Noshe Afghan Restaurant Coffee House — Restaurant in Cambridge

Very disappointed. Service lost, irresponsive, and misguiding. Food is average and in small quantities. Overall overpriced.

I had a look at the photos of food for this new restaurant, and got high hopes for a big plate (at least 4 normal people, but usual size sold for 2 persons in "afghani standards") of kabouli rice with lamb to take away and eat at home with my son and wife. First of all, when I arrived there and asked for the plate from the photo, they told me that they have never served this dish. Why did you publish the photos in the first place then ? The staff was confused, looked inexperienced, and unsure about what was present in their own menu. I had to find myself a similar combination, and when I asked about the quantities, their answers were not clear again. He told me that the rice and meat were more than enough for one person, so given my previous experience with afghani restaurants, I understood that the quantity was for 1 person and half at least. I finally ordered a kabouli rice for 2 people, with grilled kefta and lamb cubes, and a naan (the big one as usually served in afghani restaurants). But wait, there was a new problem ! The waiter came back to me after 2 minutes and told me that he wanted me to change my order to take lamb chops instead, which are more expensive, because it was not possible for a take away. I insisted in knowing the reason, and it appeared that it was because the sticks were too long and not fitting inside the take-away box. Come on guys, I don't eat sticks, why did I need to insist and ask you to remove the meat from the sticks. Then the payment... I was left alone after the waiter took the order, and had to ask a second time (after being completely ignored a first time) when I should pay, now or when I would pick up the order. I was finally told that I had the 2 options, then the waiter suddenly started filling up a plate of almonds and nuts in front of me, without even caring about my response. I had to interrupt him again to ask if I could pay. This should have been the final warning before the food. What a naive me !

20 minutes later, I went back to the restaurant to pick up the food and the waiter gave a little bag with just 2 boxes and something inside an aluminum foil. Just to give an idea, it was 2 wasabi-like boxes. Clearly afghani generosity standards are not applied in this restaurant, even 2 hamburgers and fries look bigger when they are wrapped

Anyway, I came back home, opened the boxes, and surprise surprise! No kabouli rice but some colored rice, no salad, no sauce. And the naan was a nain non-fresh naan. The boxes were not even filled with rice to the top. The quantity of meat was fair, but the kefta and cubes were dry like a shoe. I splitted the quantities in 3 and had to complete the food with remainings from lunch and salad from my fridge.

Very big disappointment for this new...

Noshe is a unique cafe in Cambridge and the first of its kind. It's very hard to find Afghan cuisine outside of metropolitan cities in the UK so it was a huge welcome when I found out about the restaurant.

I will first start off with the positives. The young staff were very good and welcoming and the I liked some of the decor and traditional Afghanistani seating they had.

How for the less good. The food was very pricey and for the money, the portion size was relatively small. When ordering a grilled main, the Qabuli rice that it came was far too small of a portion size to justify the price in conjunction with the taste, the Qabuli pulao did not live up to its name. I still felt hungry after I had finished. The rice also came out cold, which was another disappointment. The Kobeda kebab was on the thin side, nothing like the hearty stuff you get in other places.

We had ordered an Afgan naan on the side which looked ready made and prepackaged. It looked nothing like the pictures online or the description menu.

I think more care is needed to be taken with the cleanliness of the cutlery, the fork I was given had dried and crust food still stuck to it. Alongside this, the water vessel had some unpleasant stains as well.

To top it all off, you will need to pay a 10% premium when you pay your bill. This is stated on the menu, however the service charge should be optional. The person on the till sneakily added the charge and when asked to remove, they said its automatically added on as a gratuity charge. I saw the person add it on to the end of the bill manually on the POS system.

I understand that the cafe is still in its infancy and there is still some room to grow. But I would like to see some improvements as I would love for a place like Noshe expand, especially when the staff do look it they want it to thrive. I would love to visit again soon, but at this stage, it's a...

Visited with my family on Friday 27/9/24 - the restaurant was well decorated and the staff were pleasant. The tables were a little cramped together, so a larger group may struggle with space. There were 3 floor seating areas which at least 2 could be replaced by tables to accommodate larger groups. The reason for my score, having visited with my family with such high hopes, what a mistake as I received an ear bashing all the way home not to take them to bad restaurants. My error I should have tried this place myself first. The service was good, staff still learning the ropes but this was expected. The Cutlery was not clean. My wife’s order of sea bass was not available , so she opted for a aubergine dish which she did not eat as it was swimming in vegetable oil. The other mixed grills were very light, not enough meat for £18.50 each, the salad was lacking, the sauce was insufficient for the dry meat, my lamb chop was nice, but my sons was very fatty and not rendered correctly. The naan bread with our hommous was straight out of packet. The freshly made naan bread on the menu which my wife ordered with her main was not fresh cooked either and for £3.50 was a disgrace and out of a packet. This is clearly misdescribed on the menu. We were left hungry unimpressed and really just wanted to leave asap, I paid the bill of £65.45 with service charge, as the service was not the issue, the key issue is the food, happy to pay more for better, larger portions, again lovely people trying to have a go at running a restaurant but if the food quality, portion size does not reflect the price, I suspect you will not last on mill road. The other reviews I have read here are very generous, in supporting a new business. All the best I may revisit by my self in a few months. Top tip - visit little Petra on hills road to see how they do it, Regards currently...