Ariana, translates in English to mean Excellent and we had a stupendous experience eating our meal with them. Its been almost three years in Seattle and we never knew about this restaurant existed in our vicinity. We came to know about this restaurant from a friend who was visiting us from India. She had visited Ariana during her last trip to Seattle and had been craving for their special Green Tea (Sheer-Chai) since then.
Table with a view:
So last week, on Thursday we visited Ariana along with our friend. Ariana is located in Kirkland near Waterfront. When we entered the restaurant it was around 8.30 pm in the evening, and since it was a weekday it was kinda thinly populated. We were greeted with a wonderful smile from the host and he showed us, to our table from where we had this good view of the Kirkland Waterfront.
Exploring Afghan cuisine
Then we got the Menus, we were happy to see a lot of vegetarian dishes since we are vegetarian. We had this perception that there would be less options for vegetarians but then the menu just made us happy and our tummy, very hungry 🙂
We started our meal by ordering Sheer-Chai, a special green tea with milk that was brewed with spices and stirred between two pots multiple times until it develops the color of pink and no food color was added in the process. I must say the Chai is a bit on the sweeter side, for people who are not used to sweetened Chai. Sheer-Chai was aromatic, appetizing and piquant.
For Appetizer we ordered their house special on that day which was a dish made of Pumpkin topped with garlic-yogurt, served with fresh warm Afghan Naan(Bread).The bread was fresh and soft, which was baked in Tandoor. The pumpkin cooked fully was soft and flavorful. This was topped with garlic-yogurt which made the dish juicy and luscious. So you would basically take a piece of Naan and dip it with a good amount of the Pumpkin and savor it.
Then we ordered 2 entrees one from the Vegetarian Delight section in their menu and one was custom made since my husband wished to have a Veg Biryani. We couldn’t find Veg Biryani on the menu and when we asked, were there any Biryani options, the host was sweet and offered to custom make it for us.
The entree what we ordered from the vegetarian Delight section was Qurma Tarkari, seasonal vegetables cooked in a sauce with Turmeric, Dill and Cumin. All the entrees were served with an Afghan side Salata and Saffron White Rice. If you don’t like rice you can always take Naan(bread) instead of Rice. Salata is a salad made of Onion,Cucumber,Tomato and Coriander.
Both the entrees were exorbitantly flavorful.The rice in the Biryani was cooked just right, it was soft, flavorful.There wasn’t a lot of overpowering Masala. All spices rendered in the right amount made the Biryani one of the bests, I have ever tasted in my life.
Qurma Tarkari was full of vegetables with the sauce bringing the tanginess and the spice to the curry. Salata brought the freshness to the dish. The rice again was cooked perfect and was very flavorful.
So all in all, the dishes were just extremely sapid. And the portion sizes were good too.The food was so very filling that we skipped Dessert for our next food trip to Ariana again.
Why try food at Ariana?
Ambiance of the restaurant was cultural and elegant. Loved the view of the Kirkland Waterfront from the restaurant which you can enjoy while eating your food.
Food was delectable.
Food price, it was little pricey but then it did not bother us much, after such a delicious meal.
I am certain that we will be back for more of what Ariana has to offer and for people who want to try and explore new cuisines, Ariana would be the next choice.
Enjoy!
Happy Eating!
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