Why go: Slow-cooked food at fast-food prices. That’s the MO of this no-frills Afghan cafe. Succulent halal-meat kebabs are sided with warm, cooked-to-order flatbread—a good way to mop up sauces and scoop heartier stewed vegetables.
What to get: 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 comforting 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.
Best for: An affordable and relaxing sit-down dinner with friends.
Insider tip: When mulling an order, have a plan B. On a recent visit, the kitchen was out of the stewed-pumpkin dish known as chalu kadu, the yogurt drink doogh, and rice for the qabli palaw.
Open daily for lunch and dinner.
See all Cheap Eats 2008 restaurants
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
