Afghan Kabob Restaurant, Springfield, Va.

Yesterday was such a warm, sunny day, I ventured down to Springfield to help my friend Mark prepare his front flower bed and back patio for spring and summer. He's kind of like me in that we get this burst of gardening energy in April that loses steam in May and then disappears altogether for the summer, so these things needed a bit more work. When we finished, he took me to dinner at Afghan Kabob Restaurant there in Springfield.

Afghan is a nice white-tablecloth kind of place in a suburban strip mall that was surprisingly busy for a Sunday evening. I was even more surprised that there were so many tables of families with young children--usually kids don't like "adventurous" foods. There was an empty table, so we were able to be seated right away. The decor was simple with pink wainscoated walls and lots of windows. One interior wall boasted four large, long, amateur paintings of what I presumed were scenes of Afghanistan. In between the windows on another wall were a portrait of Afghani President Karzai and a painted map of the regions of the country. The most interesting thing about the decor happened at sundown. They had a series of red lights on the ceiling throughout the dining room that they turned on, and between the regular lighting, the red lighting, and the pink walls, the room took on an orange glow that I think was intended to evoke a sense of campfire light.

The menu wasn't terrible large, but there were still many many things from which to choose, and as this was my first visit to an Afghani restaurant, it was challenging.

We both got green salads with a yogurt dressing with our entrees. They also brought a plate of spiced rice, a little bowl of a hot, spicy yogurt sauce called maust, and a bowl of a tomatoey meat sauce with a little meatball in the middle called qurma.




Mark's main course was called shami. This was a plate of seasoned ground beef formed into shapes that could go around a kabob skewer. It was quite strikingly presented on a large, long piece of nan flat bread.



I got the quabili palau, another grilled kabob, only mine was lamb. They put the lamb on the bottom of the plate, then covered it with a huge mound of spiced rice, and topped it with a sweet mix of fried carrot strips and raisins. It was quite unusual, and they encouraged me to use a lot of the meat sauce on it.



We shared a dessert. They were out of a couple of our first choices, so we ended up with the gosh-e-feel, something that reminded me very much of those fried wontons/crab rangoon we often see in Chinese restaurants, except this was sweet with cinnamon and powdered sugar, plus grated pistachio nuts all over the top. They were little, light, crispy things. Along with our dessert, we were given complimentary Afghan tea, a light yellow brew with a predominant cardamom flavor, in clear glass coffee mugs.



Mark reluctantly acquiesced to posing for a Kody Pose. He's holding a glass of dogh. Most of the Middle Eastern and south Asian cultures have a yogurt drink, and this is the Afghan offering. It was a little salty and included tiny cucumber dice and minced mint. This particular type also had a little ice in it, but I think it's probably normally drunk at room temperature, so the ice was for American palates. I liked it; I'm not sure Mark was so wild about it.



Afghan Kabob Restaurant is a pleasant place and moderately priced. Service was attentive. The owner came through the dining room several times to make sure that everyone was satified and taken care of. I look forward to another visit so I can try some of the other things on the menu.