Iranian Restaurants

One word covers this list, and two completely different evenings sit behind it: a grill counter where you order at the till and are out in twenty minutes, and a dining room with a booked table and a bill at the end of the night. What follows is the part the list cannot show you: the food, and how to order it so what arrives is what you meant.

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A grill counter or a dining room

The difference is not the food, it is the shape of the evening. Counters are fast and built for lunch and for taking food home; dining rooms are built for staying, with starters, tea afterwards and space for a family table. Nothing on this list marks which is which, because the category has no subcategories and they all queue up together. The profile photos settle most of it, and one question on the phone settles the rest: do they take bookings at all. "We do not take bookings" is itself a complete answer.

The kababs, and what actually separates them

Menus list the names and assume you know which is which:

• Koobideh: minced meat pressed onto a flat skewer. The fat in the mix makes that soft texture, so a koobideh that comes out dry and crumbly was either made lean or reheated. Beef, lamb or a blend changes from kitchen to kitchen, and the menu rarely says.
• Barg: a fillet, flattened and marinated in onion and saffron. Leaner, pricier and more delicate than koobideh, and thin enough that a few extra seconds over the fire dry it out.
• Joojeh: chicken, either saffron marinated and yellow or tomato and lemon marinated and red. Bone in or off the bone matters more than the colour: on the bone stays juicier, boneless dries faster, and the menu usually does not say.
• Soltani: one skewer of koobideh and one of barg together. The top line on most menus, and more a decision about size than about flavour.
• The mixed plate: every kitchen defines it its own way. Most build it for two, and it works out cheaper than the same skewers ordered separately, though "mixed" for one sometimes means smaller skewers.

Two things nobody explains: the sumac in the small pot is for sprinkling over the rice and the meat, and the grilled tomato is meant to be crushed with a fork and eaten into it.

Rice: chelo beside the dish, polo cooked with it, and tahdig you have to ask for

Chelo is plain steamed white rice served alongside, so chelo kabab is skewers with a plate of plain rice next to them. Polo means the rice was cooked with something else and is the dish itself: baghali polo with dill and broad beans, usually with lamb shank; zereshk polo with barberries, almost always chicken; adas polo with lentils; shirin polo, sweet with orange peel and almond. If the menu says polo, do not order rice as well.

Tahdig, the crisp layer from the bottom of the pot, does not arrive by itself. Ask for it when you order rather than at the end, because there is one bottom to each pot and it goes. In many places it is a line of its own at its own price, sometimes served as a starter with gheymeh or kashk over it. Rice, potato and bread tahdig are three different things, so ask which one they make.

The stews, and which one to try first

Stews go on in the morning and are cooked for the day, so arriving late can mean one has run out. Three turn up almost everywhere:

• Gheymeh: yellow split peas, tomato and dried lime, with fine fried potato on top. The mildest, and the best first stew for anyone who has never eaten one.
• Ghormeh sabzi: fried herbs, beans and lamb, dark and sour. That particular sourness comes from dried lime. If you are trying one dish to find out how this kitchen cooks, it is this one.
• Fesenjan: ground walnuts and pomegranate molasses, thick and dark, usually with chicken. Whether it lands sweet or sour is the cook's own preference and varies genuinely from place to place, so ask which way theirs goes.

That is also a good order to meet them in, and a stew is spooned onto the rice a little at a time rather than poured over the plate.

Ash and soup to start, and dizi, which is a meal in itself

Ash-e reshteh, with noodles, herbs, beans and kashk drizzled over it, is a good opener but not a light one: a bowl each before kababs is too much, one or two for the table plenty. Barley soup is milder and is what German-facing menus put in the starter column. Kashk is dairy, so ask for it left off if you avoid dairy.

Dizi, also called abgoosht, arrives in its own stone pot with a masher, an empty bowl and bread. The way it is eaten is part of the dish: the broth goes into the bowl with bread torn into it and that is eaten first, then the meat, chickpeas, beans and potato are mashed and eaten with bread, raw onion and pickles. Say if it is your first time, since the order varies from place to place and nobody minds explaining. And because dizi takes hours, many kitchens make it only on set days, some only at lunch. Ask which day before you set off.

Drinks: doogh, sharbat, and the tea that comes afterwards

• Doogh is a yoghurt drink, salted rather than sweet, sometimes fizzy, sometimes with mint. House-made and bottled are not the same drink, so ask which they pour.
• Sharbat covers the cold sweet ones: sekanjabin, sour cherry, orange blossom, and is the usual fallback if doogh turns out not to be for you.
• Tea comes after the meal rather than with it, in a small glass with rock sugar. Some places bring it as a courtesy, some put it on the bill.
• Water does not appear on the table by itself in Germany: you order it bottled, it costs money, and you will be asked still or sparkling.
• Alcohol varies. Some of these restaurants pour beer and wine, others serve none at all, and neither is unusual, so if it makes a difference to the evening you are planning, ask when you book.

Portions, and why sharing is the normal way here

Portions are large. A kabab plate with its rice is a full meal, and for most people one extra starter on top is already too much. The starters are not built for one person either: mast-o-khiar, salad shirazi, kashk-e bademjan and mirza ghasemi come to the middle of the table for everybody to pick at, so order two or three for the table rather than one each. A half portion for a child, a box for what is left, or one extra skewer instead of a whole second plate are all normal things to ask for. Dessert lists tend to be short, and Persian ice cream and faloodeh are more reliably found in cafés and sweet shops.

What to ask when you call

• Which days dizi is cooked, if dizi is why you are going.
• Whether there is tahdig tonight, and whether they can hold some for your order.
• Which stews went on today, and how late they will last.
• What is on the mixed plate tonight, and whether it is built for one or for two.
• Whether the joojeh is on the bone or off it.
• Whether you order at the table or at the till, and, if it matters to you, whether they serve alcohol.
• YabInfy checks none of this, so ask for it yourself, and ask to see the document where it matters.

Choosing from this list

Every review here is a report from one night, not a verdict on a kitchen. Kitchens have bad nights: a full room, a skewer left on too long, the one person who cooks that dish properly off sick. A run of recent reviews tells you more than any single one, and if the last few all catch on the same detail, that is not bad luck. A five year old review, however glowing, may describe a place that kept nothing but its sign, because these businesses change hands and the kitchen changes with the owner. Read the dates first, the stars second.

YabInfy never discloses who opened a page, who looked at a number or who called: we do not display it, and the owner of the restaurant does not see it either. The one thing that stays public is the review you choose to write, under the name you choose for yourself. Each restaurant's number sits behind "Show contact details" and puts you through to the place directly.

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