicken.

Gholam is ethnically Afghan but was born and raised in New York City. He began working in a restaurant when he was just 11 years old and immediately knew that he eventually wanted to have and manage his own: “[I’ve] always had [the idea]. I guess I was just waiting to pull the trigger.” In 2022, he finally “took the leap.”

Prior to opening the restaurant, Gholam operated his own trucking company, Royal Goods. When it came time to name his restaurant, he wanted to pay homage to the business that allowed him to pursue his dream, merging Royal with one of the restaurant’s most served ingredients — chicken.

Gholam labels the cuisine at Royal Chicken as “Mediterranean with an American twist,” with customer favorites ranging from falafel and tandoori kebab to American cheesecake and mozzarella sticks. Royal Chicken’s most popular menu item is the mixed platter, a blend of saffron rice, salad, beef, chicken, falafel, and their housemade sauce. For Ella Miller ’28, the mixed platter is her go-to: “On Friday and Saturday nights my friends and I always end up [at Royal Chicken]. It’s consistently good and the workers are so friendly.”

Indeed, Fridays and Saturdays are the most hectic nights, and though it might look easy, Gholam assured us that managing the stress of the weekends required practice, trial-and-error, and a little bit of improvisation. Now, he says that they try to “always be well-prepared.” Even during their $10 discount night on Sept. 20, when the line of students extended far beyond the door, “we just [made sure] to prep more food for that day” and everything ran smoothly. When we asked Gholam if he had a particular strategy for handling the influx of customers he laughed, and said, “What’s my strategy? I mean, I guess my strategy is doing whatever I’m doing right now.”

As for the future of Royal Chicken, Gholam hopes to increase the efficiency of the current location, and is debating introducing handheld devices so that orders can be taken as students queue. He’s also thinking about expanding Royal Chicken into multiple locations and plans to start with one in Northampton. When we asked him about the fate of his trucking company, he told us he eventually wants to combine his two “creations” saying, “I currently have [my trucking company] on pause for the restaurant, but maybe down in the future, when we do grow, I can use my trucks to maneuver [between locations].”

But for now, Gholam is proud to serve Amherst and specifically students at Amherst College, especially since he says, “the customers have always made our business.” It seems that a similar sentiment is shared amongst students: Naomi Meyer ’27 noted, “Obviously the food is amazing, but I also like talking to the workers, especially Linette. Even if it’s just a brief conversation where we have to yell at each other over all the noise, it’s nice. She’s a familiar face.”