Haroon's Afghan Cuisine — Attraction in Hayward

We had a very mixed experience at this joint. We planned on celebrating my mom‘s birthday and it was a group of 14 of us attending the birthday event. I made the reservation at Day in advance. I arrived on time at 6 PM and upon arrival I found the whole place completely empty, but no table settings the place look more like an Event center than a restaurant. I had to spring open the door to the kitchen to find out if anybody was there I was greeted by a nice young lady assured me that they were open and I should just wait. After a few minutes, the manager or owner greeted me and said they are just opening. You was removing the knots of the curtains which surround the whole space.. since all the tables were round he went and got rectangular table and set up table for 14. I immediately ordered some appetizers only to find out that they were out of one of the items. By the time the guest got there at 6:30 PM. There were no plates or table placemats. The appetizer was finally showed up at 6:45 PM. I must say the potato Bolani le were delicious. The chutney was excellent as well. The Mantu filling was all onion and reminiscent of Kabul Streets low price cart vendors. It did not stand up to the quality of a sitdown restaurant. They did not come to take the order until the appetizers were all gone. While in no way, we have felt rushed it felt like it was a long time before they took the order and the food showed up. Again the food was delicious. We had ordered two of the Haroon Special #2 which came with fresh salad and drinks. The kebabs were good, but not great . It felt like it must’ve sat there for a while before they got served because they were not piping hot. We had taken a birthday cake with us for my mom‘s birthday and we asked for some small plates. We were only pleasantly surprised that they not only provided us with plates utensils but also tea and paper cups that was very kind gesture. As I mentioned before, I’m perplexed because the service was very slow. The food was good and the gestures were very kind. I wish I could’ve given him a better review but I think they need to change their service and they need to be behave like a restaurant not just a...

I usually order to go from this restaurant. Food has been good till tonight. That's why I am generous to give them 3 star for food.

This evening we decided to support the restaurant and went for dine in. We had the worst customer service experience in a restaurant ever!

First it took more than 50 minutes to get the food. All the 8 or so tables were dirty. It took multiple requests before a guy showed up to clean the table.

Second, they were so cheap that they did not bring the bread with the four dishes we ordered. Once we asked for the bread one server disappeared. The cashier created a big fuss about the bread.

Third, each dish comes with chick pea salad. That was missing from the plates as well. When we asked for it the cashier and the three guys gave a non-sense story that chicken pea salad only comes with to go orders and not for dine in orders!

Fourth, they are not a cheap restaurant with each dish costing $15 each. So the bill was about $70. Still they are charging a 3% add on for using a credit card!

Suffice to say this was the last time ordering or going to this restaurant! Be aware of...

I have loved coming to this place for a while especially for their pink kashmiri tea. Usually, my mother and I have come at times that are not too busy. Today (a Saturday) around 4pm, I noticed we were the last of the guests to be served. I was a little appalled as most of the families that arrived after us were served immediately but we had to wait 45 minutes for our food and over an hour for our teas (although we were asked and specified that the teas come with food). Its important to note that the families that received immediate service were Afghani and spoke the native languages of the restaurant staff. My pakistani family and another indian family had to wait quite a while. I do not want to hint at racism here but this was very disappointing behavior. I will think twice before...