Afghan Kitchen Restaurant is one of the highest rated restaurants in Salt Lake, with an incredible 4.8 stars on Google (as of October 15) and has 700+ reviews, yet there isn’t as much local chatter about it as expected.
Wali Arshad is an immigrant from Afghanistan who founded both Afghan Kitchen (the main street location) and later Afghan Kitchen Restaurant on State Street. “When I moved from Afghanistan, […] I worked [at a] bank for a couple of months. Then I noticed that there wasn’t any good Afghan restaurants,” says Arshad. “I decided to open a good Afghan restaurant to introduce our culture and our food.”
Afghanistan is one of the oldest countries in the world, with a deep history of culture even before the country’s founding. Kabul, its capital city, is one of the oldest settlements in human history, being almost 3,500 years old.
“It’s very authentic Afghan cuisine that we serve here,” says Arshad. “Our food is somewhere in between Iranian and Indian food,” he added, as Afghanistan is sandwiched between the two nations. Arshad added, “I always say that Indians use too much spices, Iranians use too little, we use the right amount of spice.” Many of the dishes at Afghan Kitchen Restaurant are very similar to Indian food, with many of the same roots. However, Afghan food is commonly less spicy and simpler than Indian food, appealing to a wider audience.
Hearing this, I decided to try Afghan Kitchen Restaurant’s food. For the appetizer, I tried pakawra, a thinly sliced, fried potato slice with a variety of sauces to top it with. This was done very well, and the sauces were a balanced amount of flavors, including a tzatziki-like garlic sauce that complimented the potato’s flavor.
Afghanistan’s national dish and most popular dish, qabili palau (also known as kabuli pulao), is a sweet, savory, and aromatic dish that consists of rice with lamb or chicken, topped with caramelized carrots and raisins. The dish is very flavorful and the rice and chicken is seasoned with warm and comforting spices. This dish can be ordered spicy, but I opted out. The butternut squash dish on the side was very flavorful and would be an amazing choice for someone who likes butternut squash. Pairing it with some traditional naan leveled it up as well.
“A highlight of the meal was the milk pudding for dessert with really nice cardamom and pistachio flavors,” says a new customer, Jay Kinghorn. This dish, named firni, is a traditional milk pudding that has tons of complex flavors and sweetnesses, such as cardamom and a pistachio topping. Kinghorn also tasted the chickpea qorma and naan along with the butternut squash dish mentioned above and thought that they were comforting and delicious.
When walking into the restaurant, customers are greeted with a very comforting sense of aromatic scents and soft lighting to highlight the wall decorations like the beautifully woven rugs from Afghanistan. “I liked the atmosphere,” Kinghorn continued. “I’d never had Afghan food before, and it is a blend of different cultures and history and flavors and ingredients.” Arshad, the owner, grew up and lived in Afghanistan for much of his life and has seen a lot of it.
The country, even through its long and difficult history, has brought Salt Lake a wonderful restaurant that is serviced by kind faces and great food. Arshad said, “Most people, when they talk about Afghanistan, they think of war, war lords, dust, criminals, you know, Russians invading Afghanistan. But there’s so much more: our food, we have a very, very rich culture in Afghanistan. Kabul is one of the oldest settlements. So the food, people have been perfecting these recipes for generations.”
