Anar Restaurant

Amazing food with an even more amazing staff!
I absolutely love it here and it’s the perfect place to come with friends or even for a date night

Great restaurant! It was about a mile trek from my hotel and it was worth every step. The ambiance was nice and cozy, the staff was polite and attentive, and the food was amazing! I shared the koobideh with a buddy and we both left super full. The koobideh was the juiciest I have had, ever! It was a little oversalted but undersalting food is more of a crime to me so I let it pass. My friend thought the rice was greasy and/​or watery but I didn’t get that impression. Would come back again!

This is a great restaurant. I’ve tried Persian food many times and liked it, but never been blown away. This place definitely changed my mind. Not only was the food great, but the prices were totally reasonable. That’s not something you come to expect living in San Francisco. I went on a Thursday evening for dinner and the place was pretty empty… hopefully it was just an off-​night because this restaurant deserves more.
The only suggestion I have would be to add better (not necessarily more) beer to the menu. When the best choice is Pacifico, we’ve got a problem.

Delicious family owned Iranian restaurant. Went there with a few Iranian friends and they even said it was amazing! I got the veggie kabob. It was massive! Definitely enough to share. Also loved all the dips and appetizers. Check this place out!

We ordered kashk-​e-​bademjoon as appetizer, koobideh as the main dish and tea with baklava as dessert. All were delicious. The saffron on rice was mixed with rose water that gave more aroma to it however my wife likes saffron by itself. I highly recommend this place if you want to eat a good quality Persian food.

Kinda just strolled in here because it was near my office. Wasn’t expecting to be taken on a magic carpet ride.
The Kashk E Bademjan (roasted eggplant dip) was amazing. They serve it with these flatbread pita things which almost look like little magic carpets (throwing in another Aladdin reference.). The dip has the perfect balance of chunkiness, eggplantiness, mint and onion — along with the hint of yogurt.
The Koobideh (lamb kebab) was spiced perfectly. I really love the gamey flavor of lamb and they added just the perfect amount of Persian to the ground lamb. I ended up eating it with the magic carpet pitabread and salad.
Fesenjan — this was definitely the most interesting dish we had. The sauce was full of pomegranate flavor with undertones of walnut. I’ve never quite had something like that before with chicken and it was pretty eye-​opening. Could possibly one of those love it or hate it kind of dishes. I was on the love it side for sure.
The whole place also had a family-​run kind of feel to it — which lent just the right amount of coziness and charm to the restaurant.

Lovely Iranian restaurant tucked away. We almost missed it walking past.
Saturday evening, we arrived as a table of four, but we hardly needed a reservation. Plenty of empty tables around (for now!). Great combination of vegetarian and non-​vegetarian options. I ordered the Joojeh (chicken breast) with bread. Very generous portions including much more rice than I could eat.
My dining companions ordered a mix of vegetarian and meat dishes, mains and soups. Everyone was quite pleased with the feast before us. The staff was also courteous, prompt, and competent.

I have been to this restaurant several times. The food is decent though a bit pricy. The yogurt soda in particular is way overpriced, $ 4??? C’mn…
The staff was very courteous and service was prompt. One thing that I couldn’t understand was that they won’t even provide the basic bread and butter that all Persian restaurants provide, and the only one time that they did, the bread was cold and just out of the plastic. Some Persian restaurants even offer herbs and feta cheese for free. All in all, I had a good experience, but I hope the owners take these very basic issues seriously and address them.

Perfect Persian food in SF, I live in LA and in my city we have a lot of good Persian food but this place served top rated Persian food and I recomend this restaurant for Persian food

Anar is wonderful! I’m vegan and there were a couple different options for me which is always nice. I went with the veggie kebab and it was delicious. My carnivore boyfriend had the lamb stew and loved it as well. We split the hummus appetizer and each had a glass of wine and still only paid about $ 60. The décor is warm and inviting and the staff is very friendly. We will definitely be back!

I don’t like «smoked» food, and I don’t like eggplant, but the smoked eggplant dish (Mirza Ghassemi) might be the most delicious appetizer I’ve had in all of san francisco. All I wanted after we finished it was another order of the same.
Don’t even get me started on the staff. Welcoming, helpful, and patient. This place is really, really, really great.

Great food. Very friendly staff. Easy parking
Excellent Desert
Try Tea with free refill

(Review from 1 month ago)
This place is a gem! Who would have known this little place was hiding in SoMa.
First of all, the interior décor is very elegant and cozy at the same time. The employees were very friendly and helpful. We got the fesenjan and the boneless chicken joojeh with a side of rice and salad (and it came with a roasted Roma/​plum tomato – couldn’t tell which one). The fesenjan was a very interesting dish – it’s chicken in a pomegranate sauce. It was a bit tart while also being savory. Definitely want to eat it atop some rice because the flavor is strong and there isn’t much texture (in fact, I think having some texture in/​on the dish would make it even better). The chicken joojeh – oh, so good! It was strange how grilled marinated chicken could taste so flavorful and buttery, but it was definitely a crowd favorite. And paired with the roasted tomato on the side – Mmm.
I definitely plan to come back in the near future to try something new here! Worth a try if you want to taste something new!

I have been to this place at least twice a month in the past year and would even give it more than 5 stars. The ambiance is super peaceful, cozy and artistically decorated. The food they serve is the authentic Persian food. The appetizers are all very delicious specially the dolmeh is to die for. You should definitely try them. The kebabs are all great.
If you don’t like lamb or even are sensitive to its smell, don’t get the koobideh. For me, it tastes tender and great, but a friend didn’t like it.
Anar is a family business and the owners are always present, super friendly and accommodating. I love, love Anar

I had heard this place was good, but it exceeded my expectations.
PROS
— The food was delicious, and portions were not as small as you might expect.
— I expected the steak to be tough, but it was so tender I could cut it with my fork.
CONS
— The hummus was meh.
TIPS
— The lamb might be the best I’ve ever had.

This is my kind of place — the owners are on-​site and they care about your experience. The food is good, the wine is acceptable. My friends won’t always go out to eat with me because they consider me too adventurous for their taste. But I just think I like new and interesting stuff. So this place is Persian (you can call it Iranian, but Persian is a lot more romantic) and the dishes are traditional Persian fare. Everything I tried was good.
I take a passing interest in restaurant design and I’m always impressed when someone can make a shoebox look good. The owners did their own interior design here, with the sister doing the artwork, and it came out with a very nice feel. Friendly & attentive service.

Just moved to SF and was on the hunt for a Persian food place so I stumbled upon Anar. Unlike many other Iranian food spots, Anar has a lot more diversity on their menu rather than just kabobs (a lot more home made Iranian dishes) which I really appreciated. Prices were good and the portions were large. Service was great as well. We had the kashk-​e-​bademjoon to start, and then the koobideh and fesenjan for our entrees. The fesenjan wasn’t as sweet as I typically like but still enjoyed it and the other dishes as well. Also their house made dough is great! I will be back to try their other dishes.

The food here is good. We ordered the koobideh with joojeh kabob, hummus, and soltani. The koobideh was juicy and the hummus was awesome. In general, the texture was perfect. The service here was attentive and friendly. The ladies who took care of our order were great.
The location of this restaurant seems to be in a shady part of town. As we turned the corner, I felt a little uncomfortable. The outside area is a contrast to the interior of the restaurant. The inside of the restaurant is chic and clean.

While the area surrounding anar might take you aback, this place is definitely the adventurous treat.
Service was impeccable and the kebab Koobideh was amazing. The meat had the perfect balance between beef and lamb. I’d suggest a mixture of half salad and half rice.
Service was also very friendly. Each of the four servers checked in on our table to make sure everything was great.
Happy foodie adventure!
Tip: order the über while you’re inside the restaurant.

Un très bon restaurant iranien. Si vous avez envie de manger avec des couvercles un bon plat cuisiné et vous isoler du centre ville c’est ici qu’il faut aller.
J’ai mangé un très bon et copieux kubideh/​jujeh kabab. Accueil charmant et souriant. Ambiance feutré et sobre. J’ai adoré la musique persanne.

Holy smokes! I don’t know how to say that in Farsi, but I’m in Sunday’s San Francisco Chonicle (
). Based on their suggestion, this is the place where they photographed me for the article because I had a nice dining experience here the week before, and fortunately I was able to get the same high quality of Persian food this time. I first noticed this place when I was taking the MUNI 12-​line but really got motivated to try it when a friend of Jamie W.‘s and a fellow Unilocaler, wrote that it was the «BEST Persian food in SF right now» (armand d. — here’s his helpful review:
). That was enough of an endorsement for me, so Jamie and I gave it a go last week.
Well, it’s not in a great location unless, I assume, you happen to be coming at… I mean coming to Blow Buddies or the End Up. It’s on the speedway block of Harrison between 5^th and 6^th where all the Bay Bridge traffic pours into the city. Once you enter, it’s a modestly decorated place, and you are greeted by one or both of the lovely young women who manage the front of the house. Persian cuisine is not well represented in the city, which is a shame since it has a lot in common with Turkish, Greek and Indian food. Most everything sounded tempting on the menu, so we started with the $ 7 plate of Dolmeh (Leaf), similar to Greek dolmas in the use of ground beef, rice and grape leaves but different in the use of split peas, herbs and a pomegranate seed garnish (photo:
). Delicious mouthfuls. We then shared two entrees.
The first was the $ 15 Loobia-​Polo, a basmati saffron rice plate with chunks of beef, green beans and all sorts of spices (photo:
). The second was our favorite, the $ 12 Kabab Koobideh, savory skewers of Persian minced meat kabab made from ground lamb and beef mixed with saffron seasoning, parsley, and chopped onions. It comes with lots of rice which put us on official grain overload (photo:
). The last dish was actually an accident. It was the $ 12 Dolmeh (Belly Pepper) (photo:
) which the server had thought was the other dolmeh dish. When we pointed out that this was the one we wanted, she immediately had the chef make one for us free of charge even though we naively thought the first dolmeh leaves were complimentary. The belly pepper turned out to be a better stuffed vegetable, but by that point, we were completely stuffed.
I was so pleased with the home-​style dishes that when the Chronicle asked me to identify a place to be photographed for their story on Unilocal Elites, I told them to meet me there the following Wednesday. With my friend Stephanie, we ordered the $ 6 Naan Panir Sabzi, a cornucopia of pita with fresh scallions, mint and basil leaves and blocks of feta cheese (photo:
), but the highlight turned out to be the $ 17 Fesenjan, a chicken stew with ground walnut in a sweet-​and-​sour pomegranate sauce (photo:
). It was like a Persian version of butter chicken. I even tried a $ 3 glass of Doogh, a salty yogurt-​based drink that I just couldn’t warm up to. Service was more variable this time as the restaurant was hopping that night. Hopefully they will find their footing over time.
FOOD — 4 stars… satisfying home-​style Persian dishes appear authentic and are quite flavorful
AMBIANCE — 3.5 stars… comfortable space for groups in a ‘hood that’s rather challenging
SERVICE — 3.5 stars… attentive service on my first visit… though my second visit saw an increasingly busy operation flail a bit more with long stretches of absence
TOTAL — 4 stars… still a very worthwhile spot to try for authentic Persian food… I think they’ll improve their rhythm over time