12/16/2025
Pt. 2 of our interview with Habibi Bowl & Gyro
Phillip On Food— What was life like back home?
Shehryar— Our culture prefers a joint family system, so we stay pretty close to each other. I don’t just hang out with my immediate family, I hang out with my uncles, cousins, grandparents, everyone. Our family system is pretty close. Back in the days before I immigrated over here, we used to have family gathering parties every week.
And I was the one who used to grill the barbecue for them. That was my major job over there on that specific day. We always enjoyed our time together.
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Phil— Ah, so it has always been your dream! And you're right, we don't have anything like it.
Shehyar— Exactly. My therapy is making delicious food from scratch after a long days work. Even back home, I would help cook for our big family gatherings we had every week. It has been a part of me for my entire life.
That is what I am bringing to Bismarck: fresh food, made from scratch, and different flavors than anything you can find in town. I don't want to sell boxes of frozen food.
I want it to be fresh salads, fresh chicken, fresh rice to be made and cooked from scratch. Not stored overnight and then defrosted. Nothing in my restaurant has been frozen.
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Phil— I love it. We don’t have enough fresh options here, as I’m sure you’ve heard from many of your customers. It’s great to see another healthy option available in our area.
Do you have any future plans?
Shehryar— If the support is good, I want to open another restaurant! That one would be a traditional Mediterranean grille. I have a good idea of what it will look like, and I’m excited to get started on it.
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Phil— Alright, let’s switch to the business side. What is Habibi Bowl & Gyro? What have you created here?
Shehryar— It’s not just a restaurant, it’s a place to experience something new. Every ingredient is fresh, and it is not a copy-paste of something you can find somewhere else. Each flavor has been properly checked by me as the owner, and I guarantee the freshness. I am that type of eater, so that is what I serve.
For me, I want the food to look good. If it looks good, it will taste good. I want to see the freshness of the salad, I want to see the rice with the sauce, so I know it is fresh. You cannot just read the name from the menu and know if it tastes good.
Here, we buy fresh every day. We do not make it, freeze it, and serve it the next day. We don’t even have the storage to do things like that, so it is guaranteed to be fresh.
So, while it is a quick-serve restaurant, it’s more of a fresh food-style of restaurant, from us to the people of Bismarck.
Also, at the end of the day, we make bowls out of what is left and we donate them to the rehabilitation centers here in Bismarck, and also our team goes and provides the food to the homeless in our area. Everyone deserves to eat, and we want to help out and do our part with that.
Not everyone can afford to eat and nobody has taken care of them, so we try to do that with what we have.
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This is part 2 of our interview with Shehryar Khawar,
Owner of Habibi Bowl & Gyro
Located at 625 S Washington St C, Bismarck, ND.
Business hours
Open 10:30a-9p daily.
I had the opportunity to sit down with Shehryar, the owner of Habibi Bowl & Gyro, and learn more about him and his journey. He is extremely passionate about sharing his food with our community, and prides himself on only serving fresh food made from fresh ingredients.
I was happy to hear that nothing is ever frozen, and got to see behind the scenes of the restaurant. We are fortunate to have another healthy option in our area!
I recommend the chicken & gyro bowl, it is delicious. My favorite is the Tzatziki & garlic sauce combo to top it off (you’ll thank me later), but you can’t go wrong with any of the sauces. They’re all made from scratch!
P.s. Mention BisMan Eats for 10% off your meal. Enjoy!
—Phillip On Food
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Find the full interview here:
https://bismaneats.com/local-spotlight/habibi-bowl-and-gyro
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