Afghan Master Kebab, 3/20 Devonshire Road, Sunshine. Phone:  9311 9277

OK, forget your local old-school charcoal chicken, definitely your Nando’s and maybe even your favourite local tandoori chook.

Here’s what you need …

Half a gloriously chargrilled chicken, mouthwateringly juicy and tangily seasoned.

Served with generous portions of freshly baked flatbread that’s nice and chewy and something like a cross between pita and Turkish bread, along with some salty yogurt sauce and a beaut chilli-infused one of sublime mintiness, and some OK salad bits.

It’s a superb meal and at $8 is an instant westie cheap eats classic.

This plate is just one of the highlights of our Cup Day lunch at Afghan Master Kebab, which has recently taken over the Devonshire Road premises from Eat And Love, an Indian joint we never made it to.

The new Afghani crew has bedecked the place out in wonderful, almost psychedelic finery and the prices on the tightly-structured menu are all under $15.

Lauren from Footscray Food Blog has already posted a story about the new enterprise and in the days following I frankly became quite droolingly besotted with the evocative kebab photo she posted.

But she, knowing well my fondness for rice dishes from this broader part of the world, tells me I’m likely to be drawn towards that segment of the menu.

And that is indeed where I head on a first visit, sans son.

“Zerishk palaw” ($14) comes with the same accessories as the kebab dishes.

Fluffy white rice topped with tangy berberries goes swell with the a side serve of “lamb qorma” of mildly spicy, good tomato-and-onion gravy with two largish chunks of tender but stupendously meaty lamb.

It’s all fine and homely fare, but it does leave me a little like, um, “Is that all?”

So when I return with Bennie we head straight to the kebab action, snagging the aforementioned half-chicken meal and also the mix kebab ($13.99).

Lamb skewers of the cubed and minced variety are real nice.

But once again it’s the plentiful chicken that really knocks us out.

These cubes are big, succulent and tremendously well seasoned with, we’re pretty sure, cumin and other goodies.

This is breast meat that comprehensively defies the stereotype of this part of the bird being dry and tasteless.

There’s so much of the fantastic bread on our table that we are able to take half of it home to have that evening with spicy chick peas.

Afghan Master Kebab is surely destined to become a magnet for chargrilled meat fans from all over …