AFGHAN KABOB

Address: 6357 Rolling Road, Springfield, VA 22152

It was during my trip out to California in March that I got my first sample of Afghan food. I really enjoyed how diverse the flavors were, using combinations of spices and sauces to create some really delicious dishes. I wanted to see if I could find an Afghan restaurant around where I live, and that search brought me to Afghan Kabob. Yesterday afternoon, I headed over there with my friends Andrew and Chris to give the place a try.

Once we got inside and seated, we spent a good amount of time perusing the menu to see what we wanted to get. The menu featured a wide variety, ranging both meat and vegetarian options. Chicken, lamb, or beef were the main meats featured through both the kabobs and entrées. We wanted to get a good sampling of the main dishes, so we opted for a kabob dish and two entrées.

We went for the Deluxe Kabob dish, since that featured a sampler between the chicken, lamb, and shami, which was seasoned ground beef. It was served on a naan flatbread with some red onions and jalapeños in the event you wanted an extra “kick” with your bite of meat. It was also really good to get the naan because the juices from where the meat was resting soaked into it, giving it really good flavor.

The other two entrées that we got were the palau (seasoned pieces of cooked lamb under a mound of saffron rice, served with a meat sauce over it) and the mantu (pastry shells filled with onions and beef, served on a yogurt sauce with meat sauce poured on top). The lamb in the palau was extremely tender, with the saffron-spiced rice mixing well with the rich meat sauce. The mantu was also really good, with the yogurt sauce adding a tangy flavor, the beef/onion filling providing a saltiness, and the meat sauce providing a little acid. The dried dill sprinkled on top definitely made the dish aromatic and added some extra flavor.

It was a consensus between all of us that the food was prepared very well. All three dishes were rich in flavor and each of them set itself apart from the others. I thought that the price point for our lunch was reasonable for the amount of food that we got. Overall, it was a very good second experience with Afghan food, and I would certainly like to go back again to try other dishes from the cuisine.

Here are my rankings for Afghan Kabob:

Food: 4.5 / 5
The food had great flavor and there was a wide selection of dishes to choose from. We were very satisfied from what we ordered.

Atmosphere: 4 / 5
It was a pretty quiet afternoon lunch service for them, but there was plenty of space in the dining room and pretty comfortable area to eat your meal.

Service: 4 / 5
The food came out quickly and our waiter was around to refill our drinks during the course of the meal.

Price: 4.5 / 5
For what we paid, I thought that the amount of food was certainly worth the price. I left the restaurant quite full after splitting those three plates.

Overall: 17 / 20 (85%)

Categories: Restaurants, Virginia

Tagged as: afghan food, kabobs, springfield, virginia