Afghan Horsemen Restaurant

Afghan Horsemen Restaurant is located across from Granville Island in a small complex. There is some parking below the restaurant but it’s quite limited and it’s only for 30 minutes. I’ve been here once before in the past and was excited to revisit for another round of Dine Out Vancouver! This time we sat in one of their booths which added to the Afghan Horsemen Restaurant dining experience.

Manta

The manta are dumplings that reminded me of ravioli. They were filled with ground meat (beef and lamb) and topped with a tomato lentil sauce. The dumpling wrapper was smooth and silky in texture which is an odd way to describe it but it was so yummy! Unlike Chinese style dumplings, the filling of ground meat was on the crumbly side. My favourite part was the tomato sauce on top!

Lamb shoulder

This dish came with a piece of lamb shoulder, kabuli rice pilaf, fried potatoes, and salad. The lamb shoulder was soft and tender. It came off the bone and you could tell it’s one of their specialty dishes. I’m not a huge fan of lamb and I was pleasantly surprised by the one here. The rice pilaf was strong in warm spices and had raisins to add sweet notes. I was the most interested in trying the potatoes because I’ve never had them before. I think the batter created a unique chewy texture around the potatoes. With that said, the exterior remained crispy which was nice.

Dolmah

The dolmah are cabbage rolls that are filled with rice and ground meat. The cabbage rolls were cooked to perfection and the tomato sauce on top tied everything together perfectly. The dish came with a yogurt sauce to help mellow the flavours out which I appreciated.

Baklava

Such a classic dessert! The top layer of the baklava was super crispy and the interior layers were thoroughly coated with honey which made them on the sweeter side. There were hints of cardamom in the pastry along with walnuts and pistachios.