Bamiyan
358 3rd Avenue (at 26th Street)

After a long day of meetings and more post-meeting wine consumption, me and a friend stumbled into Bamiyan for a quick dinner. I've walked past this place so many times but never tried it. I remember having good Afghan food in the DC area, so why not? Plus, having not had lunch and drinking tons of wine, I was hungry.

The place is bigger than you think, with an interesting design -- almost faux exotic. We were in the back room and it was a chilled environment -- which we needed. We ordered quickly and the food came pretty quickly, a plus.

We split two starters -- the kadu (pumpkin-filled turnovers) and the kachaloo (pea-filled turnovers). Not bad, especially the sweeter one. The main course I went with a safe bet, the koobideh (minced meat skewers grilled). It's as good as any other Persian restaurant, although the portion was smaller than most.

It was a good meal, but we were both wiped so we got out of there. I took an order of mantoo (dumplings) to go and had it later in the night. It wasn't that great, and the sauce didn't work. Oh well...it was cold anyway...

Food: B
Atmosphere: B-
For Lone Diners: B (*)