Afghan Food at Zeytoon

I'm eating around the world without leaving London and this week I had Afghan food at Zeytoon in Kilburn. To be honest, my choice of this Afghan restaurant happened totally by chance as I had planned to eat at Uzbek restaurant Navrus. They however, have seemed to have closed down for business, but lucky for me Zeytoon, a few doors down was next door and open for business.

Even though this restaurant was part of my back-up plan, it turned out to be a lovely place to spend a Friday evening. The decor had a real Middle-Eastern feel to it with homely wooden tables and wooden chairs, huge Afghan mirrors and tapestries hanging on the wall. There were lots of plants positioned between the tables which kind of made the atmosphere even more intimate.

I was sat there waiting for my friends to arrive for quite a long time, so I wanted to stop my stomach from growling a bit and ordered a portion of Mirza Qasemi which was a dish of grilled aubergines topped with a spiced sauce and quark. Unfortunately they ended up at the next table and got eaten there as well.

I got my portion in the end and the aubergines were worth the wait. In the meantime my friends had made an appearance, so we went ahead and ordered more food.

I went for Qabli Polow with Lamb which was a very large piece of lamb shank with brown rice topped with juliennes of  carrots, plump  raisins and crunchy almonds. There was a little bowl of broth nudged in the pile or rice which was meant to be poured over the rice. It gave it a lovely flavour.

I loved the food, but it was way too much for little ole me, so I asked for a doggie bag and had the  rest of it for lunch the next day.

There was no more room for desserts, so we settled for some mint tea that was served in a cute pink teapot and even cuter little tea glasses before heading back home. One to go back to.