Arya Steakhouse

I sometimes go alone to eat in a nice quiet restaurant by myself. That seems to surprise some employees, but I continue to enjoy it. Tonight I had a delicious meal at Arya Steakhouse of chicken kebab with polo Adas. The chicken breast is moist and tasty and the rice a perfect complement.

My server was Jonathan. He was very friendly, efficient and he anticipated what I might need to go along with my dinner. But, as important, he left me alone to eat and enjoy my book. After dinner, we had a chance to chat, when he told me how much he likes his job and what other activities he is engaged in outside of work. He gave the perfect amount of service for my night out. Thank you, Jonathan.

Jonathan and Hugo were our servers in a private room and he did a great job! We loved the food and the presentation! We are sure to be back!
Alex

The ambiance was great and our waiter Michael L. was amazing! Definitely will be returning.

We were looking for lunch in a relaxing venue after a crazy busy weekend. This is the place. There were a few parties in here. It wasn't crowded. It wasn't loud. We had a very good waiter. Other employees came by too and were very friendly.

My son loves meat and it was one of those days I wanted to spoil him. It was a bit pricey. I cannot remember the names of the dishes we ordered. We asked our waiter what he would recommend and he went thru all the menu items. Everything sounded much more delicious than reading the menu.

Everything tasted delicious. It was a very relaxing lunch, in a comfortable environment and this is a great place to eat.

It's rare that my girlfriend recommends we go someplace we never tried, so I decided to make reservations at Arya for her birthday last night.

I don't spend a whole lot of time in Palo Alto and I known University can sometimes be hard to navigate, but Arya Steakhouse is situated at the edge of a central spot that was easy to get to, with covered parking only a few steps away.

It was a little awkward getting seated as the host was on the phone finalizing a reservation, but he easily saw our OpenTable reservation and got us a table in front of the restaurant's backdrop next to a window. Absolutely nothing to complain about here. They also had softer versions of modern music to make it sound a bit classic and dimmer lights adding to the ambiance.

We started off with drinks--my partner got a pinot noir while I got a mango margarita. Both were absolutely delicious.

As our starters, split the crab cakes as well as the pistachio meatballs. We had a side of pita bread that went well with the sauces for both plates. The crab cakes were solid and were accompanied with these peppers that tasted like seedy olives... it was an interesting combination of flavors and textures. The meatballs were terrific. The bits of pomegranate really gave a refreshing burst of flavor to the meatballs.

For our main courses, my partner had the Filet Mignon enhanced with scallops and I had the dry aged ribeye enhanced with shrimp. Her filet mignon was a perfect medium rare while my ribeye felt more medium than medium rare. In any case, the crust of the steak was perfect and I still got that dry aged funk you'd expect from such a steak even with their Mediterranean seasonings.

We ended the night with an awesome pudding infused with rosewater as the staff embarrassingly serenaded my girlfriend. :)

Prices here are definitely on the high end but the service here was among the best I've ever received from a place in the Bay Area. Jose was very attentive and he even got me a steaming cup of Americano on the house. It was very much appreciated.

We'll definitely be back. Hopefully next time, it's when I have a job again!

This is an incredible place where service and presentation is very classy.

I can't say enough about our server, Jennifer, she guided us through the menu and made excellent recommendations on the choices.

We ordered the bone marrow which came with a small salad with fruits and crostini.

Dry aged rib eye -- deliciously seared and it came with a bulb of roasted garlic, golden potatoes. The butter is melted at the table.

Soltani dish -- think slices of filet and and koubideh. The meat was very juicy even though it was cut very thin. Came with a roasted tomato.

As a steak house, I would rate the steaks 4 stars but the service was incredible and Jennifer made it a 5 star experience!

Came here on a Saturday night for my boyfriend's birthday. We had reservations for 6:30pm and were seated immediately when we arrived. We brought our own bottle of wine which they opened for a corkage fee of $30! We ordered the bone marrow for appetizer, the cowboy ribeye, and the gorhmeh sabzi. Everything was superb! The beef in the sabzi was so tender and the ribeye was cooked perfectly.
The restaurant was decorated beautifully while also having a cozy feel to it. All the staff were very friendly, especially our server, Michelle. She was very attentive and made great recommendations!

This review is only for the lamb shank dish with Shirin polo. 2/5. The lamb in soup has absolutely no flavor apart from salt and the lamb itself. The rice had orange peel in it which made it sweet. Other reviewers on Yelp seemed to have enjoyed it but I don't understand the concept of sweetened rice as an entree. It didn't go with the lamb at all. I usually finish my plate of food or take left overs home but I ended up leaving most of the dish.

Ambience is nice.

Service was mostly good but seemed like they were a bit pushy to order more. We said no to desert but the waiter left the desert menu on the table saying "just in case you change your mind".

With price of almost every entree being nearly $50 or up, didn't seem worth it overall.

Make No Misteak

We found ourselves lucky enough to have Christmas Day dinner to just ourselves, and we decided to go out and splurge a little on a nice meal. After looking around a bit, we saw that Arya Steakhouse was having a prix fixe menu that looked interesting, so we grabbed up some reservations.

The Good:

*Service was friendly enough, but there were some issues (see "The Ugly")

*Their first course with the four options was the highlight of the meal as each of the four apps was fantastic but the Sweet & Sour Shrimp might've been the highlight, as it had a nice heat level to accompany the aforementioned sweet and sour flavors.

*The housemade lavash bread was also delicious, as was the accompanying zhoug (spicy cilantro sauce).

*Chef dessert plate was above-average with the raspberry cream cake thing being the highlight.

*Great classy décor and ambiance

*Outdoor dining

The Meh:

*Pollo Firenze was just mediocre and shouldn't have been on the same price range as their steak options. The chicken was dry, and most of the veggies were a bit underdobe.

*Drinks are inconsistent as one was strong and the other watered down, and that's not to mention their drink prices are ±33% higher than other restaurants.

*I probably should've ordered the rib-eye, seeing as this is a steakhouse--but they also pride themselves on being a Persian Steakhouse, so I figured the lamb chops would be a safe bet. I inquired how they cooked the chops, and he said "medium," to which I asked if they could be made medium-rare. He went back to ask and said that they could accommodate me. The weird thing is the chops all came out cold, and some were indeed medium-rare while others were more on the rare side (which doesn't bother me tbh). I suspect they were par-cooked to medium-rare and then probably finished on the grill (also, please note no "grill" marks on my chops) to medium, which is why they tasted cold. The one saving grace is the spice rub they apply on the chops as fantastic and full of flavor. Otherwise, I probably would've sent them back. Even tho, I probably should've...

The Ugly:

*Like I said above, service was fine, but the whole time there, we felt like we were being rushed out the door instead of a casually paced fine dining meal. It's not like the place was bursting at the seams as it seemed like a fairly slow evening. The moment we sat down, he threw down the menus and was ripping to take our order. Luckily, we were already prepared and really only had to make an option for the meat as the app and dessert were already fixed. They also made the one snafu that I can't stand when they bring out the entrées as you're barely starting the apps. I can let a lot of shit go, but that's one thing that really grinds my gears. Especially for a purportedly high-caliber place like this really should know better.

TLDR: After paying an obscene amount of money (I'm talking Michelin-star money) for a mediocre meal, I really can't see ever coming back or recommending this place as the price to output ratio doesn't jive.

Quality/Quantity -
Vegetarian Mezze Platter $39 - They custom made this for us.
Pita with amazing pesto sauce and butter - Wow, the pesto sauce had a slight kick to it and I really liked it. Our guest liked it just as much and asked for another serving so he could mix it with his rice.

Ribeye - My order, cooked to perfection. Really liked the roasted garlic which I used as a spread.
Soltani Kabob - Barg and Koobideh Combo, beef and lamb kabobs. In my opinion, they did not do a good job explaining this dish. Other than that it was one of their most popular Persian dishes. Generous rice, our friend was not able to finish the rice.
Red Velvet Salmon - Beautiful presentation, this came last and our guest ended up taking most of it to go.
Seafood Paella - Good, but a really small dish.
Chicken & Beef Combo Kabob - My daughter said the chicken was dry.
Mac & cheese - The kids liked it, but they were only able to finish one of the two dishes they ordered.

The kids got one of each of the fries, what a good life. All were good, but for the price, I think the quantity should have been more.
Fry options - Truffle Fries, sweet potato fries, and regular fries.

Chocolate Lava - Good, the kids fought over the ice cream, LOL. They should have ordered another scoop.
Pistachio Cheesecake - Also good, but I think everyone was just too full and could not finish this.

Weekday and weekend menus differ slightly.
Also available are Lunch menus.
Catering available.

Atmosphere - Beautiful cool decor, see pictures.
Indoor/outdoor seating. Well, it was raining today...
Bar seating is also available. Private rooms, etc.

Service - Okay, the waiter really encouraged us to write a review and even wanted us to mention his name on Yelp, but probably better if I did not. I can update if he messages me. If the team was more proactive with our needs, this review would be better. Here are some of the positives; since they had so few customers, we were almost never rushed... almost. We had a 3 hour lunch in total, thank you. Whenever we asked for something; water refill, to-go utensils, etc., they accommodated.

Price - $484 which includes the mandatory 20% tip for our large party. I felt it was expensive for what we got, but it is also expected for this area.

Also includes a 4% living wage surcharge, and TWO sales tax???
The second sales tax is on the 20% tip! This is the second time we experienced this; the last time was in LA! Not sure if this is correct.

Owner Comment - Overall your food is good, thank you. But that should be expected for the prices you charge. And a few proactive changes to your service can keep you at 4.5 to 5 Yelp stars. I look forward to coming back and updating my review.