We ended up at Ariana because we found ourselves quite hungry in Olde City on a Friday night, without reservations or boatloads of cash. After peeking into restaurant after restaurant, we glimsped some free tables at Ariana. Since neither Messy, Picky nor our dear friend LB, a restaurant aficionado, had ever had Afghani food, we were all happy to give it a try. Messy had been wanting to try Afghani food for many years – ever since she showed up to Hamid Karzai's brother's restaurant in San Francisco six years ago only to find it closed. [Apparently, the Karzai owns a string of restaurants, one of which is in Baltimore.] The rest of Messy's family ended up eating there without her on another trip and all Messy heard for a while was how delicious Afghani food was and what an amazing pumpkin dish someone had there.
The first thing we noticed was that Ariana has a very cozy atmosphere. The interior is small but not exactly cramped. There is a special no-shoes window table up front facing Chestnut Street, which appeared to seat six. The three of us had a cozy table in the back.
One of the best things about Ariana was the abudance of delicious free bread. We gobbled up so much of it neither one of us was able to completely finish our meal. We began with two different kinds of yummy sambosas, which was the highlight of the meal for Messy. When it came time to order our meals, Messy could hear her brother and sister's voices in her head raving about pumpkins, so she decided to try the pumpkin and yogurt sauce dish (Chalow Kadu, $12), even though she generally does not love anything in the squash family. The dish was tasty enough, but if you don't like pumpkins (and Messy can now confim — she doesn't) you won't particularly like this dish. It was a lot of pumpkin. Picky opted for the Lamb Corma – large cubes of lamb served with a heaping of basmati rice. All in all, this was a good hearty meal with hearty proportions. We don't know anything about Afghani food, but Ariana gave us a decent — if unspectacular — meal.
Messy ***
Picky ***
The final word: Hearty portions in a cozy atmosphere. A plus if you like pumpkins.
134 Chestnut St
Philadelphia, PA 19106-3009
(215) 922-1535
[...] Ariana Restaurant [Messy and Picky] [...]
Hi!
I graduated almost a couple years ago from Swarthmore College, after which I moved into West Philly and started working for a law firm in center city. I've been thinking recently about how much I love food, and it's been slow at work for the last few weeks, so yesterday I went browsing for Philadelphia foodie/restaurant blogs — and found yours!
I've only browsed a couple reviews so far, but I'm enjoying the pleasant & light-hearted style, I like the nicknames, and I appreciate the details you include on price/location. I'm looking forward to reading more!
My blog is by no means exclusively on the subject of food, but there is a 'restaurant' tag. (You can find the list of tags at [ http://flammifera.livejournal.com/tag ].
I haven't been to Ariana, only Kabul across the street. The bread was also tasty there as I remember, and I do like pumpkin.
Aw, sorry about the pumpkin, Messy! At the San Francisco place, my other favorite dish, besides the pumpkin, is vegetarian Aushak (Afghan ravioli). I had the Aushak at another Afghani restaurant, though, and it just tasted like salty mush.
also sorry about the pumpkin… i only had a spoonful at the other place, so my opinion probably wasn't that reliable. i also had the aushak sa(h)ra(h) was talking about, and it was very tasty.
Do you kwow who the owner is? If I tell you about the owner, you will never ever go to that restaurant.
who is the owner