A Scottish burger chain has opened a new restaurant in Stirling’s Cowane Street.
Chilo’s Burgers is a franchise, run by Sheraz Afzal in Stirling, which sells a variety of freshly made burgers and sides along with unique sauces and its own range of soft drinks.
The restaurant, which opened on October 11 last year, has seats for up to 22 customers inside and offers takeaway and delivery.
It is the first business Sheraz has operated following years of gaining hospitality experience while working in takeaways run by his family – plus a short stint as an accountant.
He says: “My father has always had takeaway restaurants so I worked in those when I was younger before taking an accountancy degree and graduating as an accountant. I worked for a company in Edinburgh for two and a half years but didn’t really enjoy sitting behind a desk and a screen and knew I wanted a change. I was working there when Covid happened and that was when I decided accountancy really wasn’t what I wanted to do and left the job.
Instead, Sheraz spent time working in takeaway restaurants his family owns – in Alloa, Crieff and Armadale – and waited for an opportunity to launch his own business.
He says: “I used to regularly eat at the Chilo’s restaurants in Glasgow and really enjoyed the food and the concept behind it so when the owner started offering franchises, I decided to take one.”
There are three Chilo’s restaurants in Glasgow and one in Edinburgh with more venues due to open soon in several Scottish towns including Falkirk, Giffnock and Paisley.
The restaurant offers a family-style menu of tasty food produced to the highest standards with each item made to order in front of customers in an open kitchen.
Sherez, who lives in Clackmannanshire, was keen to invest in a shop in Stirling and spent thousands revamping the premises at 49 Cowane Street which was formerly a dessert shop called Crunch Munch.
He said: “It was quite hard to find the right unit as we needed 900 square feet because of the open kitchen and the need for a cold room and a freezer room for storage plus a seating area.
Because of all these demands, I needed a big shop so I was looking around and saw a couple in the centre of Stirling which weren’t big enough or not ideal in some other way and then the Cowane Street shop came up which is in a good location with free parking and seemed a good opportunity to help bring the area to life.”
Sheraz changed the shop’s décor and interior completely and added his own touches including a dragon mural on the wall.
Chilo’s only uses grass-fed and free-range Prime Aged Aberdeen Angus Beef for its premium smashed Burgers while its chicken is marinated for 24 hours in the company’s own marinade before being steam-cooked and flame-grilled to order in the customer’s chosen flavour.
In addition to burgers, the restaurants serve wraps, rice boxes, loaded fries, salads and desserts and have their own soft drinks including Chilo’s Mandarin and Cola.
Sheraz says: “Since opening, word began spreading and we got busier every day. Chilo’s is a well-known brand in Glasgow with unique sauces and its own special drinks so there are a lot of differentiating factors which make us unique, and the brand is growing with more shops due to open soon which is exciting.
We’re really focused on feedback and people have been very happy with the food with some saying they’ve never tasted a burger like this before. It’s all because of the different elements which make up the burgers – the sauce, the freshly made buns, the beef which is all fresh and all Angus and the top of the range chips – people are really loving the whole taste. I think Stirling needed a place like this which has been properly equipped and invested in and which puts the customer at the centre of everything.”
“We’re different to other places due to the freshness of the food and the combination of flavours and ‘happiness in every bite’ is our motto!”
Chilo’s offers a sit-down area for 22 customers as well as having takeaway and delivery services.
The restaurant is open daily from 3pm until 11 pm Monday to Thursday and from midday until 11pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
More details about the business and photos of the food on offer can be found
on the Chilo’s Facebook page – www.facebook.com/Chilosburgers – and on Instagram – www.instagram.com/chilosburgers
