The Afghan Village — Restaurant in Houston

I stumbled across The Afghan Village online when I was looking for a new restaurant to try on Fridays for lunch. Every review I read was excellent. I started to get suspicious, but there were so many, and all good. I told my coworkers about it, and we decided to give it a try. The staff was friendly, and welcoming. The restaurant was small, and simple with two traditional Afghan eating areas, and several tables, and chairs. We ordered water, and one friend ordered tea, which he had noticed was complementary. They brought cups for all of us. it green tea, and served with hard chunks of a type of sugar. It slowly sweetened the tea over a few minutes. We all enjoyed it. I ordered the Bolani Bolani appetiser for all of us to share, which is turnovers filled with leek, potatoes, onions and herbs for $4.95. For my entree I ordered the Mantoo, ground beef and onion-filled dumpling, topped with fresh homemade yogurt, meat sauce & dried mint for $9.95. I don't recall all the dishes that my coworkers had. Before bringing our orders, our waitress brought a complimentary order of Bouranee Baunjan, eggplant cooked with special seasonings with Yogurt on top. It is served with Naan bread. It was very good. They brought our Bolani, and my Mantoo, at the same time. I would have preferred the Bolani first, but I didn't complain, wanting to focus on the food. I wasn't expecting to like this much, but it was really, really good. Served with a green, somewhat spicy sauce, that was subtle at first, and turned up the heat a bit over a few minutes. The Mantoo was a perfect blend of flavors, not too spicy, but just enough kick to keep it interesting. My coworkers were equally impressed with their meals. All in all, a very satisfying culinary experience. We can't wait to go back...

Hands down the best Afghani restaurant in Houston! They serve the BEST goat Karahi ever! The meat just falls off the bone and they give you a choice of naan or rice with it. They truly knocked all their karahis out of the ballpark!!! All other Indian/pakistani restaurant just don’t know how to prepare goat Karahi, meat always ends up chewy, especially goat! But these guys got it figured out!!! Another amazing specialty they have is beef stew with potatoes & lamb pulao(rice), it’s so hearty and absolutely scrumptious, meat is soft, not spicy and to die for! They have this eggplant appetizer which is out of this world and it’s a must try. I don’t like eggplant but I’ll eat that any day! All their grill items are amazing as well! All their meat dishes & vegetarian dishes are top notch!!! Plus they give you complimentary green tea at the end which is so delicious!

They continue to be consistent in their recipes and generous in their portions! I feel that post-Covid most restaurants food quality has gone down but not this one. The food here is heavenly! It’s not spicy like Indian or Pakistani restaurants and yet it’s more flavorful!

We also have received amazing service from Payam! He is consistent and very attentive. We have always taken large groups here and he has always gotten all our orders right and gives us extra attention. Just couple days ago, he served a very difficult group of ours, they didn’t make it easy for him but he was so patient with us and served us with his heart and a smile! 💚

I absolutely love this restaurant! I have been coming here for years now and always like to invite my friends from other cultures/backgrounds, with all kinds of dietary restrictions, and they always fall head over heels for this place...

This place is not in the best part of town to its detriment. More than anything, the waitstaff is awkward & not very welcoming. I went there with my mom, we walked in and were greeted by this sweet looking girl handed us the menus, we sat down and then another man came over and put the glass and water down, then left without saying a word. The place looked so dark and not very inviting, other than the beautiful Afghani decor on the one wall. We (my family) are foodies, love Afghani food and are able to tell if the cuisine is genuine, so we asked to meet with the owner Omar, who is real nice guy and best of all, was genuinely honest about his recommendations. We ordered the Chicken Karahi as recommended which was really good, looked clean & fresh. I was very disappointed about the naan since it was not only thick and doughy, but also cold. We had to ask three different times hoping the next one will turn out as expected but that didn’t happen. During dinner, two young Hispanic girls in tiny tank tops walked in with a strange looking man who walked straight towards the restroom while the girls walked up to every table tried to solicit for money claiming to be Harvey victims. That was very unnerving for me, thankfully, the owner was able to kick them out.

I’m not sure what to think of this place, I would like to give it another try to be fair. The food is definitely genuine & delicious. Maybe during lunch, since I liked the owner and he seems to be very genuinely caring for...