Naan & Kabob

You know how once you have your first hit of coke, you spend the rest of your addiction trying to get to that first high again?
I haven’t done coke before, but that basically describes my experience with Middle Eastern food.
I gladly gave my kabab virginity to Tarbouch back in February, and since it was such an incredible lover, I’ve only been varying degrees of disappointed with others ever since.
The flavor of that combination of chicken, rice, chickpeas, and naan had been haunting my dreams lately, so I decided to hit up Naan & Kabob because it’s closer to my office than Ravi. I went to the cart, put my order in, and waited for about 10 minutes. Somewhere in there, they ran out of chickpeas (which were free yesterday as a part of a lunch special), but when the man saw me frown, he assured me that was going to get «the last bit.» Thank the Lord. I hates to go without my chickpeas.
I had to make it a working lunch, so I noshed on the chicken, etc at my desk. The chicken was pretty juicy and tender, and the rice (ABUNDANT rice – I don’t know if he looked at me and thought, «Hmm, she needs carbs. Bad.» But he piled in on like it was going to be my last meal. Not a complaint; I’m touched by his generosity.) was nice and fluffy, just the way I like it. The meal also comes with salad, which was okay (the creamy dressing was good). My only complaints were that the naan was unlike any I’d had before: limp, wheat, and had sesame seeds. Maybe that’s normal, but I hadn’t had it before, and I didn’t like it too much. And the chickpeas were kind of bland, which is amazing given that that’s normally the spiciest, most [pleasantly] painful part of the meal for me. I also noticed that a generous dash of cumin had been springled on everything, which made the dish smell delicious and taste good, but not extraordinary.
So, in conclusion, I will probably hit up Naan & Kabob again when I’m feeling the need for chicken kabob and I’m too lazy to walk to Ravi. But I’ll be fully conscious of what I’m getting. And I’ll call ahead to avoid that semi-​awkward wait outside of the stand.

I just started a new job near the Ballston Metro and as I wandered around at lunch to check out the neighborhood, I came across this neat little cart. I’ve been there twice now, and my experience was definitely different than the previous reviewer’s.
I will agree that the naan was disappointing – thin, a little tough, and overall not very impressive. Otherwise I was completely happy with the meals I’ve had. I had the lamb kabob the first time, and the kobeeda (spiced ground beef) the second. Both times, I found the meat full of flavor and not at all bland. I’m not terribly picky about my rice, and I did lace it with the tasty green sauce that was provided, but I’ve definitely had worse. I also give my thumbs-​up on the salad and the baklava, the latter of which was flaky, honey-​soaked, and delicious, as baklava should be.
The service was friendly, I got my food in a reasonable amount of time (about 5 min for the beef and 7 – 10 for the lamb), and I had a seat on a park bench nearby to enjoy my meals. The second time I was there, it happened to be a Friday and the Ballston Farmer’s Market was going on, providing lots of people-​watching and a live guitarist/​singer.
I’m definitely going to make this a regular lunch stop when I’m not brown bagging it at work. Especially handy, you can call ahead with your order to cut down on your wait time during peak lunch hour. I’d recommend giving it a try – maybe the previous reviewer caught him on a bad day, or his recipes have improved since then!

:(Sad. I hate giving out 2 stars, but sometimes you just need to.
So I really like the concept of food carts… no building rental costs for the owners, no having to pay tip for me… so I am pretty sad that the food is not all that here, especially after what the last reviewer said! Double :(:(
I actually saw this place when I went to eat at Potbelly’s and I was super excited to try it because I really like kabobs… but I really like rice even more!
The good: The yogurt sauce on the salad is very good. I wouldn’t mind eating a whole salad with the sauce.
The bad: NO TASTE for everything else! I got the chicken kabobs. The whole meal comes with whatever meat you get (chicken, lamb, or the seasoned ground beef), rice, salad, side dressing, and «naan». The «naan» is really just afghan bread that you can buy at the store. I’m so used to having juicy kabobs with a ton of flavor and rice that I wish I had buckets full of because it’s so good.
This place… not so good! I had to add the little salt packet that comes with your plasticware set because everything was so bland. The rice had no flavor and neither did the chicken. I went with another friend and we were both sad at the state of our lunch. I wanted to head straight to kabob palace afterwards just to get some make up kabobs that actually had some flavor in them!!!
The idea is great… the guy has a little grill in the truck and grills up the meat on the metal skewer as soon as you place your order. Everything looks and smells really good. But what happened to all the spices and the taste?! Maybe they didn’t make it onto the cart with the rest of the ingredients.
The price of the meal was $ 7.99 for the chicken. I think the other prices were $ 8.99 for the lamb and ground beef. You could also get combos for a bit more.
Also, no place to sit unless you sit at Potbelly’s like we did.
I would not come back here, especially since there are so many other much more worthy places to eat. I would much rather save my money for the pizza cart about 10 steps away.

I visit VA once in a great while for business and pleasure but now, I think I will be going there for the pleasure aspect more often! I have just discoved the BEST Afghan food… AND it’s served from a street vendor cart! The food is always fresh and so delicious, it could almost come from my mom’s kitchen!
Not only is it excellent food, it is so clean! A street vendor may not be your first choice in dining but this place is very sanitary!
I have tried the lamb, chicken and beef kabobs and they are so moist and tender, you would think they were slow roasted for hours! The naan (Afghan bread) is very delicious… it is the perfect partner for the kabobs! They also serve a very delicious chutney as a side sauce… it’s so yummy, I could put it on everything I eat!
The young couple that own this cart are super friendly! They chat while getting your food ready and they are really down to earth. Take my advice… for a quick lunch pick-​up that offers a powerful punch of quality and taste, visit the Naan and Kabob cart near the Metro… you will fall in love with Afghan food after trying their menu!

This is a street vendor and while ordering out of a cart might sound bad, the reality is, this is the best Afgan food I have ever eaten.
Let’s put it this way… I have never written a food review in my life and yet I started a Unilocal account and began filling this out WHILE STILL EATING the lamb kabob.
On top of the AMAZING food. The man and woman who work the cart are unbelievably friendly, and decided to give me a free drink because I tipped a dollar!
It seems as though they just started the restaurant business and will someday have a high class middle eastern restaurant (based on the quality of food and service), but until then, I suggest grabbing some delicious, and highly discounted, Afgan food.