Arya Kabob House

We came here with a Groupon Tuesday night. We started with an order of mantu. It was good, but not sure I would order it again. Then I had chicken kabob and my husband had the lamb shank. We enjoyed these dishes. The yogurt dressing and two sauces were a nice addition. Each entrée comes with a salad. The chicken was fresh and juicy. I was little disappointed that rice did not include raisins. The server told us that the delivery did not come. Oh well, a reason to come back. I would even come back without a Groupon.
Also, the portions are big and service pleasant. Love the look of the restaurant too.

We used a groupon here and it was definitely worth our money.
You can definitely tell the difference between Arya Kabob house, and a regular halal cart. The meat is fresher, the rice is tastier, and the veggies are greener. Furthermore, theres drastically less oil in the food, and you dont have to worry about pigeon droppings in your rice.
The portion sizes were big enough for 2 regular people to share, or one growing boy like me.
The waitresses are efficient, but not overly friendly (which some may prefer).
One additional positive: they noticed I drank a lot of water, and just left a pitcher at my table which I loved!
Cheers,
Taylor

Theeeee best Afghan restaurant in Queens/​the world.
We had our first family dinner of the year here last night and ordered a little bit of this and that; a variety of the appetizers, entrees, desserts, and beverages.
EVERYTHING was on point.
The only thing I will *warn* you about is the Turkish coffee– it is strong as fuck. You will need 10 cubes of sugar to tolerate it. Then again, I’m no coffee connoisseur so maybe just don’t listen to me at all.

Went here with my husband, baby and mother-​in-​law and I just want to say… I love this place. The food was excellent and my baby loved it. She feasted happily on the hummus, baba ganoush and even tried some of the delicious rice. We all loved our dishes and were treated as if coming to dine at a friend’s house. Wonderful staff, lovely owner, friendly reasonably priced and overall a great experience. I will even forgive the restaurant lack of heat on a pretty cool day. They were waiting on a repair guy. Hey, that can happen to anybody. Anyway, Go eat at Arya Kabob House. I highly recommend it!

Afghan cuisine resembles a simplified Turkish or Iranian cuisine, but anyone familiar with Mediterranean or middle eastern food can navigate an Afghani menu competently.
There’s a few highly-​rated Afghan restaurants in Queens. For example, Balkh is a very dark and somewhat unwelcoming restaurant with a tendency to overcook its food. I always wanted to love Balkh but just couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Arya is the restaurant that I wanted Balkh to be!
Arya is cheery, light and airy. It has an open feeling to it, in stark contrast to many kebab restaurants, like Balkh, which are often dark, brooding, and claustrophobic. It turns out the owner is an awesome woman whose name escapes me at the moment. A real sweetheart who kept complimenting my daughter. :) She’s very proud of the restaurant and told us that the cilantro chutney was a recipe handed down to her from her grandmother. Well, mission accomplished… this restaurant is as good as it gets, and I have a new restaurant crush!
When my wife, mom, and 8 month old daughter came here, it was freezing outside and their heat system was broken, so the restaurant was freezing cold. To make matters worse, they had a produce delivery and the people moving the food kept leaving the front door open, allowing gusts of frigid air to hurricane through the restaurant. A heat system breaking is not the restaurant’s fault, but it seems like a no-​brainer to purchase a $ 20 space heater (and keep the doors closed!) to make the environment at least tolerable for the customers. Especially when there’s a small baby in the restaurant.
The only other criticism I have would be true of most kebab places I’ve been to. Too much rice! Wow! I feel bad for leaving so much food left on my plate. I suspect they do this to justify the prices on the menu, which is a bad reason for wasting so much food.
Mantu: A
A signature dish of Central Asia, including Islamic Chinese who migrated via Turkey. Think of it as an Afghani wonton eaten with sauce instead of soup. The mantu at Balkh was awful — overcooked, soggy, and tasteless. I ordered mantu from Arya to make sure I didn’t like it for reals, and lo and behold, I loved it! This mantu comes draped with a zesty yogurt sauce and what I assume to be paprika. Well cooked and savory.
Babaganoush: A+
The smokiest babganoush I’ve ever eaten, and they achieved maximal smokiness with minimal bitterness. It’s a very finely blended babaganoush — there are no eggplant chunks, no eggplant skin, and no eggplant seeds. The consistency is that of a fine hummus. My 8 month old daughter who doesn’t have teeth ate it very competently and loved every mouthful!
Chopan Kabob: A
The long, thin shank bone has been cut off, so you only get the medallion of the chop. The shank has a juicy strip of meat with a narrow outer strip of fat on one side, and a charred, «lamby» membrane on the other side. That’s gone. Also gone is gnawing on the bone. My mom lamented this (as I did), however, the chops themselves were delicious and obviously well-​marinated because they were extremely tender and had wonderful overtones of garlic and onion. They were grilled, literally, to perfection. Soft, pink, and juicy on the inside, charring on the outside. If my grandpa’s lamb chops were better, it’s only because he left the shank on. These are a very close second! You get 3 chops with a boat load of rice.
Salmon Kabob: B–
My mom thought it was fine, but I thought it was slightly dry and overcooked (I’ve never had a non-​overcooked salmon kebab, sadly.) We agreed that the salmon kebab had a wonderful grill flavor on the outside, but beyond this, it was like ordinary salmon. Still delicious, but I was hoping for «Afghani flavors».

Came here and used a Groupon I bought recently. Amazing food, service was a bit slow since there was only one server. We got the meat lovers combo, lamb combo, and sambosa. Out of everything I recommend the sambosa and chicken kabob. The beef was a little dry for my liking and I didn’t try the lamb because I don’t eat lamb but my friends thought the lamb was great as well. The green sauce on the table is really good and so is the yogurt sauce, I put it on my meat and rice. The roasted tomatoes are reallyy good here compared to any other place I’ve tried, it’s juicy and perfectly roasted. If you’re ever in the mood for this type of food I definitely recommend this place.

I called earlier to see if the coupons were for only dine-​in but the hostess let me know that it was for both take-​out and dine-​in which was amazing. Thank god for all the pictures and descriptions of what’s really yummy here.
I ordered a Kabob Barg for my dad and the hostess suggested Lamb Tikka Kabob is better than Lamb Kofta Kabob so I got that for my mom.
As I am waiting for my order, a woman offered me a sweet Pistachio dessert and green herbal tea. I started chatting with her to found out she was the owner. She was a very sweet woman and talked about her food was very organic which is good to know.
Two orders for 3 people is very fulfilling as it comes with Seasoned Basmati Rice and salad. I wasn’t able to distinguish which was beef vs. lamb as I was devouring the food mmmmmmm and it was so flavorful.
Thanks to my fellow Unilocaler Lorraine D. for the recommendation!

Been here several times and so sad to say that both their quality and service has downgraded! Very skimpy with their meats, smaller and thinner in size. Service also is not on point. Makes me so sad because this was one of my go to spots!

Reasonable seating, quite good food, and good service. Surprisingly there was only one girl in the restaurant doing everything! She was pretty efficient. We started with appetizer Bolani which was simply awesome. In mains we took grilled salmon, jojeh chicken and grilled lamb. All dishes were pretty tasty with good sized servings. Good place to try if you want to eat Afghani food

This place is soo delicious! My friend recommended me to buy their groupon. Worth every penny! I love their Kabuli rice, the chicken kabob was cooked perfectly and not dry. They had 3 sauces on the table which complimented the food very well.
Best part is, this place is so close to my house and its byob!
Only thing is, I wish they had a website with the menu. I had no idea they had vegetarian options!
Will be back again with my vegetarian bf! :)

In the middle of culinary diversified queens, I decide to try this kabob house bc of a groupon and their decent review on Unilocal.
We went there on a weekday for dinner, and it’s literally empty, but i think it’s more of that the location can be easily overlooked. restaurant are clean and neat. a few groups came by for to-​go when we were eating.
we ordered the lamb chop dish w regular rice and the lamb shank w carrots and raisin rice. pretty homie, and flavorful. Our server was helpful, and attentive.
we had balkava for dessert. I think the nuts they use are mainly pistachio, which I am very happy w. they cut it up for u into small bites so u can’t have to get too much syrup on your hand when you take a bite.
Price is reasonable for the food and service they offer. Maybe u can find a better deal in queens, but this is definitely a good buy for groupon.

I am normally a street meat on a stick kinda gal but once in awhile I do enjoy a sit down meal in a restaurant bc it means no dishes and sometimes more food. Arya kabob is definitely a good choice for some good charbroiled meats with rice and naan. The price lies in the middle between some of the other places I have been to but the décor of this place looks almost like an upscale restaurant with the white tablecloths and the nice silverware. Too bad that whenever you walk by the doors are always closed and so are the nicely draped blinds. So it looks like they are not open but they are.
The meal came with complimentary salad which is great with the yogurt. I saw people making little sandwiches with their homemade naan bread too which is served warm.
Mantu steamed dumplings were also very good stuffed with ground meat and spices and topped with yogurt and tomato sauce. Came 5 to an order.
I like the char grilled taste of all of the meats from the filet mignon strips, beef cubes, lamb kofta, beef tikka and spiced chicken kabobs. I also enjoyed the chopan lamb chops but definitely preferred the filet strips which came in good sized pieces. All of it is extra tasty with their spicy green sauce not too hot but is tempered by their yogurt sauce. I also love the grilled tomatoes and onion served on the side.
Normally rice is rice but I definitely have to rave about the way they dress the rice here. The basmati rice with raisins and shredded carrots is a real treat as is the dill rice. We got the meat lovers and they allowed us to get half and half. We also got to try the spiced rice which came with the lamb chops. Its a bit filling but worth it since it is very flavorful.
I always get superb service from the girl who waits tables and she goes out of her way to do everything to accomodate us. Even offering to hold my dessert in their fridge. I never felt rushed the times that I have come here and it seems like she always knows when I need something.
Overall this a great place for a quiet dinner with the family or just a good sit down meal of kabobs with great service and a nice atmosphere.

This place has nice décor and set up. We enjoyed their kabobs. However, I was bit disappointed that we could not order lamb chop nor shank with groupon voucher. With all the good reviews about these two items, I was excited to try them out. Instead we ordered lamb tikka and kabob barg (filet mignon). They were juicy and fresh.

Had a pleasant experience here. There was one waitress on the floor but she was very nice and courteous. The restaurant is overall clean yet dark so it was slightly hard to read the menu.
Food is delicious. I swear that yogurt dill sauce is like the holy grail for everything — add it to the salad, rice, and meat. It’s slightly tangy and you get a hit of the dill at the end. I ordered the beef tikka kebob with a dill herbed rice (I forgot the name of it but they only offer this on the weekends). I would say the proportion is a lot… a lot of rice to be exact. For the meat portion I thought it was rather small. But overall, the rice is delicious and will fill you up. Some pieces were well done while others were at medium well, which I don’t mind but maybe other people will.
Would I come back again? Probably, and I think I’ll try out their appetizers. I read there are a lot of potato croquette appetizers and I do love me some potatoes. I’ll also try out another entrée it seems like you can’t go wrong with meat kebobs.

I came here for dinner after the movies wl a couple of friends. I had saw it on Unilocal and thought, wow it’s a halal restaurant near the theater and is only a ten minute drive too. Seemed like a very good deal. We came in and the ambiance was nice, clean and the tables were nicely set out. Not extremely formal but definitely not extremely casual as well, I liked the décor. After we sat down, we ordered appetizers. My best friend and I shared the tulfi, I believe it’s called, and they were potato cakes filled with meat inside. It was basically the exact equivalent to «potato chop,» you know what I’m talking about if you’re Bengali. They were okay, nothing spectacular. Our two other friends shared a hummus wl pita bread, I personally thought it had way too much garlic in it.
As for the actual entrée, I ordered the Murgh Kabob. You have a choice of chicken breasts or thighs and it is served in cubes along with a side of your choice and a salad. According to Unilocal,the kabuli rice is a must try so that’s what I opted for. I felt like the rice was too hyped up though, it tastes like regular rice you’re given along with your «rice over chicken/​lamb» in the gyro carts just with shredded carrots and raisins sprinkled on top. My bestfriend really liked the addition of the raisins because it gave him a burst of sweetness amongst his savory meal but I personally do not like sweet with savory. For the chicken meat, I choice breasts and I liked the fact that they were moist and remained moist till the end of my meal. I hate when I order kabobs and the near dries out towards the end of the meal so I was very pleased with that.
But overall, I felt like the food was good, nothing overly spectacular or different that you can’t find anywhere else though. The atmosphere was cool too and not tacky. I think this would be ideal for just a casual spot to go eat at with your friends if you’re in the area.

My friend recommended this place and Im glad she did!!!
I like this place. Great lunch specials. had a beef platter for $ 9!!! Came a good portion of brown rice (you can choose rice types) and a beef kebob. It was a bit dry, but I still liked it. He got the lamb platter which was not a lunch special for $ 16, but he throughly enjoyed it. They gave us both salads even though I only got the lunch special. The dressing on the table which is like a ranch/​white sauce is for your salad or whatever you want it to be. The green sauce is a nice middle eastern take on the green sauce without the creaminess that latino cultures have. The red sauce on the table isnt that spicy and has tastes great as well!!! The sambosas we ordered were smaller than regular empanadas but bigger than a dumplings and were tasty. They have potato and meat in them. The minty white creamy sauce that comes with it goes well with the sambosas. Wish they offered more for appetizers like a sampler of some kind!!!
Waiters were nice. They were both spanish. Atmosphere is quiet since there were only two other tables getting waited on when we went on a weekend. Great little spot in Queens!!!
Def would come again!

I’ve never had Afghan food, but the flavors reminded me of Turkish /​Middle Eastern food. Very tasty.
I was a bit confused why there was nobody else in the restaurant on a Sunday early afternoon. We were the only customers in the restaurant. No matter, more room and quiet for ourselves.
Ordered the meat platter /​sampler. Don’t remember the exact name, but it was a platter meant to be shared by two people. They did allow substitutions, but the substitution choices were limited. If you don’t eat a certain type of meat, they will accommodate you. Service was OK. I think if you’re the only customers in the restaurant, they take a more laid back approach.
The food itself was great. Don’t know how authentic it was, but the spices just sang in my mouth. If you’re a fan of this region’s cuisine, this place is definitely one to check out.

Finally made it here. I have been checking it out for some time but recently stopped in with some good friends on the fly. What a real treat. The owner was a sweetheart, warm and welcoming. The food was delicious. We ordered a mixed grill which consists of lamb, chicken, beef and some other kabobs. The side dishes and seasoned rice was really flavorful. We ordered just about all the sides. What a delicious, authentic experience.
I will definately be returning. And I hope to see it packed.

Kudos to the chef! Very clean & friendly restaurant. The décor is nice & the food is great! We had lamb kabob & I’m definitely coming back.
Upon entering we were greeted by a friendly waitress, we ordered appetizers~beef ravioli & humus
Our dinners were lamb kabob salad with a lemony creamy sauce & chicken stew delicious.
Definitely coming back!!! We had the baklava & rosewater pudding!!!

After seeing a Youtube video of a woman making Afghani rice, I knew that I had to add it to my punch list. Fortunately New York has an abundance of great restaurants and I found this place as my fiancé was getting off at a nearby LIRR stop.
The signage outside unfortunately is a bit dim and hard to see. Nevertheless we found it. My fiancé remarked at how nice the interior was (she’s an interior designer with a very large architectural firm) and I agreed. Very classy. When we walked in, it was Asian night lol. The only other patrons that night were a table of 5 young Asian professionals. Some were having a conversation sh#t talking about California. I had the urge to «correct» two of those NY snobs, but hey, I was there for a different mission.
Because we were Afghani food newbies, we asked her for some recommendations but the dishes had to come w/​the rice (brown rice w/​carrots and raisins). So after a minute of explanations of fan favorites, we ordered lamb chops and kofta (sp?) kebabs. We also got a vegetarian appetizer which looked liked ravioli with a red sauce on it (I should be better at remembering food names, my bad!).
The meal came with a very fresh salad with a dill based dressing. Very tasty. Then the appetizer came out. It was very unique. The accompanying red and green sauces helped a bit too. The red sauce might be described as sort of a chutney (someone please correct me if this is wrong) that had a little kick to it. Same too with the green mint sauce. It had a bit of spiciness to it too. Both sauces were nice accompaniments.
My kofta kebabs was tasty, but not as good as the kebabs at my favorite place in LA (Raffi’s place). Maybe because they were spiced differently. But in any case, they were still delicious and my tummy had a good taste of the Afghani version of the venerable kebab. My fiancé’s lamb chops were equally good, though hers were a bit singed too much. I ate her leftovers today for lunch with the rice.
One of the things that was somewhat disappointing for me was the size of the grilled tomato. Wherever I’ve had kebabs, they’ve always accompanied it with a medium to large sized tomato. These we received could be described as a smallish sized tomato. What can I say, I like a big grilled tomato. Next time I’ll ask for two :)
Just wanted to again say that the waitress was great too. Because we’re both smaller adults and don’t like to eat large dinners, we actually had a lot left over). The waitress asked us if we liked what was served. We both said «Yes» and she walked away and said «Are you suuuure?» So nice waitress if you’re reading this: YES!
And one other thing to mention: since we came in about 45 minutes before closing time (and we left about 10 mins after closing), I was concerned we’d be «encouraged» to eat quickly. Nope, none of that. Which as a former waiter, I definitely appreciate and is a good sign of a restaurant that cares about its customers.
Definitely want to come back and try some different Afghani food!