Kabul

Kabul
106 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA
(Check out their website!)

This Afghan restaurant off of downtown Philadelphia came highly recommended to me. Having had a wonderful Afghan meals years ago, I was eager to see what Philadelphia had to offer. The restaurant was a bit dark for my taste (no pictures) but it probably looks fine during daylight hours. I was told that they had good appetizers but, not being all that hungry, opted to wait for the main dish. I had the Bandenjan Chalaw, which is a dish of lamb cooked with eggplant in a tomato sauce with onions and various spices.

The dish itself was great and the taste was pretty good although I expected more of a dance for my taste buds. Now, the dish is hot and you wouldn’t want to eat it alone but I was expecting more of a complicated taste what with all the spices and all. The rice was a bit dry though and wouldn’t have been great if I hadn’t needed it to sooth my burning tongue. As it was, I consumed all the rice with the dish. Not too much of a feat though, given that the dish was not all large and I though they had just brought out a sauce container before realizing that that was what I had ordered. Given the quantity, $15 seems a bit steep.

For dessert we had the Firnee, which is an Afghan pudding with pistachios and almonds. I wasn’t impressed with this dish. I’m not sure what it was. The texture was OK but the taste just didn’t feel right. It was a bit too strong, I’d say where a good pudding’s flavor should be more subtle. Still, my dining companion loved it so that’s a positive endorsement there.

I’ll give Kabul another try probably but my first impression wasn’t entirely positive.