Kabob Cafe

Food is really good, I recommend anyone to check out this place.

Hopped over to Kabob Café in Sterling for lunch. They have a nice mix of Kabobs and more traditional sit down Afghan food. There is very little décor, and you order at a counter and then go back to the counter to pick up your food.
I had Mantu (meat and potato dumplings in yogurt sauce with lentils) and Qabuli Palau (stewed lamb in rice with carrots and raisins on top) and that came with one side and naan bread. For my side I chose sauteed spinach. The lamb was mostly bone; but that made the bits of meat I got extra-​delicious. The rice, carrots, raisins, and spinach were all delicious. The mantu were exceptionally subtle and delicious.
My friends had something that looked like gyro meat on naan; and the other had kabob with rice; both were good though less remarkable.
The bread was very good, and so was the rice. I think the best Kabobs in the area are at Charcoal Kabob in Herndon; but this is a nice alternative for days when the drive into Herndon is not reasonable.
This is not as amazing as the legendary Bamyan was in Herndon a decade ago, but it fills in as a nice source for traditional Afghan food since both Bamyan and now even Silk Road are gone.
Update: Kabob Café is gone now — closed. There is Banti in the same location now — pretty decent neighborhood Indian food… more about that later.

I tried the lamb and my wife had the chicken kabob. Niether were very good. I didn’t like the yogurt sauce, it was too spicy. I couldn’t drench my food like I’m used to doing so it made the meal drier. And the bread was pretty bad too, very dry and brittle.
Save your $, go to Charcoal Kabob in Herndon.

If you could give a place zero or even negative stars, that is what this place would receive. I seriously wish I had read the review below this prior to going.
My initial plan was to get a salad at Chipotle, but with the line being out the door, I decided to divert and head in a different direction. I drove by Kabob Café headed to a Thai place that I have been meaning to try, not even realizing that a Kabob place existed in this particular strip mall. I should have known when I walked in that this was not going to be a good carry out experience.
There was only one table of people eating and when I gave my order the person taking it seemed to lack any enthusiasm for ANYTHING. I figured it would take 5 – 10 minutes for my food to be ready, I was off… it took about 25 minutes for my to go order to be complete. On to the food…
The «Naan» appears to be from the grocery store, its round and obviously not prepared on site. One half of the «Naan» was burned and the flavor of the entire piece was so incredibly dry that I didnt even bother eating it (DAMN IT, I love bread.)
The meal came with a chicken kabob, chick peas and a salad. The chicken was almost inedible, it was entirely overly flavored and had a very odd aftertaste (I ate 3 of the 6 chunks of meat.) The salad was the typical «we have an extra hole in the to go container, lets throw something green in it» sort of salad… so basically blah. The chick peas were ok… Im pretty sure they opened a can of Goya Chick Peas, dumped some afghan seasonings on them and threw them next to the salad. The rice, which is usually (at Kabob places, Afghan or otherwise) a delightful fluffy white basmatti rice with maybe some toasted vermicelli noodles), was also inedible. I am not sure what they cook their rice in, but its over flavored. It was fluffy though.
The prices are also completely out of wack here. The chicken kabob was $ 8.35 with tax… no big deal (well it is when you cant even eat it!) Other menu items were astronomical for the product. $ 14.95 for a second kabob? Seriously folks.
I threw everything out. That is how bad it is. Now I am awaiting my safe and easy Chicken Salad sandwich from Corner Bakery that a co-​worker is bringing me. Seriously I want my $ 9 back.

I’ve been meaning to try the kabobs here for a while. I’ve heard mixed things about the place, ranging from It’s Great! to its ok, they make you wait a while. So I had carry out today because I wanted to eat at home and was too tired to cook anything. I ordered the kubideh, it comes with rice, salad, bread and a side, I chose the spinach. They also have lentils, chick peas, squash.
20 minutes later I picked up my food and it was still nice and warm. I was so looking forward to it. So it looks like this place does the kubideh flat first and then rolls the meat into a sausage-​like shape, because it wasn’t like a ground lamb sausage/​meatball that I’m used to at other places. Fair enough. I tasted the meat and it was way too over spiced, had a fair amount of salt and was overloading in all-​spice or something similar. Next the rice, same basmati long grain you find in other kabob places, only this one is cooked in a beef broth or something similar as it is also heavily flavored and a light brown color. Not too bad. The side salad was better than decent. Nothing I hate more than having brown or wilted lettuce, this salad was nice and fresh, had some romaine lettuce, tomatoes and radicchio. The spinach was bad, it looked like it was formerly spinach, because it was pretty much brown… yuck. The bread was decent as well, but it didn’t taste like a nice, thin, pizza-​crust-​fresh-​out-​of-​a brick-​oven bread like other kabob places, it was ok, tasted more bready to me. Their yogurt sauce was good, it green flecks (mint?) and was slightly spicy (jalapeño?).
So I was able to eat the meat if I ate it mixed with lettuce and/​or rice. That way the meats overly strong flavor was muted a little. I will probably not go back, unless every other food establishment is closed.

What can I say, it has great food and great prices. The kabobs are delicious, unlike any other I’ve ever tried, save for this one Turkish restaurant in NYC. I highly recommend this to anyone who would like to eat good food on a budget, and anyone who would like to eat good food without a budjet, and the low prices can be just another one of the perks in addition to the wonderful food.