Caspian Grill

What a pleasant surprise!
First glance from the outside I was hesitant and now I’ll definitely go back.
Delicious food. Ate there last night and really enjoyed the smoked eggplant dish (I’m veggie). My dad and his wife ordered Cornish hen and lamb chops and both looked amazing! Said Cornish hen was as good as it looked.
Nice staff and very informed. Said eggplant and Cornish hen are true to the Caspian Sea region.
Also tried a vegan stew that I enjoyed more than the meat eaters did.
Tasted tea after dinner and at least for me it gave me a boost of a energy a little late in the night but glad I gave it a try.

Quality and authentic Persian and Mediterranean cuisine! This place is absolutely delicious!

A follow up to my large take-​out review with an in-​store experience. Took my Persian dad and other family for dinner on Father’s Day weekend and we were consistently blown away by the quality of the food. Hands down the best Persian food in central Texas. Service was friendly but just ok, but who cares with Persian food like this… everything from the kabobs to the khoresh dishes were as good as anything we can make at home. We got a glance into the kitchen and saw two Persian women in the kitchen… that probably explains why the food is so damned good. Highly recommend.

Wow, what a great find! It’s almost easy to pass by this place, it’s located in the corner of an «L» shaped strip mall. However, if you *can* find it, it’s well worth the stop.
There’s a lot of beautiful tile work and pictures inside, and the atmosphere is comfortable and relaxing. Our server was incredibly attentive, as well. We settled on the Makh-​soos (Chicken & Ground Beef Kabob Combo) for me, and my man got the Lamb Shank. I thought my meal was delicious, but his meal stole the show. That was the most tender, moist, fall-​apart lamb I’ve ever had. I may have formed a lamb addiction after one bite.
We were there the weekend of the Persian New Year, so they were decorating the place for the following day’s festivities — the centerpieces were beautiful! I’m sure the party was excellent. We look forward to stopping by again for that lamb shank!

Great food and service. Owner was very nice and the portions were huge. We probably took an entire meal home in leftovers. They are talking about adding entertainment, which would fun. We will definitely go back. I had pomegranate stew and my husband had lame shank.

I decided to check out Caspain Grill today for lunch and what a surpise find for me. I ordered a beef stew with potaoes & my friend ordered a Beef stew with herbs, both were served with a nice salad & fluffy rice. We shared the dishes and both were outstanding. The meat was tender and both had lots of flavor. The restaurant was well decorated, clean and inviting. Our server was excellent and made sure to answer all our questions and checked on us often. I will be returning here! Loved it.

My family decided to check out this little gem of a restaurant on a whim. The staff was very friendly and gave us great recommendations. The lamb chop kebab and beef kebab were both full of flavor. You could tell the cuts of meat were high quality. Rice, vegetables, and roasted tomatoes were great.
The atmosphere is also pretty fun. Will definitely come back, maybe for a birthday or another event.

I would say this is really a 2.5 star experience overall. Although the owners did seem very friendly. The food was very very bland. I got the vegan kebab and it was just terrible. The texture and the flavor that it did have were just severely lacking. Plus I had indigestion from it for probably six hours or more.

This place is a hidden gem indeed! My family and I are hooked! We have tried just about half of the menu already and haven’t been disappointed with anything. Not only are they well flavored and delicious, they are generously portioned as well. My favorites are the eggplant and yogurt appetizer and the Cornish hen. My husband absolutely love their lamb chops. It’s one of those family own places where you know they cook from the heart and soul. The owners themselves always come out to make sure you are happy and satisfied with your food and will go above and beyond to make sure you are.

I have been here several times for lunch and it is always delicious. I usually have the Salmon Salad, but today I tried the Vegan Stew (tofu and lentil). Equally delicious and with the salad and rice you definitely will not go hungry.

Wonderful experience. Many selections to choose from.
We were seated promptly. Attended by very courteous wait staff that answered all of our questions. Soon we were greeted by the owner who was extremely warm and made menu suggestions. I felt like for a moment I was transformed! The hospitality! It reminded me of past travels.
The food was amazing and generously portioned. The smokey eggplant served with fresh mint leaves, (yum!) the yogurt and onions, both delicious! I had the lamb shank that was so tender it fell off the bone. And the dill rice, ahh. I have had this a few other times from Persian friends while growing up in California and it definitely met my expectations; it was delicious. My husband had the beef kabob; it was good too. I look forward to the opportunity to visit them again and try one of their stews. Worth the trip up north.

Thank you Caspian Grill. Last night was my birthday. Last minute I have them a call to order beef kabobs and chicken for my party. As always the staff is very friendly nice and caring. The gentleman took the order on the food and told me to come pick up in approx 20 minutes. I arrived the food was ready all packed up in separate containers and HOTTT!!! The food was mouth watering delicious!!! All my guests enjoyed the food and kept asking me where I got it from. I was proud to say Caspian Grill. Their food is always fresh and delicious. I have had previous bad experiences with other Iranian restaurants nearby in Austin. I just want to give Caspian and their staff 5 Happy Stars!!! You guys go above and beyond always. Thank you. I am a very happy customer always!!! ;)

Great food. We came as a family of five and everyone enjoyed it. We got KB5, very good beef, filet and kabob. Check out this place. Not to far from Krispy Kreme :)

Beef Koobideh and make sure you get some onions with this! For an appetizer the Kashk Bademjan and for desert their baklava. Portions are great, prices fair and service is exceptional. This Team loves what they do and it shows in their food. Have had their lentil soup as well and would certainly recommend.
My Saturday staple for lunch! For you wine drinkers they have a small list for food pairing but wines you’ve likely never heard of in countries that have small to limited production. Worth a recommendation from the staff!

I really hate writing bad reviews when the owners (I’m guessing he was the owner) are nice. But this place was really flavorless. My stew tasted like bland meat with oily melted eggplant. I’ve had Mediterranean and Persian food elsewhere this was just unflavored even without comparing to those other places. I added a ton of pepper to it just to give it something.
My wife asked for no tomatoes, still got tomatoes. My friend got the Cornish hen but didn’t care for it either. None of out party liked the food, except the person who ordered vegan. I asked if it was worth coming back to try it and they said that there were better vegan places to try fake meat.
The bottomless tea and the breadwinner feta and tzatziki were good. If I had just had that, the place would probably get 3 or 4 stars. But there are better Mediterranean and/​or Persian places in town, to be sure.

Looking for somewhere for dinner tonight and decided to try this place out. Definitely made the right choice. I had the Cornish hen and it was so moist and delicious the pomegranate sauce elevated it to a new level. My fiancé had the salmon with the dill rice it was amazing. Everything was perfect including the house made yogurt and cucumber dip with bread. I love the concept of food as medicine. We will be back!

This is probably one of the best Unilocal finds I’ve come across since living in Austin. My coworkers and I came here for lunch and it did not disappoint.
One of my friends growing up was Persian and her mom’s food is the benchmark for any Persian food I eat. This place definitely lived up to that. All of us got the Chicken Lunch Kabob and it was excellent. The chicken was well seasoned and very juicy. Rice was light and fluffy and the salad that came with the entrée was crispy & fresh. The only thing I was disappointed with was the fact we didn’t order any appetizers!
Overall the service was very quick and courteous. While this isn’t fine dining, what you’ll get is good, quick persian that tastes authentic. I definitely will be back and can’t wait to try more of their menu items.

I had a great meal when I came here. I came with a party of 7 so made a reservation, and they were very accommodating (although when I got there I don’t think I even needed to make the reservation because it wasn’t that busy and it was a fairly big place). The staff was friendly, explained their specials, and a few of my friends tried their yogurt drink (which I thought was gross but they seemed to like). I liked my lamb shank, and would recommend it. A few people ordered the pomegranate chicken stew because the pics on Unilocal looked good, but they said it was too sweet and the sauce was pretty thin. So maybe the presentation was better then the taste for that one. Overall, I liked my experience and would come back.

I just kicked myself for not coming here before today. How on earth did I miss out on this place!?! Granted, it is tucked away between a curves and a liquor store on oak knoll, but that’s no excuse! Shame on me!!!
My husband visited this place a couple of days back and kept raving about the food. I see why he did that.
As you all know, Persian food is healthy AF. And for vegetarians such as myself, there’s a ton of pig out options. But what differentiates this place from others is the subtlety of flavors.
We started off with the eggplant appetizer (first thing on the menu) and some Persian tea. The appetizer wasn’t butt fire spicy, it just had a little kick to it with amazing flavor. A lot like babaganouj without the creamy stuff, you know?
Since I’ve never tried a vegan kabob before, we decided to try that. To those of you who are curious– it’s two long strips of soy/​seitan (one of those vegany things) grilled with spice, which sadly included cinnamon, for which I have something against. The plate comes with saffron rice, two kabobs and some salad.
It’s probably enough to feed an army, but hey, that’s just me. There were a couple of other interesting entrees on the menu, but I’ll have to wait until next time to try them out.
Their menu isn’t completely typed up yet– they don’t have liquor and dessert listed. But I did notice a full bar, and a wine rack.
I am not sure why this place was empty, though. The service was good, it’s clean, the food is excellent — could it be their location? I’m not here to over analyze that, though. I’m just saying, get off ur butts and come in here, eat and be happy.
(Pics will be posted next time.)
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Here’s my one peeve. Why on earth is there an excuse of a salad (lettuce leaves) on a kabob plate? I don’t see why restaurants see the necessity to do this. Seems like an awful waste of lettuce.

Ok type. not tooooo good. i had chicken kabab side and lamb sank. food was ok, I did feel less salt in
is nice, staffs are good.

I have an uncle who is Persian and when he cooks he is very meticulous in the way he prepares the food. Never in my life have I seen a chicken so throughly cleaned; I bet you could see your reflection in it! The point being that Persian food is very healthy and delicious because they use a lot of fresh vegetables and herbs with little added salt.
To replace salt they are a fan of using the spice Sumac which has an interesting citrus flavor and aids well in digestion. They also use a lot of saffron which is heavenly. It gives rice a light and airy texture and the most gorgeous yellow/​orange color. It’s very expensive so if you ever want to mock that flavor at home for much cheaper I believe you blend together turmeric and paprika.
It was definitely fun to try something different for dinner as I hadn’t eaten Persian cuisine in years. We started with the Borani dip which tastes a lot like Greek tzatiki. It’s yogurt with garlic, spinach, and onions and they serve it with thin pita slices. The portion of yogurt is much larger than the amount of pita they give you but we liked having some leftover to use on our entrees.
I got the vegan kebob plate which comes with saffron rice, stewed tomatoes, and a fresh salad. I know stewed tomatoes don’t sound delicious but they really were! I honestly wasn’t crazy about the kebob because I don’t care for mushrooms and tasted them heavily which is to expected for a non meat «meat» dish. Everything else was awesome though.
My husband got an actual meat kebob dish with rice, salad, and tomatoes and loved everything about his plate. We would totally come back! I want to try one of their soups along with another salad and side of rice. They are a tad on the pricey side so I’m curious to come back for lunch assuming they probably have specials then.

They were looking in the wrong place — the true weapons of mass destruction are the lamb shank & Bademjan stew at Caspian Grill. You start eating that stuff, you won’t wanna stop.
Ooops, did I mix up Iran & Iraq again? Sorry. And why are the most interesting restaurants found in sketchy strip malls? Sprinkle that sumac on your raw onion before you eat it, and get a taste of their rosewater ice cream before you leave. It’s kind of like savoring a delicate frozen candle. Told you this place was interesting.

Disappointed. I had high expectations given the 5 stars this place has here on Unilocal,but this is one of those times my experience just doesn’t align with others. Maybe it was just a fluke, but I won’t bother coming back to find out. If you’ve read any of my other 1 star reviews, you’d know those are typically angry rants filled with caps lock shouting and the occasional (or perhaps even more so) expletive. But that’s not how I feel about this place. I’m not angry at all. I’m just very sad.
Since sitting down at the restaurant, my mood has been dropping lower and lower. I think the combination of the atmosphere, disappointing food, and feeling of betrayal ( Unilocal’s rating) was a dangerous mix for me. The poor lighting and odd quietness seems like the opposite of an assault on the senses, but for me, it was just as uncomfortable.
Let’s talk food. One of the oddest things I noticed, was that they sold hamburgers and cheeseburgers here. This should have been a red flag, but at the time, I brushed it off. When I received the beef kabobs, it was clear that this was just an average burger patty in disguise. The rice was just okay, if not a little hard. I was most disappointed in the salad. The onion was overpowering (and was a white onion instead of red), and the dressing was bland. The roasted tomatoes should have been roasted longer.
I also tried the roasted eggplant with herbs. Again, disappointing. A bit bland, and the onion and tomato did not go well. The pita was a disgrace, more like a tortilla, but worse.
I have some leftovers in the fridge at work, but I don’t want them.

Came to this place as a recommendation and Unilocal reviews. The owners greeting us upon entering and the wait service was quick.
The food was excellent as was the service. I only wish I could have eaten way more of the large portion size.
The saffron ice cream had an amazing flavor and I will be coming back soon!
Glad it is close by and a place I can enjoy going back too.

Don’t judge a book by its cover, this phase suits this place perfectly. The little strip mall is rundown but once inside, you are in the Middle East food heaven.
The woman who owns the restaurant spend two years perfecting her recipes. It was well worth it. Her Uncle who served us was a wealth of knowledge on the food we ordered.
We started with the Mirza Ghasemi (eggplant and herbs). Please note they ask if you are vegan, if no, then they place a fried egg on top. Don’t confuse this with Baba Ghanoush, it is similar but taste way better.
Of course, we choose the Fesenjan and Ghormeh Savzi for entrees. Both are Persian stews that are much more flavorful than any stew I have ever eaten. The chicken in the Fesenjan was so tender that it broke apart with a fork. You can taste the pomegranate but it doesn’t overpower the stew. Please note that this is great the next day as a leftover.
BF thought the Ghormeh Sabzi didn’t have a beef taste to it. I have to agree, the herbs here are the star. Not bad but I like my stew much better. Both stews were served with lots of rice.
We couldn’t leave without dessert. Who can resist Akbar Mashti (Persian ice cream). The yellowish color is from the saffron but the taste is from Rose Water. In case you are wondering what the white chunks mixed in are, think frozen whipped cream.
This is a must try place for unique dishes. Prices are reasonable. You can bet I will be coming back.