I have been to many types of restaurants in my travels. However, I have never had Persian food. I was thrilled that I was going to be able to try something completely new. Bandar is located in the Gas Lamp District of San Diego. They have been serving their homemade Persian recipes for over 20 years.
The restaurant was beautifully decorated. It created a romantic feel.
They proudly displayed all the awards they have won. This included awards for their famous chicken.
We had a huge group for dinner the night I visited. They did a fantastic job at accommodating us.
The table started off with an assortment of dip appetizers. It was perfect for sharing.
This assortment included:
- Feta and Olives. The feta was extremely fresh. It was slightly sour and had a bite when eaten with the salty olives.
- Hummus. This was a classic pureed garbanzo bean and tahini (ground sesame seeds). This too was made fresh; I could tell by the texture. It went well with the fresh pita bread slices that were at the table.
- Must-O Khiyar (cucumber dip). This was homemade yogurt and chopped up cucumber. This dip was so light and refreshing. It is the perfect kind of dip to serve at a picnic or cookout in the summer.
- Kashk-O Bademjan (eggplant). The eggplant was sautéed in garlic and onion which created a savory flavor. The eggplant was tender and soaked up the essence of the garlic. This was my favorite of the four dips.
For dinner the menu offered so many choices from beef, chicken, lamb, vegetarian, and gluten free. Everything sounded great. I decided to try their chicken since it has won so many awards. Now that I had pin-pointed that I wanted chicken, it was time to decided which chicken dish to choose. I went for the Albalu Polo. This included their charbroiled chicken tenderloin and black cherry rice.
To start off, the portions on every dinner they served were huge. I am not exaggerating. It was the first thing everyone said when their plates came out. One person could not eat everything that came on the plate. I would highly recommend you share with someone.
The chicken was great. I could taste the saffron that they used as a marinade. It was not an overpowering spice. Somehow the chicken came out in balls. I have no clue how they did that. The moisture stayed in the meat so each bite was juicy.
The rice was out of this world. They used two types of rice, a long grain and a rice that almost felt like a skinny noodle. Mixed in with the rice were black cherries. They were chopped in half so that the cherry juice could mix throughout the rice. It was both sweet and tart at the same time. It added additional texture. I loved this rice; it was such a unique way to prepare something that could have been very plain. I could see myself eating this just as a meal.
This wonderful dinner was a perfect example of why people should venture out of their food comfort zone. Had I not ventured out I would never gotten to enjoy these Persian dishes. Check out the awards and menus at http://www.bandarrestaurant.com/
Enjoy!
T
