Helmand Palace — Restaurant in San Francisco

Warning: This is not the same restaurant that was here a few years ago. They are using the name Helmand palace but the owner has changed, the food is of poor quality and not comparable to the old Helmand Palace.

What's worse is the service and the nastiness of the extremely rude and boorish Pakistani 30 year old teenager that is running this once-high class AFGHAN restaurant. We ordered here and when we picked up our food we noticed that they have not provided naan (bread) with our appetizer, which is standard and necessary for that particular appetizer. We called them about this and this was the new owner's response:

First he lied and denied the ownership has changed when we asked them (that's how bad the quality of the food was that we had to ask if the owner has changed). Then he says you have to order naan separately for pickup orders (which was convenient for them because they only did pickup orders that night).

When he was told that it is standard for this appetizer to come with naan and it is inedible without bread (it's kind of like eating fondue without bread or salsa without chips) he said That's the way it is here we only give naan if you order it separately. "Ok". When he was told that no Afghan restaurant sells these appetizers without the necessary naan he said "YOU DON'T LIKE IT HERE WHY DON'T YOU GO SOMEWHERE ELSE?" He screamed this line over the phone several times and then immediately hung up the phone.

We spent a total of $70 on food we thought would be gourmet (based on our experience before this crazy non-Afghan owner took over and completely ruined the place both in appearance and quality), just to get food that had been PRECOOKED AND REHEATED IN A MICROWAVE! The fact that our pickup order was ready in just a few minutes kind of gave this away in advance.

This is the very first time in my life that I have spent top dollar on what I though was going to be top quality food based on past experience and ended up (I am not kidding about this) immediately having to drive to the In-n-Out burger in the nearby SF Fish Market so that I can actually have "dinner". Go to any restaurant run by real Afghans rather than by this malevolent, lying, boorish huckster and you won't be...

It is deeply disappointing to see the name of Afghanistan and “Afghan” being used in association with your restaurant when neither proper hospitality nor respect for culture is being upheld. I kindly suggest that you first improve your manners and customer service, and then work on the quality of your food and the cleanliness of your establishment.

What you are serving as “Qabuli Pulao” is far from the traditional Afghan dish. In fact, it more closely resembles what is known in Afghanistan as Shorba Berenj (rice soup), which itself tastes far better than the meal you are presenting under the name of Qabuli Pulao.

Furthermore, I strongly urge you to remove the name of Helmand—one of the most respected provinces of Afghanistan—from your restaurant’s title. Such misuse not only misrepresents Afghan cuisine but also harms the image of our culture. Please do not follow the unfortunate example of others in the industry who tarnish the name and heritage of...

Paid about $266 plus brought few members of my family and talked so much great about my personal experience way from few years ago... Today sunday feb 23 we entered around 6pm it wasn’t busy so we thought it would be great opportunity to order as much as possible since we were all hungry. Long story short everything was wrong nvm mind food i mean its definitely not same food i tried years ago. Somewhat changed and yeah names of dishes and the food was something like Afghan food but not authentic Afghan food at all. Order taker were not trained and almost no one even other guy Ahmad not our order taker but we thought he was somewhat knowledgeable but no actually no one knew anything about the food itself. Not coming ever and not recommend this place anymore. This is definitely not For those looking for authentic Afghan food.

Soap and salmon was the worst distasteful and almost everything...