Afghan Chopan

 

On Tuesday February 14th, when the whole world was celebrating Valentine's day, we were having dinner at my favorite Afghani restaurant-Afghan Chopan. Sadiq Uncle and family invited us and 4 other families for dinner. The main guests of honor were Choti phuppu, Phuppa and Alim. They were visiting us from California. Having dinner with them made the

whole experience all the more memorable.

The food, the ambiance and the afghani servers gave the place a unique afghani feeling. As soon as we entered, we were greeted by a beautiful afghani server with a big smile. She led us to our table. Usually, one has the option of choosing between their booth seating or the platform seating. Since we were a party of 20 people, our tables were already reserved.

I've never been to Afghanistan but being here, one does feel like you are in a different country. The afghani wall decor, the vases, the paintings and the platform seating with cushions etc. makes you feel like you are in Afghanistan.The waterfall on glass at the entrance is also very beautiful and the kids were very fascinated by it.

For the food, we started by ordering the appetizers. The first one was called bolani that came with two different kind of sauces. One was a green sauce while the other was a white sauce with yoghurt as the base in both the sauces. The other appetizers that we ordered were Mantu and Ashak.These were steamed dough dumplings. One was filled with minced beef while the other with spinach and leeks. It was covered with a thick tomato gravy. The main entree was the house special combo which had a mix of all their mouth watering, juicy kabobs. Chicken, lamb and beef served over a bed of fresh crisp garden salad.   

For the rice we had the kabelli pulao which was a chicken pulao garnished with shredded fried carrots and raisins. Then there was the bread or naan all freshly baked. This came with about 3 curry sauces. One was all lentils, one was with eggplant and the other was cauliflower and potato curry. Everything all lightly spiced yet full of flavor.

Initially, we had to wait a little but slowly the server caught pace and had all the food at the table. There was so much to choose from. We all ate and ate and a few minutes later the server got the dessert. It was a falooda kind of dessert. It wasn't too sweet. Just about right. One brick of falooda was served with 5 dessert spoons. So 5 people ate off the same plate. Less dishes to wash. 

Afghan Chopan is located in Surrey, BC Canada. They have a  website which has all the details about their food, prices and the like. If you want to try out something new, something yummy, then this is definitely one place to try out. I will definitely be going back.