The Persian Restaurant

Two Muslim girls joined my work place recently! Shalalah and Ash., I'm really running out of things to call people with the first name starting with A! Since they're both new to Brisbane I've been giving them recommendations of where to go since I've always gone to halal places with my best Yassmin! This place has always been on the list and so when we had the day free, H., Shalalah, Ash., and I decided to go. It was originally Shalalah and H., going but Ash., and I crashed the party haha.

The Persian Restaurant is on the main strip of Sandgate Road. near Mundo Churrasco if you know where that is. Parking is a bit of a pain since the street parking is limited on a main road the the two car parks for the area are pretty underground and not easily visible from the street. Keep a sharp eye out!

Kitchen!

Haha, even though the restaurant doesn't have halal signage, Ash., and Shalalah both instantly knew it was. Apparently it has that ethnic look to the place? It reminds me of when Yass and I went to Arabellas and she knew it was halal upon seeing it.

Ethnic?

Wall to wall carpets.

Here is their menu! We got this freaking amazing eggplant dip called  kashk-e-Bademjan, grilled eggplant with fried mint and whey sauce. The incredible soft melting texture of eggplant and soft caramelised onions, with the fresh coolness of the mint and whey sauce that added an incredible richness to the dip. Oh it was so, so good! Yeah, it looks like vomit but its so delicious, who cares!

<33333

We got this dips assortment to share as well, it came with flat bread that tasted pretty stale as well as hummus, mast-o-khiyar and mirza ghasemi, the last two being a yoghurt and garlic sauce and then a grilled eggplant, chopped tomato and egg dip. These three dishes don't hold a candle to the earlier eggplant dish, so don't even bother! However, that's only my opinion, Ash., loved the hummus, Shalalah and H., both preferred the eggplant and tomato dish. I wasn't able to try the yoghurt and garlic dish, as you know yoghurt gives me rapid onset diarrhoea with my lactose intolerance.

The colours are easy to figure out

This is the King's Choice, one skewer of the barg, joojeh and koobideh kebabs. Barg is marinated lamb backstrap, the joojeh is chicken marinated in lemon juice, olive oil and saffron while the koobideh is flavoured minced lamb! I felt very strongly about the koobideh being the best, it has the best spice mixture to it and was super tender and juicy. If I were to go back, koobideh x2 for me please! I really like how rice is served in Middle Eastern style restaurants, they have super fluffy rice, with very individual granules and normally serve it with a pat of butter on the side to enrich the rice!

I left out Shalalah's meal because she got the double serve of the joojeh and rice.

<3 fit for a king!

H., wanted to eat something vegetarian and light so I said she should pick this, I wasn't really thinking though so she ended up getting most of what we got earlier. Flat bread, hummus, spicy beetroot dip, dolmades, tabbouleh and pickles. I think she was expecting more of a main meal kinda thing rather than endless nibbles, sorry H.,! 

Although the bread here was a lot fluffier and warmed slightly, unlike the tough bread we received earlier. When I mentioned this, everyone else said that they hadn't noticed any difference?

Hmm

Ash., picked a dud dish as well having gotten the tah chin morgh, chicken cooked with saffron and yoghurt, topped with rice and oven baked. It came with a side salad and more of that yoghurt and garlic dip. It was this giant blob of mushy rice that when she broke apart revealed more yoghurt and then chicken finally. It was a really bland dish, I was expecting the yoghurt to be a marinade not to be included as the sauce/main component of the meal. Looking at google, reveals more a rice crust to provide a textural component. She ate most of the chicken and left the rice behind.

Blergh

The Persian Restaurant
Atmosphere: 7, a lovely place to take photos haha!
Service: 5, average.
Food: 6, what I ate was good, what other people ate wasn't, A bit of a mixed bag! Definitely try the koobideh kebab and that eggplant and fried mint and whey dip!