Café Kabul

Café Kabul is the only restaurant in the immediate area that offers Afghanistan fare that I know of. A friend and I went there to discuss lofty topics and to experience the exotic foods of Afghanistan. It is located at 2831 Olentangy River Road in the store that used to be the Dairy Queen. While they made great improvements over the Dairy Queen décor of dingy seats, a worn counter and tired or distracted students constructing Blizzards and large swirl cones while trying to study for Physics 415, or a test about the geopolitical milieu of 2nd century Rome, it would still be considered casual dining.

You order at the counter from various menus on the wall and special menus here and there. We went for lunch and a single individual manned the store. There was low level but constant business. The service was good and there were no specific deficits. The interior was just rather cold and stark. Next time I am getting a carryout order. There is no carry out window as there used to be, but parking is easy as it is right in front of a huge parking lot.

Ok, it is casual, easy to get to and the service is adequate, what about the food. First, almost nothing but the Buranee Bonjon that we had is on the menu. So here goes. There were two specials offered that day. One came under the elegant name of “Cauliflower”; the other was called “Pumpkin”. I am not fond of pumpkin but we ordered one of each. I ordered the Vegetable Pakore and my esteemed dining partner had the Buranee Bonjon. Buranee Bonjon is thinly sliced eggplant sautéed and served with a homemade yogurt and a tomato sauce on top. He let me try it and it was very good. That is probably what I will order next time. The Pakore was also good. I have had vegetable Pakore before, specifically at the Taj Mahal and the ones at Café Kabul were better. One of the reasons for the difference is they were made right then, for me, and didn’t sit in a chaffing dish on a steam table until they got soggy. They came with a yogurt based dipping sauce that was tangy without being overpowering. I really liked it.

Time to talk about bread. We got the bread plate and this was different than the usual Naan type Middle Eastern bread. It seems thicker and denser with, for lack of a better description, an Italian herb bread kind of suggestion. If that isn’t definitive cutting edge culinary description I don’t know what is. I have gone back twice and gotten carry out orders of the bread and had it at home with: Spaghetti, and once with Beef Barley soup. It was a great compliment to my dinner.

Finally, there is the Cauliflower dish and the Pumpkin dish. I liked both of them, which was a big surprise. The cauliflower was steamed and nicely spiced. I like cauliflower any way it can be fixed and this was a nice dish. Now the pumpkin I did not expect to like. Every pumpkin dish I have ever had was a cloying sweet dish. They treated pumpkin like a vegetable. They let the pumpkin’s natural sweetness stand alone and in concert with other spices. It was very nice.

This is a nice addition to the culinary landscape of Columbus. I like it and have already been back. The prices are reasonable. Why not try it.