Darya Restaurant

My experience with Persian food is minimal but when a new friend offered to take me here for lunch I agreed quickly, and I’m glad I did. My friend was born in Iran but emigrated to the US about 35 years ago, so he knows what he is talking about when it comes to Ned to Persian food.
He ordered for both of us. I had the beef koobideh, which was amazing! Excellent flavor. My friend had a chicken dish which was also very very good, but unfortunately I’m not sure what that one was called.
The prices were certainly reasonable for the comfortable atmosphere, great service and excellent food! I’ll be brining my wife here soon!

Good service, delicious food, nice place. My first time here. Shared a plate with hubby and still have leftovers. Price is affordable and worth it.

The food is good, but if you order something outside the menu the price gets ridiculous. To give you an idea I wanted a combination plate that they did not have on the menu so separately I ordered rice, one kebab stick of boneless chicken, one stick or fish and one stick of beef and Side of appetizer salad. My Bill was $ 91 for only one person. Huh, and I had one Diet Coke.

This is not for the food quality but for the service, I ordered lunch for my staff, and was confirmed to pick it up at 11:30, I got there at 11:20 the lady at concierge told me the order is almost ready in five more minutes, then after ten more minutes she told me it’s done just two more minutes, now it’s 11:52 and my order was not ready, then I asked the manager a big guy dressed in black about 45 to 50 years seemed to been having a real bad day looking angry & yelling, so I asked him about my order his reply NOT READY what you want me to do!!! Very unprofessional, unpleasant, looking angry at the whole world, I wanted to reply back with some nasty comments but didn’t want to go down to his level, what a Jerk, needs to go home …
I will never have to deal with the jerk again

Had my company Christmas dinner. Each person could not stop talking about the quality of food and service we received. We had a large group of 20 and at no point did the service ever get effected bu the number of people in our group. The food came out within minutes from the first person to the last. the SERVICE gets 5 stars! FOOD gets 5 stars!!! Live Entertainment 5 Stars!!! i would rate this visit 10 stars if i could.
Thank you Darya for the best company party yet!!!

I love Middle Eastern food but this place takes the prize over all others. Mmm… I could eat this all day and be happy. The salad, hummus & the mushroom appetizer had a light lemony dressing. The chicken was perfectly cooked and extra juicy. I can’t remember how many different rices they had available (a lot) and I’m glad we upgraded ours from plain to one mixed with meat, veggies & saffron.
The service was very good as well and they had a guy playing live music. I liked this place so much that I forgot my Amex (I tend to do that subconsciously so I can return the next day). Ehhh the traffic sucks… I ordered a new Amex instead.

First time here… Had a luncheon with girlfriends to celebrate a bday. Large dining room, very clean, pretty décor. Our waiter was professional, but great sense of humor too. Food was great. Had their Darya salad with Chicken from the lunch menu for $ 13.99. Wasn’t expecting anything special, but I’m telling you, it was delicious. Not exaggerating… It was the moistest, most perfectly cooked chicken I’ve had in a Mediterranean restaurant. Seriously. And the salad was super good too. Dressing was a light lemon vinaigrette. I’ll be coming back to try their dinner menu. And will definately return for that salad again.

I had a major emergency yesterday when my caterer didn’t show up to my son’s baptism.
I called Darya and they were able to make me delicious food for 60 within 40 minutes. The meat was juicy and tasty and the Borani was amazing. I will forever be thankful to the manager and their team at Darya. My guests absolutely loved the food and felt like they lucked out anyway since the other caterer didn’t show up and they got to have Darya. We look forward to coming in and sharing our gratitude with you all soon. Thank you a million times for saving the day for me.

I love coming here to get my Persian food fix. My favorite thing is the fesenjoon. The chicken is cooked perfectly and the flavor of the stew is great. I have also tried their koobideh and although ground beef isn’t my thing, it was good. Customer service here is a lot friendlier than the South Coast location and the bread here is way better. I hope to try the chicken or filet mignon kabob next time!

I ordered:
Appetizer Kashk-​e-​Bademjan
Entrée: Loobia-​Polo with a side of Kabab Koubideh.
Cons:
Host/​hostess stand needs to be attended way more frequently.
Loobia-​polo wasnt what I expected and not too much flavor.
Pros:
Very good service and friendly staff.
Good Kashke-​Bademjan, very good kabab koobide, and rich dough!
Live music (guitar) on Fri. & Sat. Nights.
All in all, I give them a 4 star and will definitely go back again!

Daria is a somewhat upscale Persian restaurant. The place looks a little dated since the last time I was there. We got seated in a small uncomfortable table. Ordered an appetizer which is the mushrooms with jumbo shrimp. This is delicious by the way $ 14.99 well worth it. My brother and I both got the #1 dinner special has filet mignon chicken and fish. We decided instead of fish to get double chicken. The chicken was delicious so moist the flavor is just amazing. The filet mignon was a joke a tiny little piece of meat not even sure why they bothered. This plate it’s about $ 33.99 however you will have leftovers. Now why the 3 stars? First we did not get pita bread until I asked for it I don’t understand why every table instatly got it. Next no refills until we where done what’s the point. This is supposed to be I guess upscale with those prices, and they allow screaming kids running around. We could not enjoy the guitar player or the belly dancer. The service was lacking I didn’t feel the waitress who made a guest appearance at the end deserved any kind of tip. Food is great just don’t waste your money on the filet. Service really sucked!

Simply delicious. Great customer service. You will almost always leave with leftovers. Big plates is always great.

This place is a gem. Twice, I have ended up here because I tried to go to the Japanese place nearby and I couldn’t get in. So I walked across the parking lot and went to Darya. I think God was directing me because both times I had a much better experience than I would have had otherwise.
The service is EXCELLENT. No other way to describe it. Just excellent.
The food is excellent too. One of my favorite items on the menu is the Persian black tea which is super strong. It’s basically like drinking an espresso shot. They serve it with sugar lumps, in a cool glass with a spoon. Something about it is just really chic.
I took a friend of mine who is a picky foodie, and she was very impressed as well. She had so many good things to say. When I’m in Orange County again I will make a point to go back.

Really, really good Persian food. Particularly the kabobs. But since I stopped eating meat, I was worried about coming here and not having anything to eat. Which isn’t the case at all.
They have a few vegetarian options. The one I would recommend above all is the Borani, which is eggplant with yogurt, carmelized onions, and garlic. It was so full of flavor, from savory, to even a bit of sweetness. The other vegetarian options they have are of course, rice. Which is basically any of their rice dishes they would serve normally, but without meat. And I’ve tried all of their rices before and they’re all good.
If you come here on the weekend for dinner, there is always live music, often it’s this really good guitar player. And there’s also bellydancing.
The only thing that sucks about this place, and I mean sucks, is that the service is a hit or a miss. Often, with your dining experience, it’s both. As in, at first they’re really attentive, IE, filling up your water, bringing out your appetizers and bread quickly. But if you ask for anything extra to be brought to your table, like a refill of the bread or some onions, I assure you that it won’t be brought to you at all, or until you’re halfway done with your meal. And often, you’ll have to ask more than once.
But overall, the food is delicious, and if you don’t eat meat, don’t worry, there are options for you as well as opposed to the typical Persian kabob.

I was here years ago and food was good then and it is still as good. The ‘Darya Salad’ is a must have if you like salads. It has greens, beans, raisins, dates, walnuts. It’s a good on its own.
I got that with Lamb Kabob it was really good. They also make the bread inhouse which was great. It’s a little pricy which is why it gets ⁴⁄₅ but it’s certainly worth it.

Came here twice and the most recent visit was to celebrate a friend’s birthday. We were a party of 12. Was seated right away. It was a Saturday afternoon and it was not crowded.
Since its the weekend, there’s no lunch special and the menu offered are dinner prices. We were not told in advanced so I was looking for beef on the lunch menu and did not find any. Anyways I asked our helpful server and mystery solved
I got the lentil soup, it’s perfectly cooked with just the right taste of lemon n spices. The sirloin kebab with saffron and berries rice and ordered their favorite chicken kebab with rice. The rice was soft, fluffy and vey tasty. A bit tardy because of the berries but still very delicious. It’s a bit on the pricey part but good eats!!!

Filet mignon kabob was pretty good, but very pricy.
I coulda had a delish rib eye steak for that price!
The hummus wasn’t all that great, kinda mushy and I paid extra for that, where at other places it’s freeeeeeeee… I felt like we had to give CPR to the hummus to revive it. Rice was OK, but how could someone mess up rice? The complimentary flatbread i.e. pita bread that was thrown at our table was kinda cold and tasted blaaaa… with butter was nothing special.
They were a little slow at filling the drinks in between our conversations with friends. It’s hard to eat when you have dry mouth.
Sometimes it felt like they were happy to come by and assist us and other times, it felt like we had intruded on their ongoing conversations that they were having.
Nice old style restaurant, but it could use a facelift to spruce up the place.

Great food and good, but relaxing service. This was Valentine’s Day and they were on top of their game! Servers were all very accomodating and friendly.
Lamb chops were perfect. Their homemade Doug and hot cardamon tea were awesome!
We loved it! Their food is consistently great. We have been coming to Darya for over 25 years! Best Persian food in Orange County!

A long time ago, tween Sally walked into her Hatam restaurant in Anaheim and never looked backed. Never did I optionally attempt to find an alternative restaurant to my favorite Persian place.
But, one Saturday night, I was invited to a baby shower event here. Despite the food being catered, it had me intrigued for more.
I was part of quite a large group, and we were led to a room on the left, filled with tables yet somehow feeling fairly spacious. The room itself was very Middle-​Eastern inspired in terms of décor, but felt very homey.
But hey, reviews are almost all about the food right? Since I can’t speak for the prices nor the service, I claim 4 stars in the name of the food.
Appetizers: yogurt salad (maust khiar), Kashk-​E-​Bademjan, hummus and olivieh. Deliciousness all around, and dare I say the best olivieh I’ve had to date? There. I sad it. The baba ghanoush is definitely worth ordering as well.
Darya salad — I could have eaten a whole bowl of this! Who would have that a Mediterranean salad with dates lentils, and other random veggies would be good? Amazing.
Both beef and chicken koobideh are juicy, flavorful and delicious. I could have gone with a tad more spice on the chicken kabob though.
Tried the 3 stews — all okay but not particularly amazing.
Both the white rice and baghali polo were fluffy and soft and clearly fresh.
Overall, great gem in Orange and would hands down come back if I were in the area.

I actually think this place deserves 3 & ½ stars. Parking is super easy, interior is a bit upscaled look but old. I visited here for lunch, soon it was crowded with people. I wish they have a proper lighting instead of letting natural light only through windows.
Service is good, waiters are attentive. I ordered half barberry steamed rice, salad and boiled chicken. The chicken seemed like a greasier version of korean chicken soup (Sam gye tang), I like the tenderness and a big chunk of tomato. (A small breast and drumstick is one portion) salad is not fresh, too soaked in oil. Rice was buttered. But loved the tanginess of those berries.
Chicken shish kebob served a bit burnt, one skewer is definitely not enough portion at all.
They give you A LOT of RICE, seriously a lot of those filler! Complementary fried flat bread with butter is nothing special.