Kamdesh Afghan Cuisine — Restaurant in Oakland

As a multi generation native Californian this was my first taste of Afghan food. I discovered I have been missing out, delicious, very much in a comfort food kind of way. I look forward to eating here again soon!! A gem of a restaurant.

So this was my very first time eating Afghan food. I was blown away, this restaurant is fantastic. Everything I tried was spectacular, delicious, and left wanting to eat more. I tried chicken, lamb, and steak kabob meats, the golden lentil Dahl, spinach, and sautéed okra dish. These sides I highly recommend, all of them. While they look and are named similarly to their Indian food counterparts, they are very much there own taste of Afghanistan. All unique and delicious in a way I call a yum factor the spicing, it was a new and lovable taste for me. The Afghan spicing blend in all their cooked foods, has that special way of making you want more, very satisfying meal.

Not familiar with Afghan food? Think a beautiful blend or hybrid of cooking from the south and eastern Mediterranean foods and foods of India, which makes since given its geographical location. It’s own unique flavor that will leave wanting to back time and time again.

This is a family ran restaurant, all the family was there including young children, and young adults, not uncommon from family restaurants I ate at with my family when I was younger. Everyone was friendly and polite. Our server’s English wasn’t the best but she tried hard and was a truly sweet young woman. The owner visited our table a few times, he is very dialed in and doing an amazing job.

The food impressed so much, I found myself looking up traditional Afghan recipes when I got home as I only visit Oakland on occasion.

This restaurant is...

The food was great, my first experience eating this kind of food in a restaurant. I had the chicken kebab with the brown rice and some black tea. My friends had the mix kebab plate and the super crispy chicken wings with French fries. [I know, is 2 white guys and a Mexican cut us a break!] I have to say the chicken breast kebab was very good and the tea was good. The rice was 7.5 out of 10. The family of the workers running around laughing and screaming as they played added to the ambiance of the mostly empty building. I enjoying hearing them play and laugh, although my friend was very annoyed and wanted to pull his ears off. Depends on your mindset I suppose, it's was cute to me but I have baby fever already. The service was decent but the ladies seem they could use a little more help at times with the mobile/to-go orders and the front of house. Overall I enjoyed myself and felt very comfortable. My only time eating this food before is was at friend's family dinners or clients wanting to thank me with food; compared to the home cooking I've had I'd give this a 4.5 if I could. My friend asked for onions and peppers and hotsuace and she said "suuuure" then never came. I don't know if that's normal to have but he seemed to think so. Lovely family afghan place overall reminded me of my fondest childhood friends and their family...

I ordered the kabob that came with rice and afghan salad. Im also an afghani who has been making these dishes since I was old enough to fold Mantu, but I found this plate disappointing. I asked them not to cook it well done preferring juicier kabobs, but it was so tough I, as well as my partner and son couldn't even take a bite from I without fearing broken teeth. Literally, it was even hard cutting it with a steak knife. The afghan salad was made cheaply because it just tasted like chopped onions with maybe three pieces of cucumber, no tomatoes, mint, lemon, salt, nothing. I ordered afghan bread naan and clarified I didn't want some pita bread you can buy at Safeway. But I still paid 3 dollars for tough pita bread and when I told her they made a mistake rather then exchanging it she handed me a bag with a tiny piece which was a rip off because I told her I was only interested in the naan. I mean I didn't tell her way later but immediately so I don't know why she did it like that. Mantu was pretty good but the serving was so tiny it was only enough for my 4 year old. I was really bummed and hope to find a good afghan restaurant around here. This was a waste of 27 dollars for 1 kabob plate and mantu. I get some white people may think this is a god send but I asure you, its...