Kabobi By The Helmand

Incredible food and service here. A must-try for anyone nearby. The love and passion put into each and every dish is evident.

Reviewed on Yelp

We've dined in 7 different Afghani restaurants in the past (2 of them were different Helmand's locations) and this was our 3rd Helmand experience. So, I could say that I'm quite familiar with this cuisine and until now loved it a lot.This experience turned my love off quite a bit and I'm not sure I'd want to visit Afghani restaurants in the future.a) AMBIANCE was some kind of bazar mixture of "modernity", fast food, sports bar and mixture of plastic glasses and kind of upscale china and utensils. Metal chairs were VERY uncomfortable and rusty in some places.b) FOOD was mediocre and bland at best. Nothing reminded us of the wonderful aromatic and tasty food in Helmand we've visited many years ago in Boston, MA and some other times in Baltimore, MD.c) Service was the worst part. The waitress either had her first day on a job with poor training, or was just clueless by herself. d) And the value was really bad for the quality and quantity of the food and service received.Needless to say it was our first as well as the last experience in this place. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

Pretty good Afghan fare. A little unusual in that they serve it in bowls, but makes for compact meal with easy cleanup. Lamb was tender and high quality, comparable to Aracosia, but more of a low-key vibe here, with mama mor cooking in back. Due to all of the construction noise around the place, not quite as idyllic as dining by the Helmand River, but hopefully things will settle down soon, enshallah. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

I tried this place for the first time with my friend! I have been looking for a home with good Kabobs and decided to try this place after reading all of the fantastic reviews and this place did not let me down! The outside sign is very cute and the inside was spacious and cute. It had a high-end vibe but was also very cozy at the same time. We got the Lamb Lawaand and the beef kabob as it was recommended by our very nice server. We also got a breadbasket which was so worth it ( get this instead of the Naan because it's basically a basket of naan!)The lamb was tender but if you are not a fan of lamb I would maybe get something else! it was very good in my opinion but it did have the lamb smell overall it was very good! The rice and the spinach side were so yummy. The beef kabob was also very tender and was perfect with the chickpea and spinach side and the rice! Price was average and could be considered expensive but for the portion, I would say worth it. Would definitely come here again! More...

Reviewed on Yelp

This was my first time ordering from this restaurant through DoorDash. The food was good, but my request to substitute the shalgam for sabzy was completely ignored. It would have been nice of them to look at the special requests section of the order. The shalgam was just way too sweet for my liking, but the chicken kabob and shornakhod with cilantro vinaigrette dressing were quite tasty! I would give this place another try sometime. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

I'm in love.Lamb Shank...........................Chicken Kabob..............:......................,.................... .......................................:. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

No shortcuts here. This is authentic food cooked the right way. We really enjoyed the lamb shank and the eggplant.

Reviewed on Yelp

My girlfriend and I are from out of town and were looking for dinner after our flights. We stumbled on this paradise accidentally and what a delightful mishap it was! The food is delicious! Flavorful, perfectly spiced, aromatic, and filling! We have agreed that this is our go to spot and whenever we come in! Despite being down a person the staff was polite and jovial, and the service was quick! Excellent options on food and drinks. Give this place a try!!! More...

Reviewed on Yelp

I was astonished and delighted by the rich, unusual, varied flavors of the vegetarian bowl. I don't recall eating Afghan cuisine before, but now want it daily. My sole complaint is that this restaurant and my home are far apart. ¡This was a fortunate find! More...

Reviewed on Yelp

Holy moly! The chicken kabob plate! Wow, just wow! So amazing!!! We ordered through DoorDash to our hotel and I decide my husband and I should share because it seemed like a big portion. Big mistake! Don't get me wrong, it's a great portion size! It was just so good that we didn't want to share. I ended up placing a second order. Totally worth it! The sauces with the naan was awesome as well. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

The food was good. Big portions. Good prices. Service was a little slow. Staff seemed overwhelmed and under trained. No manager around to lead them.

Reviewed on Yelp

A fantastic Afghan restaurant with an extensive menu of almost 50 items. Delicious! The Aushak was the best I have ever eaten. Light, flavorful, with a not too spicy garlic mint sauce. Worth the trip. The Qormeh kofta meatball in a delicious sauce and chicken kabob were excellent. This is a clean fun Afghan restaurant run by people who know what they are doing. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

Authentic afghan food. We had Kabuli Pallow (on a fresh/sweet side) and Lamb Lawand (earthy flavor). Both dishes were served with lamb melting in our mouths! The stuff was friendly and eager to share their recommendations for the first time visitors! More...

Reviewed on Yelp

The ambiance is nice, the servers are very kind, the food is amazing. We sent pictures of the dishes to our afghan friend who confirmed that they're authentic. I definitely recommend the eggplant bowl (in the picture), spectacular! More...

Reviewed on Yelp

I ordered the Chicken Lawand and a small naan. The meal came with very tender chicken, mushrooms, basmati rice, spinach and a delicious red sauce and topped with a flavorful yogurt sauce that really balanced out the flavors. It was an excellent meal!

Reviewed on Yelp

This place is great! We stumbled upon this restaurant nearby our airport hotel, and I'm so glad we did. The food was delicious. There were a lot of options for vegetarians and keto eaters. Highly recommend. I enjoyed everything I ate, especially the eggplant and cauliflower. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

Love this place. The service (thank you, Eli!!!) was fantastic. Our favorite were the veggie and meat platters- so delicious.

Reviewed on Yelp

We were staying at a hotel near Dulles Airport for a next day flight. Browsed through YELP for a nearby, interesting restaurant with good reviews. That's how we found Kabobi. We were very pleased with our meal. Best food since leaving Portland, Oregon 5 months ago. We ordered and shared a small plate called Banjan Borani and an entree Kabuli Pallow. Some YELP reviewers mentioned these dishes and our helpful server did an excellent job of describing them to us. The Banjan Borani is pan-fried eggplant in a delicious sauce, topped with a yogurt garlic sauce. The Kabuli Pallow is a yummy lamb dish with rice and sweet and spicy turnips. Try it! More...

Reviewed on Yelp

I chanced upon this little gem a few months back while flying out of Dulles airport. Visited it again today while in the area, and it is definitely worth a visit. The location is surrounded by buildings under construction currently, but it is not really a bother.They have ample seating inside and outside. There a few beers on tap, and we tried the lager and Pilsner, and they were pretty decent.The lamb chops is the dish that you must try here. They are well made, cooked to perfection; enough for the meat to be tender but not too much to come off immediately. The chicken kebabs were also really well done.The seekh kebabs were a bit chewy and so was a disappointment.All the dishes are served over a bed of rice (pilaf) and it is delicious. The sides we tried were cauliflower chickpea, mushroom and shulgum. All very delicious.Our server was pleasant and friendly and we had a great time eating here. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

blown away. this is more delicious than it looks. gotThe veggie bowl with xxx spicy hot sauce and The hotsauce actually WAS spicy! not only that but flavorfultoo. The best chickpea I have ever had from anywhere(I don't like chickpea usually). thank you! keep it up! More...

Reviewed on Yelp

I love the food, but they nickel and dime you for everything. I've never gone to a true kabob place that makes you pay for naan bread. I also walked in today and as I was looking at the menu the person behind the counter (the owner Khaleeq? (I think he said) definitely the owner though because I asked) asked me if I wanted a chicken kabob. I said no, I never said I wanted that. I got the kofte kabob, and he asked 4 times if I wanted the kobob or the wrap. I said four times back I wanted the kofte kabob. I am in the food industry so I hate to leave a bad review, however the way I was treated today was not okay. I also payed for extra sauces (since they only give you barely a taste of each and make you pay for extras) and he didn't even give me the ones I wanted. You get one of each for your meal and I payed for 2 extra of each (total of three each) I got 2 of each kinda which is not what I wanted. Very disappointing, especially with the owner being the one to do so. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

Underwhelming experience.I had this restaurant earmarked for a while but never stopped by because it is a bit isolated, not much to do in the area and construction still ongoing around them. We decided to order take out on their website on Tues. night only to find out when we got there that their ordering system wasn't alerting them to new orders. The server said it would only take 5 mins to make my order anyways, so I decided to wait even though I was doubtful. As I was waiting I felt like the restaurant smelled very oily and was hot and uncomfortable - the air either wasn't on or wasn't very strong.It ended up taking over 15 mins and if she had just been honest at the time, I would have cancelled my order and gone somewhere else. Why make a problem worse by not telling the customer the truth? The food ended up being pretty dry, so maybe she estimated 5 mins because the dishes I ordered were already sitting around for a while. I usually love lamb and this a pretty bad experience for the price they're asking. Spinach side dish was also bitter. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

Picked up my mom from Dulles and was looking for something that wasn't a chain restaurant or something she couldn't readily get in SC where she's from. Found Kabobi on Yelp bc it was close and had good reviews so we decided to give it a try. We decided to sit at the bar, and were looking at the menu, unsure of what to get (it was our first time trying Afghan food) and luckily the owner/GM Khaleeq came and took pity on us and walked us thru the menu. He was super personable and friendly and chatted with us the whole time we were there. I love that he explained the menu in detail without judgement and although my mom generally is not a fan of lamb, he convinced us to try 3 of their lamb dishes and she's now a convert! She raved about it the whole way home. What we ordered:BOWLAWNI SMALL PLATE (Pan-fried twin pastry shells filled with leeks and spiced potatoes, garnished with yogurt mint sauce) first of all, YUM. These were like little pockets of flavor, and the dipping sauce was *chefs kiss* BANJAN BORANI SMALL PLATE (Pan-fried eggplant seasoned with fresh tomatoes and spice, baked and served on yogurt garlic sauce.) if I didn't know this was eggplant I never would've never guessed. It tasted more like either pumpkin or zucchini. It was so flavorful and you HAVE to get the fresh bread basket to dip in the sauce. QORMEH KOFTA SMALL PLATE (Spicy beef meatball seasoned in sun-dried baby grapes, turmeric and Afghan spices cooked with green peas, fresh tomatoes and corn served with house serrano pepper chatni.) my mom is super boujee about her meatballs and she rarely likes any that she hasn't made herself and she absolutely loved these. I also thought they were delicious. KABULI PULAO (Afghan style rice baked with chunks of lamb tenderloin, raisins and glazed julienne of carrots, served with a side of sweet & spicy turnips.) First of all, the sweet and spicy turnips (shalgum) are friggin amazing. The lamb in this dish was tasty and cooked perfectly and the pulao rice was so good! LAMB LAWAND (Boneless lamb, slow-cooked with mushrooms, tomatoes, herbs, garnished with yogurt & sour cream, served with challow rice and side of sabzy (Sautéed with onion, rhubarb, garlic and a touch of cinnamon)). I absolutely loved the flavor of the sauce in this dish. The lamb fell apart more like pot roast and it definitely felt similar to that with the mushrooms. DWOPIAZA (Seasoned tenderloin of lamb cooked with onions, sautéed with yellow split peas and tossed with onions lightly marinated in vinegar, served with pulao rice and side of shalgam (sweet & spicy turnips)) this was my mom's favorite of the lamb dishes we got. I absolutely loved the pickled onions and split peas and as a whole the dish was so delicious. FERENY (Cardamom pudding (no egg) with fresh berries and fruit). Khaleeq mentioned that they use this as a palate cleanser at the end of the meal to get the strong flavors out of your mouth. It was very subtle and definitely did the job! I'm sad that this is so far away from my house, because I wanna eat here like once a week. Everything from the service to the food to the atmosphere was 10/10. My only slight complaint is that it seemed like the AC was out and it was very warm inside the restaurant especially sitting as close to the kitchen as we were. But the food was so good I'd gladly eat out in the heat again, it's so worth it!! More...

Reviewed on Yelp

The food was good , not great. The wraps could use a little more veggies , however I really loved the spicy sauce. The koufta rice bowl came with sabzi and it looked really nice! Will return!

Reviewed on Yelp

Tried Kabobi by the Helmand. The food was very good. Wait staff was friendly. We started with a small bread basket and Bowlawni. Super tasty! But the green sauce. Beware! If you don't like spicy you'll want to go easy on that. I had the Kabuli Pallow, my husband had Dwopiaza and my son had Koufta Kabob which comes with Sabzy. He wasn't too keen on the Sabzy, but everything else was great! The only drawback was it was a little hot in the restaurant. Otherwise all great! It's a repeater. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

Fantastic flavors and really good lamb. Walking into this place and smelling the spices was an immediate good sign. Definitely recommend and so close to the airport (easy first stop when visiting)

Reviewed on Yelp

I was interested i this restaurant, having served in Afghanistan. We have eaten there twice so far and have tried a variety of dishes. Over-all, the food was ok, and the owner/servers are very nice. (Ask for their home-made hot sauce - it is great.) That said, the food is way over-priced. So for us, the food isn't great enough or special enough to warrant to prices, so probably won't be going back. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

We were looking for some good kabobs and decided to try this place out. It had good reviews so I had high expectations, and I was blown away. The food is amazing! We got the spicy chicken kabobs and kabuli pulao with a few bread baskets. It came with an eggplant side that was very good too. I highly recommend the spicy chicken. We will definitely be coming back here. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

After a missed connection in Dulles we were looking for somewhere to eat lunch. I saw Kabobi had a 5 star rating, the highest of anywhere in the area, so of course we had to try it. We had a party of 9 and they had a large table for us. Service was great, very attentive and friendly. We started with some hummus and eggplant and I have to say that eggplant is some of the best i've ever had. So smoky and flavorful. For entrees we had the Koufta and oh my goodness. The flavors on these meatballs were out of this world. The okra was great as well. We also got the mixed grill. My favorite meat was the lamb, so tender and tasty. I have literally no complaints, everyone thoroughly enjoyed their meal and it made our unplanned layover much better. They are very deserving of the 5 stars. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

We stopped here today after dropping a friend off at Dulles airport, and now I'm bummed that we don't live closer. The atmosphere was casual and welcoming, and the staff was helpful and polite. My husband and I got delicious bowls with tender, well-seasoned vegetables loaded with flavor. I got the vegetarian bowl and he got the sabzi challow, and we were both very pleased!I asked about the dogh drink, and the employee described it as sour and flavorful, and it definitely delivered on those fronts! A refreshing balance to the warm, spiced entree.Kabobi will definitely become a go-to lunch spot any time we're in the area. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

So much great Afghan food in northern Virginia. Helmand Palace in San Francisco is my favorite local San Francisco Afghan place. Thrilled to discover the Helmand in northern Virginia. The kabuli pallow, with lamb chunks in cardamom flavored rice, is perfect. The mushrooms, the spinach, the kaddo (stewed spiced pumpkin with garlic yogurt), the cauliflower chickpeas - all make for a perfect vegetarian meal.The location is perfect for the (any minute now) Dulles metro station. We did take out. I would love to cater from this place. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

A lot of the eating I've done over the past few months has been takeaway. I attribute this to being busy and not investing enough time in meal planning. More on that later. "The Helmand," as I like to call this place, has one thing that I love to eat but have not been able to cook on my own. That's right, I'm talking about the Lamb shank. If you're weighing your options, stop now and just get it. You'll thank me later. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

We shared the Banjan Borani, Sabzy, Mushrooms, Cauliflower chickpeas, and chopped salad. Every bite was delicious! Would definitely come back and fill up with yummy food again!!

Reviewed on Yelp

The food was delicious! The menu has unique and tasty choices not seen at some kabob places.

Reviewed on Yelp

This place has definitely earned its 5 stars! Ordered the sloppy lamb wrap for delivery and it was seasoned perfectly, wrapped in perfectly baked bread, and was the perfect size! Will definitely be ordering from here again. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

My fiancee and I stopped by here on a Monday night.It was pretty empty, but it's located in a very quiet, mostly residential common area. We were greeted by the manager/owner and he said we could either order at the table or order as we walked in--almost like a Panera. We ordered the bread basket, the chicken lawand, and the dwopiaza (which was recommended by the owner). Since it was our first time here, they also gived us a banjan borani which is a yogurt with tomatoes, seasonings, and a heavenly yogurt sauce.As big fans of Afghan food, we absolutely loved this place. The food was delicious. The chicken and the lamb were both cooked and seasoned to perfection. The sauces and the spices on everything were out of this world. And the homemade naan dipped in the green sauce and eaten with the rest of our meal were fantastic.Although I've found Afghan food in the area to be a little pricier, just like this place is, it's definitely worth the price you pay. I look forward to trying other menu items! More...

Reviewed on Yelp

Delicious! Not typically an Afghan food fan, but this was very yummy... especially the pumpkin (sweet as candy) and the mushroom (w tomato mushroom sauce). Yum!

Reviewed on Yelp

Friendly, tasty, but pricey ($14.95) for 4 small bite size pieces of chicken in their chicken kabob plate. We ordered togo and were shocked when we got home. I thought portions would be bigger for the price. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

Great service, good local draft beer and wonderful food. I truly appreciated the experience!

Reviewed on Yelp

Just had a lamb bowl here but everything was fresh and, more importantly, delicious. If I am back in the area I will stop back in. It has more of a casual approach since you order at the counter but there is plenty of seating and a nice interior feel. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

That's definitely a reason why this place has perfect reviews! I was so happy to finally get to try this place. They definitely give you big serving sizes and they are super reasonably priced. I tried chicken lawand which came with some mushrooms and was really yummy especially with the white sauce which was a little sweet on top. I also love that they give you spinach on the side although I really could've used more of that. The spinach was so fresh! Definitely better prepared than some other Afghan places. It wasn't too creamy or mashed. Would def eat this again! More...

Reviewed on Yelp

Literally the tastiest afghani food I've ever had. Price is reasonable for what you're getting. The.Best.Afghani.Food.Around. Love the vibe inside the restaurant as well. They really do a great job. You won't be disappointed More...

Reviewed on Yelp

My fiancé would always bring his team in to Kabobi for lunch when he traveled to VA for business. I had the pleasure of eating here with him . I cannot describe how delicious it is! You must taste it for yourself. 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ More...

Reviewed on Facebook

We picked up takeout for dinner tonight, and it was the best meal we've had in recent memory! The moment I walked in to get our order my first thought was "THIS SMELLS SO GOOD! " A+ first impression on smell alone.We devoured the kaddo borani (a pan fried pumpkin dish) and bowlani for appetizers, and split a mixed kabob dish. There was hardly a grain of rice left. If it weren't for current COVID numbers we would have been happy to dine in. Until then, I'm sure we'll be back for takeout! More...

Reviewed on Yelp

Came back for the Bajani Borani (eggplant) Heaven on a plate. It was hard to order anything else but it's all really good

Reviewed on Yelp