Kabul House Restaurant — Restaurant in Evanston Township

I had a bad experience with this restaurant, specifically with manager and the server. Very unprofessional and rude. I ordered take out but as time was very less and after discussion with my family we decided to call and make a reservation for dine in. So when we came to dine in we explained to the server that I ordered side of kebab for take out but as we were running late we decided to dine in and also of course we will order more. We used to come here multiple times before this unpleasant situation, and leave generous tips as well. In response he said they cannot bring our order for take out to the table. Ok no problem. Despite I still don’t understand why?! I am not bringing food from out it is food ordered from the same restaurant, in the same kitchen. I don’t see any problem serving your customers appropriately and bringing that take out order as well. We ordered 2 main dishes and appetizer for 2 adults in addition to our side order of kebab that was for take out ( which they of course refused to bring to our table). The server delayed placing our order for dine in. In response to our request for bringing take out order he said that “people try to cheat by ordering food for take out and then come her to dine in”.Ridiculous response to our request, which is very rude and shows that he is trying to say we as customers trying to cheat🤦🏻‍♀️. If this is acceptable in this restaurant then I don’t know what to say. Anyway, he said he will call manager to talk to us and if allowed then he will bring that order with main order as well. We didn’t want to argue, so we let it be and only thing we were waiting that our dine in order will be at least prepared in timely manner, which of course didn’t happen. As our order was not placed right away. When manager (lady) she came, instead of proper communication she straight away said in angry and rude manner that they are not going to bring the take away order to our table and we will have to take it as a take away order as all is packed. This turned me off completely as I understood they have no respect towards their customers and think they can talk anyway they want. At that point I didn’t care for that take away order and was already ready just to have my dinner there and pay for both dine in as well take away and leave asap. After all this it was very tense and unpleasant atmosphere especially when we were paying for the bill. Oh I forgot also we ordered lemonade as well but never got it to our table. And when we used to usually get our dine in order in maybe 15- max 20min we ended up waiting for our order around 45min. I remember that as we had to finish our dinner in less than 15 min and leave as we were already running out of time. Overall, in hope of being served properly and getting my food on time I ended up wasting time and also experiencing this all. The manager and server lack communication skills with customers. And, let’s say you have a policy not allowing to have a take out order when you are dining in, no problem, the problem is when the server and manager think they can speak in that manner to customers. Even though food is good but this kind of service is not acceptable. There are many other good restaurants with good food and they have a good service, so I am not going to Kabul...

Visited July 31st, 2019 For the first time but certainly not the last, I tried Afghan food. While hanging with my sister we both decided to try something new. Enter the Kabul House. I admit I have been interested for a while but thought some company on a trip would be better. So here we are! A well decorated place for of beauty and style. The decor simple and elegant. I felt like I had walked into a Afgan home. There were multiple dining rooms to chose for seating in the sun or away from it. NICE! I had a excellent waiter who wanted to make sure we enjoyed our experience. Wanting to try what is normal to the Afhan people we started with some dumplings. Very different from Chinese,  these were filled with meat on the inside but also covered in a red sauce with what appeared to be a yogurt cream. All were delicious. I think the red sauce was a slightly spicy chutney. We also enjoyed the green chile chutney and a yogurt based topping. We ordered 2 dishes. Something native and a combination #2 kabob. First the Kabuli Palau which we were told is traditional to Afghan.  It was the first time I think I really enjoyed raisins in a hot dish. The rice covered lamb that seemed to be slow stewed or simmered.  Amazingly tasty dish. I would definitely recommend it to anyone with an open mind and palate . The next was the #2 combo kabob. It came with grilled lamb and your choice of chicken or ground sirloin kabob. I picked the recommended beef. Also has a side of rice. I picked Half Saffron Rice and half Traditional Afghan which come with the raisins.  Such wonderful flavors with clear neighboring Indian influences.  Also a great choice. The waiter treated us to Desert of baklava and Custard Pudding called Firne plus traditional tea. Just a delight all the way around in this restaurant experience. I tried to find something wrong with this place but couldn't. Service,  great. Food, wonderful. Decor, awesome. Prices, reasonable. Did I mention how good the food was? The place was clean, the staff humble & accommodating.  It is just a good place to dine, relax and slowly enjoy the tea. I want to come back to try something else. That lamb they grilled was exceptionally tender and tasty so that alone will get me back in the door. Well done...

Service was dedicated, so no complaints about the staff.

Location is incredibly cramped. By the time my party left, there was around 70 people in a restaurant smaller than my garage.

Bathroom is nearly non-existent. One male, one female, one toilet each. Very small, 4 or 5 people waiting in line at any time.

Food is subpar. I mean, I'm not knocking the food because it's not traditional american. I adore Indian, Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese, and various other "non-american" (though, admittedly with an Asian bent) cuisines. I'm knocking it because it was just bleh.

Many of the dishes were, give or take, 12-14 dollars, and looked to be about as much food as you'd get for 75% of the price at some of the Indian or Asian places that I've frequented in Illinois or Indiana.

My party sampled nearly everything on the menu. Several appetizers that were comprised, roughly speaking, of cooked vegetable mush. Others were kind of a bland, lukewarm, ground-beef dumpling.

Main courses involved various Shrimp, Lamb, Chicken, and Ground beef dishes.

Of those, I thought the Shrimp was pretty good, though I'm really confused how that's traditional Afghani food, considering geographical availability.

One of the chicken dishes was, essentially, the same as Tandori Chicken from various local Indian resturaunts. I thought it was decently made.

Another chicken dish was a spicy chicken stew, that I would have called a slightly spicer Chicken Tikka Masala, but it didn't have the turmeric flavor that I would have expected, so I'm guessing it's prepared a bit differently.

Almost all of the dishes were served over buttery rice. (Forgive me if I'm remembering incorrectly, but my memory is telling me they were short grained rices, instead of long grained. I could be wrong).

The deserts were all pretty decent. Personally I quite liked one of the chilled sugery yogurt dish, and another that was some kind of crumbly honey cake. I mixed the two together and it was really good.

$10 "Corking fee" for wine that you bring to the restaurant yourself. I know that this is considered standard, but honestly, that's bullshit no matter...