Sami’s Kebab House opened in late 2016, the dream of Sami Zaman who had worked as a cab driver and as a food pushcart vendor before opening the restaurant. The Afghani restaurant draws inspiration from Zaman’s ancestry, culinary traditions from his Uzbek mother and Tajik father, flavors of the Silk Road.

Zaman grew up in Kabul, but during the Soviet-Afghan war, the family fled to Pakistan, according to Dave Cook at Culinary Backstreets. Zaman arrived in the United States in 1988, and launched a coffee and donut pushcart business.

What had been a comfortable living was upended by the terror attacks of 9/11 and the recession that followed. Increased security in Manhattan had reduced the places food carts could set up, and eventually he turned to driving a cab to support his family.

Eventually though, he found a small commercial space to set up shop in a residential neighborhood, in Astoria. However, the retail space was not in good condition, and had to build out the space for the restaurant.

The original location opened in an industrial building on Crescent Street, and then in 2019, expanded into the adjacent space overlooking 36th Avenue. Soon after the expansion, the pandemic closed restaurants around the city. Today, both the old and new dining rooms remain, somewhat incongruous with the original room cozy and homey, and the newer space chic and modern.

A second location opened in 2022 in Long Island City, but has recently shut down. The LIC location was run by one of Zaman’s sons, Yusuf. Another son, Ali, opened Little Flower Cafe the same year. The coffee shop was made famous earlier this year as the final destination in now Mayor Mamdani’s scavenger hunt.

Like Little Flower Cafe, Sami’s Kabab house is also a favorite of Mayor Mamdani, though we didn’t see him here on our outing. We did walk by Little Flower Cafe on our from the subway.

We were having lunch with our friend Emma, our Astoria connect, who we’ve also eaten at Pig Beach and John Brown’s BBQ with.

When we arrived, just one other table had people sitting at it. We sat near the front entrance of the main dining room, and plugged our four-year-old into his tablet. There wasn’t much that was small-child-picky-eater-friendly, but he did eventually eat some bread.

One thing I did find curious was the refusal to serve tap water. Sure, I realize in Europe and other parts of the world, it’s inappropriate to expect tap water, but New York City has the best tap water in the world. It’s better than bottled water, especially since what was on offer was a bottle of microplastics. Ironically, the same week, a new “right to water” bill has resurfaced in the state legislature. Assemblymember Sarah Clark has proposed the law as a consumer protection rule, and is currently in process in the legislature. We ordered tea and soda anyway, but happily served our four-year-old water from the water bottle stashed in the bag of kid snacks and toys. Regardless, it was an off putting start.

We ordered a few shared appetizers, and I ordered lentil soup, along with our entrees.

The first out the door was the mixed vegetarian appetizer of Sabzi, Bamia, and Borani Banjan. Of these, my favorite was the Bamia, the okra with tomato sauce. The Borani Banjan, fried eggplant was totally fine but not exceptional or all that unique. The sabzi, the stewed spinach rounded out the dish, but I was glad we were splitting this among three adults.

The bread arrived with the vegetarian appetizer, and the sauces were good for dipping.

The Mantu, or steamed beef dumplings, were absolutely terrific. What made these special were the lamb gravy, which had a big impactful flavor. I would return just to eat these and the Bolani Kachalu.

The Baloni Kachalu are potatoes wrapped in flaky dough and fried. We had hoped we might tempt our four-year-old with these if we pretended hard enough that they were french fries. He was not convinced. However, i thought these little potato hot pockets were absolutely phenomenal.

The Afghan salad was a bit disappointing in its blandness. It was a nice counterbalance to the fact that we were stuffing ourselves with rich foods, but I wouldn’t order it again.

The tea and cokes still had not arrived when the entrees were brought out. Neither had the lentil soup, which surely should have been an appetizer rather than an after thought.

My wife had the mixed Afghan kabab with lamb and chicken, and rather than basic rice, upgraded to the Qabuli, a sweet, carrot and raisin topping.

I had the chicken Afghani Kabab, and my rice was also upgraded to the Qabuli. At the time I wasn’t aware of this decision. I thought the chicken was excellent, tender on the inside and crispy on the outside. The sweet rice was a surprisingly tasty counterbalance to the chicken. I also love that the chicken is bright red.

Emma had the chicken Korma, and shared a bit with me. I enjoyed this quite a bit — and would have been happy swapping dishes.

At last our drinks arrived, along with the lentil soup. The soup was terrific, flavorful, and with a little hint of spice. The late arrival though meant it was tough to finish since I had eaten my fill of chicken and rice and starters.

As we wrapped up our late lunch, the dining room had started to fill. My wife and Emma took some leftovers in boxes, lunch for another day. Our next stop was a playground across the street.

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