Dinner at The Persian Restaurant

The Persian Restaurant
http://www.thepersianrestaurant.com/

I was surfing through the interwebs looking for dinner inspiration when I came across The Persian Restaurant in Bardon. Vague memories from my past started stirring. I'm pretty sure I visited a restaurant called 'The Persian Restaurant' many, many years ago but that one was in Coorparoo. It might even be by the same people because I notice the website mentions they are 'now' located in Bardon. Presumably it had a previous location. I tried to search my own blog for any previous reviews but couldn't find anything.

In any case, new location means new things to write about. We made a booking for dinner last Friday night at 8pm. It was quite busy when we got there so we were glad to have a booking. The restaurant is nice to look at with a dark interior, generically 'ethinic' decor features and pretty fairy lights across the outside windows. The lighting inside is dimmed but not so much that my poor eyes couldn't read the menu (which is my idea for uncomfortably dark).


The Persian Restaurant is BYO with a bottleshop located directly across the street. After we placed our food order, Marc hopped over to pick up some red.

Grand Sampler

We asked our waitress for a recommendation on entree and she suggested we try the trio of dips with flatbread. I think this is a great choice for starters because it gets the digestive juices flowing with a variety of flavours. I liked that the mirza ghasemi (smoked eggplant dip) was served warm, contrasting with the other dips. On a slight down note there was a too large dip to bread ratio and we ended up with left over dip but no bread. A waitress asked us if we wanted more bread but not wanting to assume this wouldn't have an extra cost, I ended up scooping dip to eat on its own. Why not just include more bread to begin with?

Middle Eastern Platter

My choice of main was the Middle Easter platter. This comprised of a lamb kebab, tabouleh salad, falafel, pickles and more bread and dip. We also ordered a side of garlic yoghurt to share between us, which was also great for dipping both meats and bread. I thought this was a wonderful combination of elements that made up a well rounded, complete meal.

The lamb kabab was clearly the hero on the plate. It was well-seasoned and matched perfectly with the yoghurt sauce. The falafels added another hearty element, whilst the pickles and tabouleh balanced the heavy spices with some acidity and freshness.

King's choice - Combination of Barg, Koobideh and Joojeh Kebab

Marc's main was the King's Choice of kebabs, which was the lamb backstrap, lamb mince and marinated chicken skewers, served with saffron rice and a grilled tomato. Interestingly his plate also contained a serve of butter. He wasn't sure what to do with the butter so he just smeared a bit on everything. What were we supposed to do with the butter?

Saffron ice cream - with thickened cream bits, rose water and pistachios, served with Pashmak (Persian fairy floss)

After our lovely mains, we were satisfied and didn't 'need' dessert but one had already caught my eye from the start of the night. I ordered the saffron ice-cream for us to share. This ended up being the highlight of the meal for me. A lot of dishes claim to be saffron this or truffle that but only a handful actually ring true to their claim. This ice-cream was rich, creamy and distinctly had a saffron flavour. I was in ice-cream heaven.

The service at The Persian Restaurant was good, with food being brought out at a suitable pace. Our savoury items were tasty and filling but no item really left a strong impression on me. Contrastingly, the saffron ice-cream we had for dessert is something I would go back for again and again.