My First (and likely last) Restaurant Review

My friend Curtis writes lots of restaurant reviews, some of which I’m featured in (as Male Friend mostly, except I think once where he referred to menu as, or as not, ‘Shawn Friendly’, making reference to my many food aversions). So I thought I’d do one of my own.

The Restaurant I’m reviewing is called Bamiyan Kabob, it’s near Don Mills and Overlea. It serves Afgani food, and I’ve been there a number of times for lunch.

The place itself is kind of crappy, it’s a small place, tables are close together and I find it kind of clausterphobic, difficult to move around. That wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t as popular as it is, with quite long lineups and we often get there early for lunch because of it. The tables are quite small given the foodprint of the trays and baskets, we often put the plates on the table and dispose of the trays immediately.

The ordering is done first, and then you sit and wait for your number to be called. With the ambient noise level, it is sometimes difficult to hear if your number has come up. A little led-light sign would do a lot to make this less irritating.

The food itself though, I find quite good. I can only speak for the chicken kabob, since that’s what I always get, but I beleive the others who’ve ordered beef and lamb based kabobs have enjoyed them, given our repeat visits.

The chicken kabob itself is off the skewer and layed out next to salad, a small dollop of salsa-like food, sometimes rice, and with it comes a little basket with naan. The chicken I’ve always found to be flavourful and, this is the interesting bit, I have no problem eating all of it. Normally when it comes to meat, any meat, I’ll trim and trim and trim, sometimes significant percentages of meat are removed along with the gristle (whether it is merely perceived or real). It reminds me of a Barbecue that Alicia held several summers ago, she made kabobs, with chicken ones for me, and I really enjoyed them. Of course the spices were different, but I was still reminded of them, probably because that’s the only other time I had kabobs to that point.

The Salad that comes with the meal is sort of tacked on, it’s nothing particularly good, just lettuce with basic dressing, I often don’t eat it since usually the rest of the food is quite filling and the salad is the best candidate for dismissal. The naan is probably the best part of the meal, it always seems very fresh and warm and compliments the meal nicely. The only thing that’s missing is something to dip it in, but maybe that’s just a travesty, heh.

That’s what you get with the lunch, which comes to 8 dollars which is kind of high for lunch perhaps, but it’s worth it. The dinner is actually the same thing with quite a bit of rice. That comes to something like 10 dollars which doesn’t seem worth it either, but the rice is actually quite good and makes it a very filling meal.

So I endorse it heartily, it’s got good food but is suffering the effects of being a dinky little location that is overly popular for it’s size. Cramped conditions, moderately slow service, but food even I can eat. I call that a win.