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Categories: Caterers, Middle Eastern, Afghan [Edit]
Neighborhood: Woodley ParkWoodley Park-Zoo|Adams Morgan (Red)
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I happened to here when me and my friends were looking something for a nice restaurant for dinner. I was scrolling in my GPS and saw option for Afghan food. I never been to one before. So curious, we went to the first afghan restaurant guided by my electronic friend.
We were surprised to see the place and inside. Once I had Kabuli Pulao(lamb), the place became my favorite. I been there multiple times and will go again.
Read some mixed reviews of this place, but after my first visit last night, I have to say, I'm a fan.
Started with the pumpkin with meat sauce and yogurt as an appetizer. It's also available as a meal, but it might be a little much as a large portion. Perfect appetizer though.
My girlfriend got the sweet raisin and carrot with lamb. It was a little sweet for her taste, so I obligingly gave her my lamb kabob. Both dishes were great, but the kabob was outstanding - well seasoned, tender, and grilled well.
We had a good meal for a reasonable price. Try to get in before 7 as their happy hour beer is $3.75. The unidentified pilsner on the menu is pilsner urquell.
Like my other reviews, I tend to walk into ethnic restaurants with the bias that hole-in-the-wall places tend to be better tasting than more institutional or franchised restaurants. For some reason, this restaurant came across as half way in between. It did feel like a small hole in the way, but appears to have aspirations to be a fancier restaurant.
And that leads to my one negative. The pricing, though quite reasonable for a haute cuisine DC, seems higher than I would otherwise expect. If it were lower, I'd be there every time I came into the city. As it were, it was worth 2 visits out of 5 trips to DC.
One visit was memorable for my party though. A friend was heading to Afghanistan for his first military mission, and we thought he needed to be aware of the cuisine. They treated us quite nicely and found lots of appetizing plates to share.
I was surprised about the food quality. It was quite good. The pumpkin in particular was quite savory and a table pleaser. The Afghan salad was done quite well, with a tasty mint dressing. I'm not a mint fan usually, but it worked.
Last time I was there, I had a nice kachalou chalao, which was a veggie dish of potato, onions, and a bunch of spices. Quite tasty and one I could order again.
My dinners were business-oriented and the restaurant seems suitable. You dine with just the right amount of exotic ambiance and business appropriateness.
it's an easy place to find. I don't drive when I visit DC, so I take the subway red line to the Woodley (zoo) exit. Walk down to the stop light at Calvert and Connecticut, turn left and it's there on your left. The long stairs might be a challenge for some, so keep that in mind.
Unlike a very strong tradition of most Afghans, this place doesn't follow through. After waiting for 30 minute for a table the hostess gave the table to a group of people who got in no earlier than me. When I asked the hostess about it, he couldn't explain why and just responded, "you can wait for the next table." Since most of the tables weren't even close to finishing I just left. For the lack of honor and lack of a chickpea side I would not suggest this place. I would suggest ANYONE in the DC metro area to go to the Ravi Kabob house in Balston on the east side of Glebe if they want goo AfPak food.
New in town, we were crossing the street with a young lady who asked where we were going for dinner. We hadn't decided. She said, "This is my neighborhood. Most of the restaurants around here are B+, but Afghan Grill is an A." We tried it and are very glad we did. It is a pleasantly decorated place on the second floor of a brick building. The menu is varied. The beef dumplings (Mantoo) were excellent. The eggplant sauteed with onion, garlic, tomato, and lamb (you can have it without the lamb) was very tender and flavorful. Good basmati rice. It was our first time to enjoy Afghan food and we are fans.
I was skeptical about trying Afghan food for the first time, but as with so many things I end up trying, I loved it! As an appetizer I shared fried potato stuffed triangles, which were delicious. Those were possibly a little overpriced because you don't get much, but they were delicious.
For my entree, I got a lamb (which I usually don't order or like) stew and rice. I don't think I breathed in between bites.
The atmosphere is really relaxed and warm, service was good, and the prices were fair. I am definitely planning on going back. It's also a good restaurant to take someone that likes something "different."
(2.5)
Hmmm....
Didn't really feel this place.
The pumpkin appetizer was the high point -- nice and flavorful.
I'm not a person who needs huge portions, but it was somewhat lacking. There was a very thin layer of rice and sparse meat -- all good, but not worth $17 in my mind.
The waitstaff was somewhat pushier than I would like, as well.
Overall, good flavors and everything, but not quite worth the price.
Mr. Smogrocket:
Patron: "I'd like this eggplant dish."
Waitress: "Would you like lamb with it? The lamb is really good."
Patron: "No, I prefer just the eggplant."
Waitress: "So, you want the lamb with it?"
Patron: "No thank you, just the eggplant."
Waitress: "I recommend the lamb."
Patron: "No... no lamb. THANK YOU."
For my first time eating Afghan food, let me say that I was impressed.
I loved everything our friend ordered for us first timers.
We had some sweet potatoes, fried potato stuffed triangles and some pork dumplings to start. Delicious!
For my meal, I picked a lamb stew with some basmati-style rice. Again, yummy. I ate so much, I could barely move.
For desert, I ate a very yummy rose water flavored shaved ice cream - yummy.
All in all, I loved it.
Full disclosure: I am a sucker for anything near the Taft Bridge. (If I wanted to spend eternity in Washington, I'd ask to have my ashes tossed off of it, but I don't) Nonetheless, I do like Afghan Grill. It isn't, as another Yelper indicated, the most comfortable place (You know, for those longish meals)-but I've nevr had a bad meal here (which is more than I can say at home. hahahahaha. No, I'm not keeping Julia Child's ghost awake nights)
It is true that the service can be... ah... spotty. Not quite DC DMV or
classic CVS-"what in the hell are you doing here-can't you see I'm talking about my weekend?" spotty. Let's say that the wait staff can be-well, preoccupied. Maybe they (too)are thinking about the view
from the Taft bridge.
I, too have tasted the delights of the afghan pumpkin dish with a side of rice.
They were closing, but still let me and my friend in to dine. Pleasant, yummy and definitely unique.
What is everyone talking about? This was the WORST food I've had in a while. The difference between the reviews and my experience is making me think they had an off night or something, because folks, it was NOT the business.
1. The spinach was 100% out of the freezer and microwaved, watered-down and altogether gross.
2. The pumpkin appetizer that everyone is raving about on here? Yeah, I ordered it because of all the awesome feedback and guess what--bland and nothing to write home about.
3. The garlic yogurt sauce had the consistency and taste of Hidden Valley Ranch (not a good thing).
4. The "Turkish" coffee was awful.
Oh yeah AND they were out of bread.
Man, I really wanted to like this place, too. It was packed with people and the staff was nice but the food was not that good, plain and simple.
Afghan Grill is pretty decent, but it's woefully overpriced and I don't understand the people in here crowing out how good of a deal it is. I've had Afghan food better than this (but not in DC) for about half the price. I realize the rent in any area of Woodley Park must be high, but 20 bucks for rice and a few pieces of lamb is somewhat preposterous.
The food was alright, it was nice and warm in there, but the price was somewhat obscene and the staff wasn't all that, either.
Mmmm. I can't pronounce any of the menu items, but all of them that we tried were full of flavor. The pumpkin appetizer and eggplant entree were the best!
The service was a bit spotty. For instance, the waiter brought out a dish we didn't order (perhaps bc I couldn't pronounce it correctly, see above). Nevertheless, they made up for it by letting us keep the erroneous apps.
Also, it's a small restaurant, which makes it cozy and perfect for eavesdropping (err, kidding?). But I wouldn't suggest it for a large party.
All-in-all, a pleasant surprise. I had no idea what Afghan food tasted like, but now I am a fan!
I don't feel entitled to be irritated by being stuck into the darkest corner, next to the kitchen; somebody has to sit there if a table isn't going to go empty, and Afghan Grill does not have so much space that they can afford to squander a perfectly useful dark corner. Nonetheless, when the restaurant is 2/3 empty after 8 p.m. on a weeknight, I wonder exactly what horde of people they were expecting to come in and take the seats within 25 feet of the window. (Nobody, on our watch.)
As for the food: the reviewers telling you to get the pumpkin appetizer are quite right, although we got it when pumpkins weren't in season. Still, it was tasty. So was the kabob, although for the price you pay it isn't as much meat as you'd expect it to be. The rice was extremely flavorful, the kabob was good, but still:
This place had the potential to be a real gem-- to serve lots of tasty food and grilled meat for not-too-much-money in a charming but unpretentious setting. Alas, it has failed to do so. (Oh, and: the bread-- indifferent and cut into tiny slices for no obvious reason; the pistachio-rosewater ice cream-- tasted like soap.)
A minor obsession with Korean and Central American food may be apparent in my reviews thus far, but I'm adventurous and like to think I'm well-versed in lots of ethnic categories--except this one. Gotta admit, I might never have tried the place if a certain friend hadn't pulled it out when I called for help in choosing among the three Indian places in Woodley Park. Person I was with at the time is a vegetarian and asked me to ask my friend if that would be an issue. I told her he suggested ordering the goat stew without the goat. Turns out there is in fact no goat on the menu, though I had her going for a bit, but I was just as ignorant about Afghan food. We both ordered without quite knowing what we would get.
I had a reason to come back a couple weeks later with an old friend in town for a conference and a colleague of his whose family is originally from northern India. He told us how northern India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan have historically related and similar cultures and that with a little help you could translate many of the Afghan food terms into more familiar Indian food names. That's not to say that the dishes resemble familiar Indian dishes, other than both have a tendency to involve pureed substances of various colors over rice. But the flavors themselves are quite different. The vegetarian dishes (Badenjan Chalao and Kadu Buranee featured eggplant, pumpkin, and onions, with an intriguing blend of spices that I couldn't really liken to anything, except to say they are somewhere between India and the Middle East, which is essentially where Afghanistan itself lies. I enjoyed the two vegetarian dishes enough to advocate ordering one or both again the second and third times I was there, all within a few weeks . A meat dish came by mistake the first time I went which I happily enjoyed but we never confidently identified, the meat or the name of the dish.
The main down side is that the menu is kinda limited. Due to low interest in certain items, selections over three visits were mostly the same. But hats off to this place for tasty unusual food and firmly shattering misconceptions about Afghanistan.
Afghan Grill is a modest middle eastern bistro near Woodley Park Metro. It's located above a nail salon, so if you stumble upon it (as I first did) your expectations are rather low...and then pleasantly lifted by a cuisine that developed a great balance of ingredients over centuries.
Early on, I chose a couple favorite dishes: the Kadu Buranee (pumpkin, ground beef, & yogurt on top of rice) and the Qaboli Palao (sweetly spiced rice, with carrots, raisins and lamb) and have remained pretty devoted to these entrees -- followed by a cup of perfumed tea and sometimes perfumed ice cream for dessert.
(BYOB note: The last time we were there for a special occasion, they allowed us to bring our own bottle of wine and charged a corkage fee -- but I'm not sure if that's a regular policy.)
Very good Afghan food.
It is located very close to the Woodley Park/ADMO metro station, and the small dining room has a good atmosphere and decent decor.
The food is wonderful. There is a decent selection of appetizers followed by a good selection of entrees. The menu is par for the course: lots of rice and kebabs.
I recommend the bulanee (potato), badenjan chalao, and lamb kabob.
I do not recommend the kachlao chalo, as it is bland and uninspired.
I wish the vegetarian options were a bit more complex and spicy. The badenjan chalao is my favorite, but I always mix in a little yogurt and chutney from the bread and appetizers to increase the flavor.
The rosewater-pistacio ice cream is one of my three favorite desserts in the city.
Service is polite, and reasonabe - but don't come if you're in a huge rush, as the time between ordering and eating is fairly unpredictable.
Highly recommended for high food quality, variety and atmosphere.
This is a great place to stop if you are walking over the bridge from the Woodley Park metro or from the zoo neighborhood on over to Adam's Morgan. It is upstairs, so a bit tricky to find. Look for the sign!
My faves here are the chicken kabobs and something called Kadu Buranee. Kadu Buranne is sauteed pumpkin with garlic yogurt and meat sauces. So good, and I have not been able to find it at any other restaurant.
Never tried Afghan food? And not the places that claim they are the real deal and only serve sub par kabobs? Try this place. You won't be sorry.
Update:
I'm sorry to have to take away a star...but the last time we were here the baklava tasted like onions...I'm guessing they had the chopped onions in the same fridge as the baklava. The amateurishness of the mistake really surprised me. It sucked to end the meal like that. I hate sending things back. We still tipped really well, though.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Baby joon you've gotta try this place! I love that the place is authentic, small, and delicious. We got to sit in the window and watch people go by, inspect the samovar in the window, etc.
The cadu (sp?) pumpkin dish with yogurt and meat sauce was so good it hurt, and the dumplings were unlike anything middle eastern I've ever had.
Alex had sweet saffron rice with carrots and lamb, and I had the eggplant and lamb dish. It all tasted like something you might have had at someone's home -- a really talented person's home.
The fireni, a rice custard dessert, came as a huge bowl. The baklava was sweet and they give you TWO pieces! Amazing!
I wasn't crazy about the wine....I think I had a bordeaux. That would be my only disclaimer.
Cheap though - 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, 2 desserts for $44.00 (not including tip).
The pumpkin dish with meat sauce rocks. ROCKS. So much so that I quickly got over the dining room being so filled with couples and groups of couples that I had to be seated at a front and center table for four.
Now, I am a seasoned solo diner and have rocked the table for one in the fanciest and most romantic of restaurants, even so, I was feeling consciously alone at the large front table. I think the server/owner sensed my slightly elevated self-consciousness because my meal seemed expedited. I never felt rushed, but food was certainly efficiently delivered and cleared and I was happy to get it, eat it, and go. That said, in more social circumstances, I could easily linger at Afghan Grill for hours.
This review comes several months after the most recent review--and the pumpkin dish does not disappoint. It's truly succulent, and comes both as an appetizer and as a main dish.
The service was uneven, but well meaning, and we didn't find it to be slow, even on a Saturday night.
The owners are kind. They used to live in New York and will regale you with stories if you'd like.
They have a yelp sticker on the door of the restaurant. That's the first time I've seen one of those.
Note that there are stairs, so the place is not accessible.
I have always loved Afghan Grill. The Vegetable combo is great, a nice balance of sweet and savory. I brought my 13-year-old cousin there and she loved it too.
But the last time I visited, I saw quite a few bugs, quite bold ones too. Pretty small and not terrible, but I don't like bugs on the tablecloth. Nope, I sure don't.
Food was tasty at very affordable prices. For what you pay for each entree, you get heaping mounds of rice and all that you ordered. The pumpkin appetizer with the meat sauce was tasty yummy in an interesting combination of sweetness from the pumpkin and the savory from the meat. The yogurt sauce on it melded the flavors quite well.
Microscopic restaurant upstairs conveniently located at the intersection of Connecticut and Calvert, so it was very easy for my dinner friends and I to walk over to Adam's Morgan for drinks after dinner.
I'd give this place more stars if I didn't feel disgustingly sick afterwards up til the afternoon after eating here.
Afghan cuisine is generally a delicate balance of aromatic spices and flavors. And along those lines, it won't be served to you in gargantuan portions. But, if you are willing to give it a try the food is very good at Afghan Grill. The restaurant itself is pretty tiny, so definitely make a reservation if you're a large party; however, I've waltzed up unplanned and not had to wait more than 30 seconds for a table for 2. Some highlights on the menu are: Kadu Buranee - a sauteed pumpkin and meat dish that is guaranteed to please; Sabzi Chalao - a spinach and lamb entree; and any of the kabobs - served with steamed basmanti rice. Hungry yet? I was a bit disappointed in the dessert that I tried, so you might be better off heading across the street to get some Baskin Robbins afterwards...
My book club sometimes tries to meet at a place that is relevant to the book. We read A Thousand Splendid Suns so Afghan was in order. One of our members is Afghani as well. We picked Afghan Grill which is a small place near the Woodley Park.
Well the service isn't very good. I had to wait about 5 minutes before the waiter got off the phone and even acknowledged me. The restaurant is small so I felt very awkward just standing there.
The food was just okay. Our entrees were luke warm and not very flavorful. We ordered the kachlao chalo was very bland. We got the appetizer platter and it was much better than the entrees me shared. My Afghani friend agreed that we should try Afghan food elsewhere.
Adorable little miniature restaurant with big taste and wonderful dishes. Truly a great experience all around if you don't mind the small space. It was my first time trying Afghan cuisine too -- my significant other loves authentic indian food and he was also taken aback at how good the food was here.
I couldn't get over how tasty my vegetarian appetizer and spinach dish were, not overly salted and very enjoyable. The custardy dessert is really delicious with a fine cardamom touch.
A must try in the DC area, if you like ethnic cuisine.
Good food, moderate prices, nice mellow atmosphere. We tried the pumpkin dish as an appetizer per recommendations on yelp and enjoyed it. Would get again next time. Then, I had the lamb kebab as my main dish. Came with saffron rice and some roasted vegetables. It was yummy and reasonably priced for the area. I'd come again.
I love the Helmand in Baltimore (amazing!) so I decided to try the Afghan Grill as a local place Afghan place. I will start off with the restaurant itself. It was small and cute. It was not packed for a Friday night yet the waiter sat us at a table in the back. Next to us was a young kid (I think the family was somehow connected to the owners b/c they seemed to know everyone) who was watching a DVD on a portable DVD player. So, my dinner was included a free loud screening of some cartoon. The food was not bad but not great. The flavors were not outstanding and the pumpkin (which is usually my favorite) was lacking. If you like Afghan food make the trip to the Helmand in Baltimore-it will not disappoint.
The nite we went my Dad and I had pretty much the place to ourselves. The owner even came down and sat and made sure we were happy. We had the Aash soup, so good on a cold and windy nite. We also had some kabobs and some other items, all very nicely spiced. I don't recommend going there on a weekend evening though, you won't get a table.
Okay, I am not a Rachael Ray fan, so I am quite surprised that I am stealing her terminology.....but YUM-O!!! The food was superb. I went the non-risky route and ordered the chicken kabob and the cucumber salad as an appetizer. It was amazing. The chicken was spiced just right...chock full of flavor... and the rice was excellent. There was some kind of spiced potato on top of the rice which sent the taste buds soaring. I was extremely impressed.
Will definitely be going back.
The food (dumplings and pumpkin meals were hard-core good) and ambiance (bright and comfortable) are both super, save for the bread, which seemed reheated and the green dip was a watery mess. I would give a solid 4 were it not for the painfully slow service. It took about an hour for us to have our order taken, and another (literal) hour to have our dirty plates collected. When we asked for some free baklava they had the nerve to resist. The waitstaff was friendly but wholly incompetent. They took our drink orders 3 times and lost our check. I was embarrased for them. But, the food was good enough that I would go back - with plenty of time (3 hours +). I guess it's better than feeling rushed.
A small place hidden above a nail salon, but the food was quite delicious. Be ready to be cozy with the neighbors as there isn't much room to stretch. I wanted to try lamb, and I was a bit confused as the waiter put a huge heap of rice in front of me. Where was the lamb? Oh, underneath it. Garnished with carrots and raisins, the whole dish (lamb pelow?) was quite tasty. Another dish of note to try here is the pumpkin dish, which I had a taste of. I'll be back to try more later!
This was the most delicious meal I'd had in a very long time, and I'm a person that only likes to eat the most delicious things always. We got a couple of samplers, and all of the meat dishes (especially the dumplings) were PERFECTLY seasoned, and the pumpkin dish was sweet and complemented the savory bits of the meal very well. The servers were funny--I tried to ask for a wine recommendation, and they were just like "Oh, that one's okay, that one's not so good, that one tastes kind of muddy." But I appreciated the honesty, and the fact that they weren't trying to just sell. The kitchen was very, very slow, which was fine with me because I was catching up with an old friend in DC, but on any other night I would have been cross. Actually, my profile picture was taken at Afghan Grill. If you're in DC, please go. And to echo Shilpa, I actually looked for Afghani restaurants in Chicago today, and they're all pretty far north, and probably not as good. Which makes me sad.
Hooray for delicious!
One of my favorite restaurants ever, food-wise. I wish there were a place remotely like it in chicago or sf, I prob won't be in dc again soon, but during my 4 months in this city I was obsessed. The family that runs it is really nice and though service may be slow and it's not the most comfortabe place, but the food more than makes up for it. Try the Qabili Palao.
Neighborhood: Mount Vernon Square
Category: Afghan
Falls Church, VA
Category: Afghan
Neighborhood: Woodley Park
Category: French
Neighborhood: Woodley Park
Category: Middle Eastern
Neighborhood: Adams Morgan
Category: Middle Eastern
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