The Helmand — Restaurant in Baltimore

This review is for my experience ordering delivery from Helmand through storefront, not about their food/other services. I do not expect many google map users go here for reviews about deliveries, but as it is a service provided, I would like to leave some information for people who are interested in knowing the overall management system from a customer’s perspective.

I want to give four facts at the beginning:

If you make a delivery order using Google map’s button and choose storefront, the order information and funds will be sent to restaurant by Toast, which is the restaurant’s point-of-sale. This is also where the email receipt is sent from.

The restaurant can choose if they are using their own drivers or dispatch to third party aka Doordash driver. Helmand dispatched my order to Doordash driver.

Toast allows restaurant to choose whether to turn on SMS notifications for customers or not, and what notification to be sent.

If you request a refund, you need to contact Doordash Merchant (not the Doordash for customer) to initiate a request. You will be given a reference number and you need to contact the restaurant to approve the refund request. The restaurant manager cannot make decisions on the refunds, and you need to contact the owner.

Facts 1 & 2 & 4 indicate the complexity if you want to request delivery status, request refund, and etc. The responsibilities between the three stakeholders can be unclear for customer.

In my case, I received no notification but just the email receipt from Toast. When I was trying to ask for delivery status and later request a refund, the Toast directed me to the restaurant, and the restaurant directed me to Doordash Merchant. The above four facts are what I have learned during the conversations with all three stakeholders.

So… here are the tips to make an delivery order — if you REALLY need to make it, for example, on a rainy day:

Do not use storefront. Ordering from Doordash directly at least gives you transparent information and control over your order. Otherwise you need to contact Toast, the restaurant, and the Doordash Merchant.

If you still want to use storefront, please be alerted if you receive no message notifications. This can be either the restaurant turned them off, or something wrong happened to your food delivery.

Now go back to my case, what happened to the food? Why there was no notification? Here is what I have received from Toast, the restaurant, and Doordash Merchant so far:

A Doordash driver came to the store and picked up the food, then unassigned from the order. As the order status remains open, a new driver was assigned to the order and the system showed that the driver was at the store. Later this second driver was unassigned and the delivery was cancelled due to the driver being unassigned. After that, no more updates...

On a recommendation from a local, my partner and I made reservations at The Helmand, located in Mt. Vernon, near downtown Baltimore. The restaurant boasts authentic Afghani cuisine, and has been open for 25 years.

We were lucky to find street parking steps away from the front door on such a cold night. Short of having us sit on the floor, the restaurant had an authentic Middle-Eastern feel. Two dining areas were set with white table linens and cloth napkins. Although the tables seemed too wide for intimate conversation, the staff was amenable to a seating adjustment.

The star of the show was the food. We started with the kaddo borawani, an appetizer of pan-fried baby pumpkin seasoned with sugar and yogurt garlic sauce. This dish was surprisingly tasty, and not too sweet. We complemented this with a Spanish red wine and a large order of Naan. The small order of Naan would have sufficed for two. If you are familiar with traditional Indian naan, heads up. This naan is heartier, slightly thicker, and seasoned perfectly. The wine list included mostly California, French, Italian and Spanish wines. Many options were by the bottle only, but there were plenty of choices by the glass as well.

We shared a main dish, the zardalu challow. Tender pieces of lamb seasoned with apricot, tomatoes, garlic, turmeric, and chili peppers were served with sweet, spicy turnips and challow (specially prepared long-grain rice). An interesting sauce of cilantro and lime was brought to add to the challow. The sweet and spicy flavors of this dish were intense, and paired well with the Spanish wine. I’m not used to eating food with so much flavor; this is where The Helmand shines.

After finishing the entre, we ordered two desserts and coffee; we were pleased to discover The Helmand serves authentic Turkish coffee. The feereny was a light custard topped with fresh fruit. It was overshadowed by the Afghani ice cream, however. Listed on the menu as “special ice cream,” the cardamom-infused vanilla ice cream is served on top of dates, figs, and mangoes. Definitely our favorite.

Service at The Helmand was timely, but curt. There was no engagement with the wait-staff; they did their job efficiently, and did not interrupt our meal or conversation. This felt like their style.

Main dishes range from $14 to $20, with a few choices above that range (rack of lamb, for example). The prices felt reasonable for quality food, authentic atmosphere, and prompt service. With tip expect to pay about $50 per person, which would include one appetizer, naan, two glasses wine, two entrees, two coffees, and two desserts.

We recommend The Helmand for date-night, special occasions, or just because you haven’t tried...

I've been to the Helmand at least 20 times over the past decade, and every time the service staff and food have been truly wonderful.

Unfortunately, my most recent experience with the Helmand for a private party resulted in such a negative customer service interaction that I'm never going back. Given how incredible their kaddo barwani is, I can't expect others to give it up, but I would strongly discourage anyone from going to the Helmand for a large private party, or with any specific requests. My experience was that the ownership of the restaurant is extremely rude and does not honor specific requests, even those confirmed in writing.

Forgive the lengthy summary -- back in September, I requested private use of the dining room and confirmed a menu for a farewell party in early January. I signed a contract confirming the price, menu, minimum number of guests, and time. When we arrived at the Helmand, there was another large party seated in the private dining room, and our party was split into three tables that were not next to each other. The manager said that he was not aware that the room had been reserved, and there was nothing he could do. Since there was no other place that 50 people could go on short notice, we sat down and tried to make the best of it. We ended up shouting to be heard by the person across the table, not being able to spend time with everyone, and rushing through/curtailing several speeches and skits that had been planned for the evening. We tried several times throughout the evening to contact the owner, who did not answer. We left a generous tip and banking information but ask that the final charge not go through until we were able to clear up the misunderstanding with the owner.

While the miscommunication with the staff was regrettable, the follow-up call with the owner was extremely antagonistic and upsetting. Once she heard that the full payment hadn't gone through, she called immediately and threatened to call the police. She aggressively denied that we had agreed on a private room, stating that the agreement that I signed was just a "proposal". She also said that not having a private room shouldn't have mattered, and that I should be grateful that the restaurant wasn't charging us extra for staying late, which only happened because we had been unable to do toasts earlier in the evening--we actually ended up being late for the scheduled after-party, which was not our desired outcome!

There was no apology, no offer to make up for the situation in anyway, only gaslighting, disrespect, and extremely poor...