Darband Grill & Bar

Fall and winter’s just around the corner! And my friends and I love coming here to cozy up on one of their booths and enjoying the cold air with Darband’s nice and hot food, tea, and hookah. I haven’t been here in a while so this review is based on my experiences from almost 6 – 7 months ago.
Pros:
— I love how all the tables and booths outside on the patio are perfect for a group of friends or even a couple of lovebirds to sit around and chill. When it gets super cold outside, they have these lanterns with fire to warm everyone up.
— Their hummus and the bread that comes with it is suuuperrrr good! The bread comes out so soft and warm as if it was just baked homeade. They also give you free bread and cubes of feta cheese when you order an entrée too, which I find to be a great snack while smoking hookah.
— Go for either mint or apple hookah. You can’t go wrong with either of them. Or better yet, ask the waiter to mix both of them together :)
— They have some pretty delicious hot tea. They give you cute little cubes of sugar to mix in it and when you do, the tea comes out sweet with a little hint of spice from the tea. I don’t know what it is, but I think it’s just perfect for the cold weather! Keep in mind though, that you’re only allowed one free refill.
— The music here is a lot more tolerable than other hookah places. They play an occasional hit on the radio rather than the kind of music that no one really knows of and thinks «wtf are they playing here?»
Cons:
— They close super early compared to most hookah places. On weekends, Darband closes at 1am while others would usually close at 2 or 3.
— They need to update their menu, particularly their desserts. Whenever I ask for a certain dessert on the menu, it seems like every time the waiter/​tress says «I’m sorry we don’t sell those anymore.» –_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​– Well then let me know, what do you have?!
— My friends told me they’ve seen roaches and bugs crawling around on the tables and chairs outside. I haven’t seen that yet, but that sounds pretty gross to me and I hope I don’t see that sometime in the near future.
— The staff doesn’t check up on you that often. So sometimes you gotta go back into the restaurant to hunt down someone and I find that pretty bothersome.
— When I come here, I’m only interested in getting either their hummus or bread and cheese now. Unfortunately, I don’t think they just sell the bread and cheese alone. Therefore, I’d have to pay money for an entrée just so I can get my bread and cheese :[
— Parking and traffic’s not the best either, considering the fact the lot is shared with a bar and a wings restaurant on the other side. While you’re sitting outside, you’ll hear the occasional tire screech, horn honk, or car crash. Enjoy.
I think I have more cons than pros here. But nevertheless, I still can’t wait to come back to Darband this season!

I used to be a regular here before the fire last last New Year’s. They reopened I think in the middle of last summer, and I’ve only been back two times since. It’s the place I like to go to catch up with my girlfriends.
This is definitely my place for hookah. Mint is my order, no matter where I’m at. Here, it’s the smoothest ever. It’s not harsh like other places I’ve been to. The hookah is still as good as before, but the food on the other hand. is a sad disappointment. The hummus seems to be missing something. It’s not as good. Kind of flavorless.
The service is still amazing, though! Very attentive waitresses/​waiters. I was seated by a woman, and we were checked up on at least two different people, and her as well. Water was refilled when needed and I didn’t have a problem finding her when I needed to order food.
The only sad thing about this place is. it cloese a little early. Early compared to some other places. Sinbad/​Layal close at 1 on weekdays and 3 on weekends, but Darband closes at 11 on weekdays and 1 on weekends. It’s hard for me because I don’t get out of work till around 10:30 so going on a weekday is impossible :(other than that, though, I’ll be going back, for sure.

LUNCH BUFFET UPDATE:
Checked out the lunch buffet…7.95. Worth it for sure.
No hummus on the menu. But ground beef, chicken and steak kabobs, salads, rice, veggies, potatoes. Stewed beef options. Lots of naan, feta and fresh cilantro.
Nice quick, cheap and delicious spot for lunch.

I went back for a pick up order, partly because I had a yummy meal the first time I checked this place out, but partly because I wanted to see if that was a fluke based on the other reviews here. Nope! I happily skipped home with pipin’ hot kubideh skewers and perfectly soured grape leaves for a fun dinner with my girlfriend and the hubs– and I couldn’t be more pleased. They even called to make sure I was close by so that the food would be deliciously fresh and baked the complimentary flat pita bread for the order. I’ll definitely be doing this again soon!
Now for getting back over here to try their hooka…

My husband and I just happened upon this place a couple weeks ago. We had just had some happy hour food so we weren’t really that hungry, just looking to have a cocktail mainly and see what the place was like. We ended up having the cornish game hen. luckily we split it because it came with so many potatoes and the most awesome grilled mixed peppers (I don’t even liked cooked peppers). And for only $ 10!!! It was incredibly good. Ali was bartending that night and he was fantastic as well. If we didn’t live in denver, we would be making this a regular hang-​out. But we will definitely return next time we are in Houston. We have told all our friends in Houston about this place.

Okay this restaurant is open again! Yay to that! :)
I was surprised about the reviews that has been posted.
Okay good news guys! The food prices has lowered down, the décor has improved, patio looks great along with nice décor, atmosphere feels great and comfy, hookah taste fresh, and there are persian waitress and waiters there that speaks farsi with you to make the spirit fun, and best of all the food taste great!
Its just like the Darband on Hilcroft, but this one has more choices in the menu, a bar, and hookahs.
I give it 5 stars! :)
They improved so much! FINALLY!

Closed — try the original, it is still open and good. 5670 Hillcroft St
Houston, TX 77 036
(713) 975‑8350

I was a big fan of Darband’s on Hilcroft, what the heck happened to this place? First of all, they went too fancy. The place looks beautiful for a Persian restaurant, but the food does not measure up to the looks of the place. The food was an epic fail. The eggplant appetizer was disgusting, I looked at my Iranian friend and I said, what is wrong with this? She said, «I know Honey, Kasra’s is much better». The bread they bring out to you, was not the nice bread they bring you at Bijan or Kasra, it is flat, a different type of Iranian bread that is tasteless, I rather go for the fresh made right out of the oven bread that they ‘used’ to serve.
I had the beef barg, the meat again was a fail, it was so tough I barely could eat it and the foreign waitress was lazy and didn’t want to work, we had to ask for everything, she forgot so many items that went with our dishes, we’ll never go back to this Darband Fountainview location, when we want cheap Persian we’ll just frequent their other location or go to Bijan or make the extra drive to Kasra. What a let down!

My family loves the other Darband so when I was in Houston this past week my brother and I decided to try this new one. We actually made reservations because it was the night before the Persian New Year and thought it would be packed.
There was no one there.
I will say the décor was nice and it looks like they spent a lot of time and money on it. But other than that everything was sub-​par. We each ordered a salad and an entrée and they specifically asked if we wanted these things to arrive at different time. Obviously we said yes.
In my mind different times means I finish one before the next arrives… these people don’t feel the same and my food arrived less than 2 minutes after I was given my salad. The salad was fine, the kabob was OK (cold by the time I could eat it) and the rice was over cooked and potentially not even basmati and there was no saffron… please don’t claim to be a Persian restaurant and not even put saffron on your rice.
The service was also horrible… the waitress was annoying and pretentious and kept trying to say words in Farsi and was failing miserably. It’s ok that you’re not Persian… but please stop trying to be.
With that being said, part of the fun of going to a Persian restaurant is Persian waiters/​waitresses. They’re fun, loud, charismatic, and make fun of the fact that I speak Farsi with an American accent. I don’t know that there was even one Iranian working there.
Go to the other Darband… it’s much much better.