Khyber Pass Zarparan Restaurant — Restaurant in San Diego

Khyber Pass Restaurant Review 523 University Ave, San Diego, CA 92103

5/5 stars Food 5/5 Service 4.5/5 Ambience 4.5/5

This place has been in Hillcrest for decades and it has been years since I've been here.

We had a great birthday dinner at Khyber Pass tonight and the food was so good. Honestly, it has been maybe 15 years since we've gone there but we walk by it all the time, so we booked it for a group birthday dinner. It accommodated 8 well, and the noise level was mid, not too noisy and we could talked to each other.

To start, we had the eggplant, cucumber yogurt, and mantu (beef and leek dumplings). The dumplings with the red sauce was one of my faves. We felt the cucumber yogurt could have used a bit thicker consistency but that's just our preference. There were good vegetarian options.

For dinner, my husband got the shrimp kabob and I had the salmon kabob. Our friends got the vegetarian platters, as well as an apricot lamb, chicken and lamb, and a chicken dish with a mole-looking sauce that tasted savory.

I would highly recommend this local Afghan / Persian restaurant.

They were friendly and not overly attentive.

The lighting was a bit weird with spotlight on one of our friends. The ambiance overall is casual.

Parking can be tricky.

Expect to spend about $35-40 per person, which is very reasonable given the large plates of food.

Per the owner: "Afghan, Persian, Middle eastern, & Mediterranean cuisine. Variety of dishes available for vegans and vegetarians. We make our food fresh daily with quality ingredients. Halal meat used to serve our clients. High quality food with affordable prices with great service in Hillcrest. We are catering, and delivering. Take-out or to-go option is available. Call the restaurant to order for to-go and pick-up food. Also the option to order through DoorDash, Postmates, and Uber Eats is available. Spices are used in perfect harmony to create very tasteful food which awakens...

We were greeted by Cyrus, one of the owners and let him know we were newbies, and that we wanted to try new floods and flavors, we were offered information and history of the ingredients of different dishes, based on the specific regions each dish we were interested in. Questions about the various dishes we were considering were answered, and we were given excellent recommendations. They recommended we share our dishes to get more variety, and we did. We sampled from 2 major categories: the stew/ sauces and the grilled.

We were not disappointed.

We started with #1 Boloni as our appetizer. Flaky dough stuffed with leeks, potatoes green onion and a little bit of spicy red pepper. Have them topped with the garlic and yogurt sauce and enjoy.

#34 Afghan Yaghoot Chalao: sweet and sour lamb (or chicken) with cherry gormah, with basimati rice. As well as the #24 Kabob. Combo with boneless, marinated chicken and beef koofta (ground beef seasoned lime, cilantro, and herbs). On this dish, we upgraded to the flavored rice, cooked, and served with a sauce that included fresh carrots and raisens.

I recommend the hot black tea, which has a smooth taste flavored by cardamom.

Dessert: yes, relax and chat for a bit to make room for pistachio pudding. Just, order it and savor that first bite. A gentle parade of flavors begining with pistachio, a lite citrus, smooth cardamom, and maybe saffron or rose water? I don't know. I just l know I had to pause the conversation to close my eyes and be happy.

They have a large variety of foods from throughout the Afghan and Persian regions. You can order many of the main dishes as sides if you want to have a larger variety of...

Really flavorful food and a good portion size on everything. So this was relatively quite fast and definitely value for money. It was also quite busy on a weekday evening which was a good sign.

Aushak (Leek Dumplings + Garlic Dill Yogurt) I was really thinking this would be my top choice because I usually like vegetable dumplings, but this was like a thin sheet dumpling and there was quite an oily sauce on top. The flavor was good, no doubt but I had to remove most of the sauce so I can make it a little healthy.

Mantu (beef stuffed pasta shells + garlic yogurt) This was really unbelievably good! Didn't feel too fatty or oily or anything. It was just the good balance of the beef and the pasta shell and the yogurt. The flavors also went very really well together. Definitely recommend the item.

Boneless Chicken Kebob (+ Qabuli Pulao) Chicken was cooked perfectly, soft and tender. Really like how this was in the white meat and it felt like a good lean protein option. I didn't notice it was relatively a little bit oily since I was expecting a garlic chicken here. But I just pressed out the oil with paper towels and it was good to go.

Qabuli pulao was a real good decision. Really light and fluffy and airy and with the perfect balance of sweet and savory from those dried raisins in there. Quite a good amount of pulao here as well which was nice.

Firnee - Such a massive portion size here and really really good flavor as well. It was like soft and crunchy smooth and everything at once. The rose flavor really came through there but it was just the perfect amount and not too strong. Total value...