Bamiyan — Restaurant in District of Canberra Central

We used to go there frequently, despite the kinda high price, however the food and staff were good.

Recently we noticed food is a bit different, like the main dish we were visiting for, lamb, is not nicely cooked like before, when I requested last time to cook as soft as before, they actually undercooked it, some pieces were raw, so we decided to abandon that dish.

Today we booked as usual online, and went there with our 3 little kids, while I was parking, I missed a call from the restaurant, when I called back they informed me there was not places inside the restaurant, and we foots sit outside, i explained too late to make that decision to shift us to the outdoor area, which is not pretty safe, with the kids, I was already parking and no way back… so I said while we are walking, reserve a table, we went in there, and there was a lady who did not look so happy, very angry, and interruptive, that she did not give us a chance to talk, I asked for a manager, she said, “I AM THE MANAGER”, anyways, half the tables were available with some reserved sign, despite that she insisted that we could not get one of them, and gotta stay outside, it was not logical to see the remaining half occupied with young adults and adults groups, while I gotta sit literally on the curb, without privacy or cover with my 3 children after an unpleasant one way conversation, so we decided to go with intention never to go back.

I believe that manager needs some education regarding customer service and above all empathizing and prioritizing families with young children, especially if they made reservation and had to drive 22 min just to enjoy a day.

Will definitely...

Good food BUT service was lacking. And sometimes good food just won't cut it.

Firstly we waited for ages before a waiter came to take our order and only after we asked if we had to order at the counter. Had to wait over an hour for our simple order of skewers and rice for 2 people. Thought it was just the way they rolled (which isn't great), but then we noticed all the tables that came after us were getting their orders ahead of us. In particular one table ordered only 15 minutes before and received their orders.

Waiters didn't come and check on us, we had to call them to us again. Then they made us re-order our food if you can believe it. We nearly left at that point but we had already invested almost 2 hrs. The waiters knew we were upset so avoided our table, refilling water jugs at neighbouring tables and not ours, until we stopped one of them and asked for more water.

Note to management and wait staff, if customers are upset - try and make it up to them by hustling and being extra nice if you can. Don't avoid them. I know that nights can be busy and orders get mixed up but the wait staff could be seen just laughing and hanging out at the counter. Do your jobs. I'm not one for freebies but if you know we'd been waiting 2 hrs for food and knew we had to wait some more until our order was ready offer some naan on the house or just anything to keep us happy.

Hard pass. No matter how much I wanted to support this business, I...

First time coming to this restaurant while on holidays in Canberra. This place is such a disappointment, calling this restaurant an Afghan restaurant is so disrespectful for the Afghan community. I have been to so many Afghan restaurants in Sydney, Queensland and Melbourne which had delicious food at half the price compared to this one. This restaurant has so many Afghan decorations yet they sell alcohol, one beverage is called the Afghan Cherry cocktail with vodka. Alcohol is not apart of Afghan culture even in modern times. Putting the word “Afghan” before every dish or beverage does not make it Afghan. They are mocking Afghan culture. The funny thing is they don’t sell beef because they are Indian not Afghan. Seeing all the reviews on this restaurant with people saying it is their first time having Afghan food, when in fact it’s not Afghan food it’s more Indian food. They are hiding behind the Afghan name and charging so much money. They sell Afghan food at triple the price of actual Afghan restaurants and sell their Indian food at a normal price. We always order the same dishes in Afghan restaurants in Sydney and it’s usually $40 with complimentary bread, salad and sauces and this place charges $80+ (and you have to buy your own bread). This place needs a reality check and should change their name and take down the Afghanistan flag in the front windows and replace it with their...