Azerbaijan Cuisine

The best Persian food in Berkeley. The meats are deliciously succulent and well-​cooked. I don’t really write Unilocal reviews unless I really feel strongly about a place, and this is one of them. It’s a bit pricey for the average college student, but it’s definitely worth it. Free warm starter lavash!

One of the worst dining experiences I’ve had in recent memory. My girlfriend and I went there with some friends. The staff substituted our food with salad and garbage and when we called them out on it they were incredulous about it. We asked that they substitute the the dishes with different food and asked them to bring out a manager. Miraculously, the food we had originally ordered but were told «was out» was on its way.
By that time half the party had finished the dishes they ordered and we asked for the bill to pay for our drinks. We were presented with a check for the entire meal… jacked up dishes included.
The management team is inept and completely unprepared to deal with the slightest customer issue.
The food is terrible, so don’t waste your time.

How does this place stay open? I never see anyone in here. Kind of reminds me of Viceroy on University/​Shattuck. What’s with buildings on major street corners having glass windows showcasing empty restaurants?
The food is good, and a nice kick if you never eat this Middle Eastern style — i.e. free cucumber yogurt and fresh bread. Helpful (and a little spotty) service too. But the price is just way too much for the service and quantity. Lots of filler (rice) and not a lot of meat in my order.
If I had seen the previous poster about the $ 25 gift certificates for $ 1, this might have been a 4-​star
What’s the deal with the restaurant layout? You walk in, and to get to sit at the corner to your right, you have to walk around the whole place just to get to that corner, because where there probably used to be a window, there is now a barrier. Weird. I thought about hopping over that railing more than once

I would give Azerbaijan 3.5 stars. The food is actually pretty damn good. We usually order beef kebobs and they are DELISH. The appetizers are also very good; we order the hummus and the eggplant. Make sure you put a bunch of sumac or whatever that spice is all over your rice. Very good.
Now to the bad: Not cheap. Not sure how we ended up spending close to $ 70 for three a kebab place, and 2 of us split an entrée! The service was also SPOTTY and shady. The female server was perfectly nice, but come on now, there’s no excuse for bad service when you only have THREE tables to wait on! THREE! What’s up with that? E.g., she brought us the dessert menus, but then never returned to see if we wanted dessert. She brought out the wrong entrée for my friend, and it was just a mess, and when we ordered extra yogurt, she never brought it so her colleague had to bring it. Then she brings it like an hour later.
Overall, the service could be much improved. I’d pay these prices b/​c the food is relatively very good, but the service leaves so much to be desired!

Ever since we walked past this place early in the semester, my four-​person apartment collectively made it a goal to come here. This was more because the idea of Azerbaijan cuisine was intriguing than anything we actually heard about the place itself. Plus, Azerbaijan is fun to say.
As dead week kicked off — the final days of lecture were cancelled due to budget cuts — we finally had a chance to drop in,
The restaurant was almost completely empty, but I brushed it off as it being a Monday night. One of the first things we saw was a hookah, to which my roommate remarked, «I like this place already.» There was also a widescreen TV with a slideshow of what I assumed to be pictures of Azerbaijan.
Being poor college students, we all passed on any appetizers, desserts, or drinks — though there was a yogurt soda that sounded tempting for its mere novelty. We were, however, treated with complimentary pita bread. Dipped in yogurt, the bread was soft and delicious; I would’ve called for a third basket if I hadn’t been embarrassed to do so.
I decided on the filet mignon kebab, which came with green peppers, onions, a grilled tomato half, and rice with saffron. I ordered it medium, and the meat was juicy and tender. No complaints here. There was the option of topping the rice with some sort of red spice, which added a nice of kick of flavor to it. The portions were also satisfying, but not immense.
Two of my apartment-​mates chose chicken breast kebabs and seemed similarly pleased with their entrees, while the third opted for some sort of lamb stew that was listed as a special. This was an interesting dish which required you to mash the mix of meat, vegetables, and broth — a blend that you would then eat with more of the pita bread. It looked like a lot of fun to play with, and will probably be what I order if I return.
The waiter was friendly and relatively quick, but of course, we were one of only three or four tables there. One star off for being a touch expensive, but a very enjoyable experience overall.

There’s a reason this place was empty on a Sunday night. Word to the wise– never let an Irish boy from the South Bay pick the restaurant.
They had never heard of baba ganoush. Seriously, Azerbaijan? Seriously? The roasted eggplant with yogurt was… interesting. However, it was the main entrée that sealed the two stars. The chicken kabobs were flavorless and had a weird consistency. The kabob was listed as being lime flavored. A lemon was accompanied with the kabob instead. Umm, last time I checked, lemons tasted different than limes!
Sigh. At least I didn’t pay.

I grew up in LA eating at all the wonderful Persian places in Westwood, and I’m always sad there’s not more of them in the Bay.
I went to this place for lunch today and my taste buds were very pleased.
Everything was delicious! 5 stars for the food and service. Minus 1 star for not having cheaper lunch specials (after tip and tax we paid $ 15 each for lunch). Delicious. Give it a try.

I actually liked this place. We decided to give it a shot since
was offering $ 25 certificates for $ 1. The restaurant itself is nice and roomy, I think they went a little overboard and could have done with a much smaller place.
They start you with a basket of bread and some yogurt. I enjoyed this very much, the yogurt was chilled and delicious and the bread was pretty good as well. We ordered the lamb tongue for appetizer. I thought it was pretty good, but looked simple (just two pieces of tongue in a broth). Maybe add a few small slices of carrots or a sprig of parsley?
For our meal, we ordered the lamb shank stew with the eggplant and the filet mignon kabob. The stew was amazing and almost reminded me of osso bucco. The eggplant was a perfect addition to the dish. The kabob was just a thin slab of beef, didn’t really impress me. I thought it lacked flavor and was slightly dry.
I would definitely come back as long as I could take advantage of another cheap offer like $ 1 gift certificates. The food was good and would love to try more of the things they have to offer.

Here’s a restaurant that aspires to mediocrity and doesn’t even close to achieving it. In my humble opinion, this is a bad place. I’m sorry that I came, and I’m sorry that I brought my friends. I won’t be back and I don’t recommend the place to anybody.
Details: At our table, everybody ordered only a main dish (stew or kabob, with rice). No one wanted any appetizers, and there sure weren’t calls for any kind of dessert. We got the complimentary yogurt appetizer with dry pita bread, and this was OK. (Also, we were hungry.) The main dishes came with either white rice (no extra charge) or flavored rice (a dollar or two more). I got the ground chicken skewer that was praised on Unilocal and the lima bean rice, which sounded interesting to me. Maybe I had an off day, or maybe the kitchen did, but the tastes were simply MEH. To add insult to injury, the Sudwerk Hefeweizen that I ordered tasted kind of stale.
When I stepped back out onto the street, I felt liberated.
It’s hard to imagine how this restaurant can survive. It’s cavernous, and there’s no way that it can fill up. The rent must be expensive — unless the owner got an extraordinary good deal. There are much better places not that far away, including Alborz, which is a sister restaurant to this one.
If I had control of this space, I’d try to set up a Fish Market or a Chow sort of place. This would probably require significant kitchen renovation, but it’d be worth it!

Im persian, so I know good resturants/​bad ones. this one is quality persian food! the kabob is delicious as was the fillet Mignon .
Def. recommend this place. their service is a little lagging.
nice ambiance/​very clean place though!
def. a good place to check out!
btw the food is HALAL.

To start, my party of five ordered the combination appetizer, which included a variety of really fabulous items. My favorite two on the dish were the eggplant and garlic purée item (Kashk Bademjan, I think) and the egg and walnut fritatta (OK, so that’s not what it’s called, but I can’t think of the actual name!).
I tried the yogurt soda just for kicks. It was definitely interesting, and I had more than one sip, but I think it’s the kind of item you have to grow up with to really enjoy. It could make a great amuse-​bouche if you’re planning a Middle Eastern multi-​course meal. It had pepper and herbs in it.
For my main course, I chose the filet mignon kebab, which was very tasty. My only complaint is that it was served medium instead of medium rare, as I had ordered it. The meat still managed to be tender and slightly juicy, though, so I wasn’t too upset. The accompanying rice was fluffy and well-​seasoned. Oh, and the grilled tomato was a great touch; I’m going to add that to my grilled meat platters from now on!
The décor at this place doesn’t exactly scream «Azerbaijan» (not that I’m really sure which décor would do so) and was rather eclectic, but not in a good way — more in a «we went to cost plus and bought a bunch of stuff» kind of way.
I’d go back to this place, for sure, but I’d definitely have to be in the mood for a lot of meat and a large meal.

I haven’t been in this space since it housed Good Earth decades ago. In the interim it’s been a variety of Indian restaurants. I had a lunch date w/​a friend, but she was feeling ill, so Alan and I were left to our own devices. Laura and I had planned to meet here, so Alan and I agreed to give it a try.
The restaurant looks much different than it did as Good Earth, in a good way. It’s a large space, open yet not cavernous. Colors are warm, w/​dark wood and lovely raku-​like tiles around the kitchen. The accent paint used is a little too bright a salmon color for my taste. I would have toned it down a shade or three. The artifacts displayed around the room were unattractive. They looked as if they’d been picked up in the Big Lots! home décor section. Not a good look. Better to have baskets or something more authentic. Aside from this, it’s a beautiful restaurant. We were the first to arrive a little before noon and then 2 or 3 other parties filtered in. I’m not sure how crowded it gets.
Service was friendly. The food was flavorful, albeit a bit pricey. It seemed more Persian than Azerbaijani. There was almost nothing unfamiliar to me, although the yogurt soda was. We started out w/​the Kashk Bademjan, an eggplant and garlic appetizer and it was one of the best we’ve had and very reasonable at $ 5. We didn’t lick the plate, the knife or our fingers, although the thought occurred. A complimentary dish of yogurt and cucumbers and a basket of flatbread accompanied it and were very good. We both ordered the Koobideh Kabob, a mixture of ground lamb and beef w/​spices cooked on skewers. Alan ordered his w/​the pistachio rice, which also included sultanas and orange peel, while I ordered mine w/​saffron and barberries. The special rice added $ 1.95 to the dish, which was $ 9.95. The meat was moist and tasty. The rice was a generous portion. Alan’s was on the sweet side while mine had the tartness of the barberries. Both were excellent. The yogurt soda was good and tart, the spritziness of the soda unfamiliar and nice.
I was pleased w/​the food, although a little disappointed it was less exotic than I had anticipated. The owner of Azerbaijan also owns Alborz, which is around the corner and it seems as if he is in competition w/​himself. The menus are very similar and the prices at Alborz are a couple of dollars cheaper. I’d return for that eggplant, though. We’ll return one of these evenings for dinner.

Either the service staff has been reading some of the Unilocal reviews here and upping their game, or I didn’t deal with the same employees as others talked about — because the service was actually better than the food.
The hummus we started with was very good, as was the complimentary yogurt/​cucumber dish.
I had the ground chicken skewer entrée, and found myself reminded of the texture and flavor of a McRib sandwich. I blanked out on ordering the special pistachio rice when it was my turn to order, but I’d love to give that a shot — the basic rice that accompanied my entrée was cooked just fine, but the entire plate overall was dry and just sort of «average.»
For the price, I didn’t feel like I was getting what I paid for, but it wasn’t a bad meal. I’m sure I’ll try Azerbaijan again at some point, but I probably wouldn’t go out of my way for it.
Props to them for using compostable to-​go boxes though!

Methinks that the owners of Azerbaijan have been reading Unilocal and taking heed of the criticism coming their way. Reason being that we had lunch there today for my friend’s birthday, and encountered every possible scenario cited by other Unilocalers where the server or food failed — yet in both tasty factor and courtesy they did a bang-​up job. One of my fellow diners eats hummus at least 5 times a week, and she LOVED the hummus, along with the rest of us. The yogurt sauce was a perfect consistency and deliciously tart. I ordered the veggie kabob, and while it was quite simple, it was toothsome indeed. Not mushy and flavorless like it had the potential to be. The rice was also perfectly cooked. My friends ordered meat kabobs and ate every last bite.
The food was simple, and it was fresh and served very promptly and with a smile. We split the check three ways (two cards and some cash) and they accommodated us without hesitation.
My only complaint is 11 dollars for veggie kabobs??? Unless they were blessed by organic garden faeries and rinsed in the fountain of youth, the price seems extravagant.

Azerbaijan, now there’s a new dot on my culinary map!
We soon discovered the dishes tasted distinctly Persian: grilled meats, peppers and tomatoes, squash and eggplant, fragrant and fluffy rice, saffron and cinnamon punctuating the dishes. In addition to the traditional stews and skewers, the menu had a fair share of interesting pizza combinations for the culinary conservative.
Like any good Unilocaler, we had to do it up proper! Our foray included all the essentials: grilled ground chicken, eggplant with garlic, whey and caramelized onions (yum) and the pomegranate and ground walnut fesenjan. Smooth and sweet with a pleasant tang, the marriage of flavors in this dish is really unique. For those who dig the union of fruit and meat, this one’s a winner!
If you can pick your head up from the plate, you’ll find that the atmosphere is comfortable, dotted with hookahs and «traditional» articles, though the décor appears to taken stitch to stitch from the «Laila» theme out of an interior design catalog. Some personal touches would go a long way.
The place would also do well to hire some uni students familiar with the cuisine to replace the lackluster service, and think about trimming the prices a buck or two to attract more of the college crowd, but hey, it probably keeps out the riff raff.
So from the power vested in me by the state of Hunger, I officially declare this place in the top tier of my downtown Berzerkley take-​out list.

The good: tasty food, lots of room, close to campus
The bad: slow service, lack of interpersonal skills, overpriced
We ordered the eggplant and flatbread for appetizer and it was yummy. I love eggplant dishes so this place earned a point for a delicious garlicy eggplant appetizer. For our main dinner entrée, we ordered the joogeh kabob (shirin polo style rice) and it was okay. The rice was super good and tasted better than other Persian restaurants I’ve been to. We also got the chobon kabop aka fillet steak; it was ok too; nothing too special about the meat. Overall, the food is good, but the waitress didn’t seem excited to take our ordered. She looked bored. We were bored.

Came here to celebrate the end of a semester with a graduate seminar. Our prof had been to this recently-​opened restaurant the week before and was so impressed by their rice (of all things!), he deemed it worthy of another visit. We were seated quickly, comfortably, and courteously. Many appetizers, drinks, and plates of food were ordered. I found the eggplant appetizer and dolma to be quite tasty, but didn’t care much for the lamb’s tongue. We doubled up on most plates to ensure that there was enough to go around. With all these appetizers, combined with the cucumber and yogurt + bread that was automatically served with our meals, we were well on our way to being full even before our real dinners arrived.
As for the main course, I can only speak for the chicken kebab dish I had, but it was some of the juiciest kebab meat I’ve had in a while. $ 15 for a well-​presented plate including rice and salad seems fair — especially when someone else is picking up the check, natch. I ended up with a plate of leftovers to take home. I even scored a juicy lamb bone from a friend’s stew for my dog (the very sight of the thing made him whimper with unrestrained glee).
Since the department was paying (muahaha), many of us further indulged on coffee and desserts. The rose water ice cream with chunks of frozen, meltaway cream was deeeelish, and unlike anything I’ve ever had. I’ll be craving that dessert for some time to come. Sadly, I am just a poor grad student in the humanities and well never be raking in the dough, even when I do become a «doc». I’m not usually entitled to such extravagance, so I can’t say I’m going to be a regular customer. Nevertheless, I do appreciate a touch of luxury on occasion. Azerbaijan was able to provide that, and I returned home with a very happy tummy.

I too was on the infamous lunch and I agree completely with both Tiffany and Sean.
I understand how difficult it can be to split a check after the fact; however, I agree with the saying that the «customer is always right» and accommodations should be made to make sure your customer is happy. Not become frustrated and rude to your customers because you believe it is an inconvenience. The situation could have been handled much better by the the woman that served us.
I agree with Tiffany with regard to the price and availability of other venues. So suffice to say I won’t be back… even if someone else pays.

I was on the dining trip with Sean B. and completely agree with his assessment. It was tasty though over-​priced and I was really excited about making this a place that we visit when we want to have a nice lunch together. Right up until the end when we were treated so rudely, overcharged, and insulted.
Also, in case anyone is thinking, ‘I work in the service industry and it’s totally annoying to have split a check later.’ yeah, I get that, but, we were the ONLY diners in the restaurant, you make it work when it’s your only patrons. Seriously. Also, the thing that made it a nightmare wasn’t the check splitting, it was their faulty credit card machine, so if the problem is from your faulty machines, don’t take it out on people who are spending money in your restaurant.
I suppose you can get away with treating customers poorly when you’re the only game in town, but given that I can get similar food, for a much better price, at about 10 establishments in a 5 block radius, I’m thinking they should try to be a little nicer to their patrons.

This was the most abrupt u-​turn I’ve ever made in a review. They would have had four or maybe even five stars up until the last minute of our visit…
The location is great. It’s particularly great for the six of us, as we’re all postdocs and predocs at Cal, which is definitely this restaurant’s target demographic; it’s about 50 feet off campus to the west.
The setting was beautiful. The place was well-​decorated. Tastefully ethnic, not overdone, classy. White tablecloths and nice silverware took the setting up a notch too.
The place was a touch pricey for Berkeley, and had no lunch specials. We weren’t that excited, considering the number of places around with specials ranging from $ 6 to $ 10, but we were excited about having a new place to check out, so we were okay with spending a few extra dollars; no worries.
The appetizers were very nice. The complimentary pita bread and yogurt were a nice filler, the hummus appetizer was delicious, and everyone liked the sandwiches and the salads that we ordered. We finished our meal quite content and ready to integrate this restaurant into our «rounds», as we eat out in this very area of town on a daily basis.
Then it all took a nosedive. We asked if we could have seperate checks and were informed that they had already done one group check for us; we asked if it would be possible to seperate that out, and were told that it was. We waited about five minutes. The tall blonde waitress returned to our table and said that she wasn’t sure how to seperate it out since we hadn’t asked in advance, and said that if we each gave her our money and our credit cards, that she would be able to seperate it out herself, manually. We were okay with that, no skin off our nose, and handed over our money and our cards.
Ten minutes later, as we realized we were going to be VERY late getting back to work, she returned to the table and said that three of the cards were rejected due to invalid expiration dates. Mine was one of them. Interesting, as my card was a debit, there was plenty of money in the account ($ 1000+), and the date was ²⁄₁₃. I gave her another card (exp. date ⁷⁄₀₉) and that was rejected also. She returns to the table and asks if I can «just pay cash», frustration clearly coming through in her voice. I didn’t have enough, so a friend had to loan me $ 5.
Ten minutes LATER as we’re finally getting things squared away, my friend approached her to double-​check and make certain that everything was finalized, the waitress says, snidely, to my friend, «You know, next time if you tell us ahead of time we can seperate the checks, because this was a NIGHTMARE for us. Do you think you can do that?»
(wow)
My friend, taken aback, replies, «Probably», to which she replied, «Probably», scowls, rolls her eyes, and says «Thanks» before turning her back and walking away.
We spoke the whole way home about how rude that was, and how a new restaurant can’t afford to treat people that way when they’re new and starting up. But they are, and they did… and they just alienated themselves from a group of six doctors and soon-​to-​be-​doctors in one fell swoop.
… then I realized on my way home that they overcharged me by at least $ 5.00.
Needless to say, we’ll walk right on by this place every day on our way to spend our $ 80 (collectively) at every other restaurant in the area, five days a week. They won’t see us again.