Cheap Eats 2007: Kabul Kabob House

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Reviewed by Todd Kliman , Ann Limpert , Cynthia Hacinli , Don Rockwell , Michele Kayal

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Kabul Kabob House

514 Van Dorn St.
Alexandria, VA 22203
Phone: 703-751-1833

Cuisines:
Afghan, Middle Eastern

Opening Hours:

Wheelchair Accessible:
Yes

Nearby Metro Stops:
Van Dorn St.

Price Range:
Inexpensive

Dress:
Informal

Noise Level:
Intimate

Reservations:
Not needed

Special Features:
Kid Friendly

Best Dishes
Sultani Kabob platter, with both lamb and chicken kebabs and rice dusted with sumac; qabli palaw, lamb chunks with rice, shredded carrots, almonds, and raisins; daal chalaw, a stew of yellow lentils with herbs; sambusa, a fried pastry filled with spiced meat; bolonee, similar to the sambusa but filled with potato and herbs.

Price Details:
Appetizers $2.99 to $4.90; entrées $5.99 to $11.95

Reader's Rating:

1 out of 5

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The cooking at this terrific Afghani storefront is slow, steady, and traditional. Order your meal, and the cook behind the counter starts rolling out dough to make fresh bread. While the bread crisps in the tandoor, you get a complimentary green salad with yogurt-tinged dressing.

The flavors are bright, starting with the vinegary herb dip that comes with the warm rounds of nan and continuing through the marvelous plates of aushak and mantu—translucent dumplings folded around fillings like leek or ground beef and vibrant with fresh mint. Eggplant is smothered in tomatoey yogurt sauce, and brown rice arrives scented with cardamom. Choose from halal kebabs of tender bone-in chicken, beef, or the rosy lamb, which in one preparation comes covered with tomatoes and roasted red peppers, and topped with a poached egg.

Open daily for lunch and dinner.

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Reader ReviewsWrite your own review

What happened?

highviewtom — November 14, 2009 2:43 PM

We have been reading the good reviews of this place for years now so today we had a chance to try it. The food was dry and tasteless, the meat over cooked; the atmosphere was like that of a laundromat in Calcutta; the lone counterperson was sullen. More ...

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