A single skewer of chicken (Jujeh) kebab now costs more than IRR10mn ($5.54) at upmarket Tehran restaurants, with some venues charging IRR13mn ($7.21) per skewer before rice, according to financial media websites in Iran on May 21.

For a country where the average monthly wage has collapsed to less than $200 at current exchange rates, a single kebab now costs three days' pay.

The outrage has exploded across Iranian social media, where millions have shared screenshots of restaurant menus in disbelief.

A worker at a liver (Jigar)  kebab shop in Tehran told IntelliNews the restaurant had raised prices three times in recent months.

"The price of liver has doubled. When we ask suppliers why, they either say there's a shortage or that sheep are being exported. Honestly, there's no real oversight," he said. 

The humble kebab has been the centrepiece of the Iranian table for generations, cheap, filling and available on every street corner. That is no longer the case with meat now seen as a luxury as living standards continue to nosedive in the face of a US blockade on Iranian oil in the Gulf of Oman and the prospect of renewed strikes weighing heavily on the Iranian economy. 

Chicken prices have risen 191% in the past year alone, according to data published by Qatari Al Jazeera, while liquid cooking oil is up 308% and imported rice up 209% over the same period.

Monthly food inflation hit 13.8% in January 2026, a record high, according to official data from the Statistical Centre of Iran, with point-to-point food inflation reaching 60% year on year that month. 

The war between Iran, Israel and the United States, which began in late February and closed the Strait of Hormuz for weeks, has piled pressure on an economy already battered by decades of Western sanctions and currency collapse.

The rial has lost virtually all its value over the past decade, falling from around IRR40,000 to the dollar in 2015 to IRR1,804,000 today.

Restaurant operators say rising raw material costs, rent, energy bills and wages have left them with no choice but to pass costs on.

Economists speaking with IntelliNews warn that a structural shift is underway, with traditional Iranian dishes gradually disappearing from middle-class budgets.

"The food basket has continued to shrink over the past twelve months with essentials either reducing in size or being removed entirely, including the Amar [Statistical Centre of Iran] removing butter from the financial calculation," said one economist monitoring the situation who asked not to be named. 

Food inflation in Iran averaged 34.82% between 2012 and 2025, according to data from the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), reaching a record high of 87% in July 2022.

Meat price increases have been particularly sharp over the past decade, with reports indicating rises of between 3,000% and 4,000% compared with 10 years earlier. Red meat prices climbed more than 150% during the Iranian year to March 2024.