All the carping reviews seemed to be bunched near the front here but they are not more recent really than the other 2013 ones--keep reading and you will find a number of real raves
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“Koobideh, barg, shirazi salad, and musto musir are all delicious.”In 27 reviews -
“Their hummus, bread, and all their kabob dishes are amazing.”In 46 reviews -
“The kebabs were so flavorful and there was a lot of food.”In 25 reviews
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- Hope L.
- Elmhurst, NY
- 12 friends
- 15 reviews
THIS PLACE IS AWESOME!!!! I've had Middle Eastern food many times before, but not Persian. Came here with my dad & sister for mine n my sister's birthday and we all loved it! I had a lamb stew, while my sis had the lamb shank and my dad some kabobs. My dad isn't too keen on trying new things but they were happy that I picked it.
The one thing I have to say though is Persian food has an aweful lot of eggplant o_O -
- Elnaz S.
- Newport Beach, CA
- 205 friends
- 193 reviews
The food here was okay... Nothing special.
The place settings and table covers aren't the cleanest.. And they need to turn their music up more so you can actually hear it.
They have a coat check at the door but if u didn't see it.. They don't mention it to you.
They have tadiq but it isn't on the menu.. -
- Salimah H.
- Jersey City, NJ
- Elite ’13
- 14 friends
- 54 reviews
So I don't think I've ever had Persian food before this place. I was invite to an Eid dinner with som new acquaintances and thought "why the heck not?". Upon entering, I was pleasantly surprised by the decor and atmosphere. I didn't really know what to expect so anything really woulda surprised me lol. It was dimly lit, a very romantic-y vibe. There was the main dining room as you entered and then stairs to go up to the mezzanine where there was more dining space. This is where my dining partners were. It wasn't a huge space but this group just kept packing people in lol and they kept adding on tables.
On to the food...it was delicious! I ordered the lamb shank (as I do just about anytime I see it on a menu). It came in a bowl with lots of delicious sauce and a plate of dilled rice. This made things a little difficult to have rice with every bite of lamb (as you must do) but I made it work. Other people's food also looked yummy. But I didn't know anyone well enough to sample lol.
I will definitely be back and with closer friends so I can try at least 3 meals! -
- Cynthia M.
- Manhattan, NY
- Elite ’13
- 181 friends
- 850 reviews
Yummy! My roommate from college is Iranian and she was the first one to introduce me to Persian food. I remember going to her family's apartment and eating zeresh polo and tadig and absolutely loving it. I hadn't had Persian in a while and since my dance class was right by a Persian restaurant, I had to throw it into rotation.
We started with complimentary pita bread with a yogurt dipping sauce and a very tart green sauce. The pita bread was just okay, a bit dry, but the two sauces were tasty. The green sauce was super tart and surprising but had lots of flavor.
For entrees we got the chicken koobideh with the grilled veggies, the sultani kabob and the zeresh polo. My favorites were the sultani kabob and the zeresh polo (too bad there was no tadig tho!) The chicken koobideh was also very juicy and flavourful and it came with lots of various grilled veggies. Portions were huge and I brought enough home for another full meal.
The restaurant was pretty packed which was a really good sign and it looked like a lot of Persians frequent here. I would definitely recommend for your zeresh polo and meat craving! -
- Tanuja G.
- Manhattan, NY
- 1 friend
- 36 reviews
Pretty good food, quick service & couteous waiters. had the lamb shank stew( delish!), mirza ghasemi app and ash mash soup. liked the over all experience . -
- Dan D.
- South Windsor, CT
- 0 friends
- 9 reviews
Two stars: I have to rate based on what I think and I think this is a two-star place. Not because the service was bad- it was great. Not because the ambiance was bad- it was great. From what I'm reading here, it seems the food is enjoyed by Iranians and non-Iranians alike.
I just don't like it. I don't like Iranian food. I find the rice too dry, the meat overcooked, the vegetables cooked down into a pulp, the presentation ugly. The dishes blend herbs which I don't think go together. Flavors are too strong- not in the balanced way that Thai, Szechuan or Korean food is strong- but everything seems to be cloyingly sour. There's no pork or seafood or spice, and I'm also totally not a yogurt guy. So there's really nothing for me here.
I must add that I'm half-Iranian, half-Northern Italian. I remember watching both my grandmothers cook as a child. The delicacy, patience, attention to detail and technique that my nonna's dishes required made my Iranian grandmother's (considered an excellent cook by other Iranians) "put it in a pot and wait a few hours" or "slap it on the grill till its pitch black and douse it in lemon" techniques look amateurish. As in you can probably recreate better version of these dishes at home for way less.
A fine restaurant- if you like Iranian food. Me, I'd go Lebanese, Israeli or Syrian over Iranian any day. -
- Nicole T.
- Manhattan, NY
- 18 friends
- 94 reviews
Delicious! Love Persian food, and this place was excellent.
We were just walking by late on a work night and the restaurant looked so nice we decided to check it out. Even though it was a Monday, the place was surprisingly full - definitely a good sign! The restaurant is quiet and nicely laid out. There is a small bar in the entryway that seats ~5 people, and all the tables have table cloths and cloth napkins.
I ordered the pomegranate chicken and it was amazing! It is cooked into a stew with walnuts and pomegranates and served over rice. It's a little sweet, but delicious. My husband stuck with a traditional chicken kabob with saffron and lemon seasoning. The chicken was seasoned and cooked to perfection and the grilled tomato and onion that came on the side was very yummy.
We will definitely be back here! The food is a little on the pricy side, about $12-16 per plate, but they serve large portions and it's prepared very well. Plus, they give you complimentary pita bread and yogurt in the beginning which goes well with the food. -
- ellie a.
- Manhattan, NY
- 4 friends
- 13 reviews
Ravagh catered my party and I couldn't be more pleased. The presentation of the dishes sent was great. The food delicious and on time. I love going to Ravagh for the great Persian cuisine but loved using them for my party as well. Very reasonable. Thank you! -
- Nabeel A.
- Washington, DC
- 42 friends
- 88 reviews
I guess it's over for me when a strand of hair shows in my food.
I visited Ravagh last night with 4 friends. Everything was fine and enjoyable until I noticed a hair in my food. At that point it was over for me. The waitress told me she will make me another meal and she did.
However I was really surprised to see they actually charged me for the meal. I ended up leaving the meal with my friends.
The way they handled the situation was not professional and left a bad taste in my mouth (literally). -
- Susie M.
- ASTORIA, NY
- 12 friends
- 23 reviews
As someone who tries to stay away from animal, my faves here are the baba ganoush (I order the appetizer and finish the whole thing myself- it's that good!) and the arugula salad (because it's HUGE). My absolute FAV thing about Ravagh is the green "sauce" they give you to dip the pita in. It tastes like there are pepperoncinis in it and omg it's outta this world! -
I tried the beef shish kebob which was basically very large cubes of char-grilled beef. It came on a bed of saffron rice, with a grilled tomato, grilled onion, and grilled green pepper. There was also a small salad with cucumber and pita bread.
The food was decent, but I found the flavors to be one-dimensional. It lacked the depth of truly delicious Persian food. Both the beef and rice could have been more fragrant and flavorful.
It was a filling meal with a large amount of rice, but I've had better. -
- Faraz A.
- Allentown, PA
- 6 friends
- 1 review
Went for lunch. Amazingly reasonable prices for very good food. -
- Glenn C.
- Fair Lawn, NJ
- 30 friends
- 451 reviews
I like persian food. One of my top 5 places is a persian restaurant so i am kind of comparing here to there. Solid fesejoon stew but it was missing some flavors.. Did not have any walnuts so it was a tad sweeter than usual (a bit too sweet.) Sour cherry rice is delicious and a good portion if you are getting a stew. Prices not bad. Weird menu that didnt show non'alcoholic drinks (like doogh) but had them. Bread was ok as was the dipping sauces (yogurt with dill/maast and another one.) Service were nice, woman in front was nice. Waitress seemed rush but friendly
3.6 solid...for now -
- Krits R.
- Jersey City, NJ
- 6 friends
- 53 reviews
Came here for the first time a few years ago after a raving review from a persian friend and been coming since. There is a hearty soup made of dill and other greens with beans and noodles- ash reshteh, this is my winter food blanket. Warm nourishing and probably a little rich but soo nice once it gets cold out. In the kebabs only tried the chicken khobideh, but for a normally adventorous eater i refuse to venture beyond my fav here just cause i know it makes me want to curl up in bed right after hug my grandmom and maybe go to the farm and pick fresh veggies - all metaphors in my head for traditional home cooked food :) but you get the message. Get the ash resteh and the khobideh... its everything thats right in this world :) -
- Aliya F.
- Buckhead, Atlanta, GA
- 10 friends
- 27 reviews
Best Persian restaurant in the nation. Needs more employees. But phenomenal food and extremely friendly servers -
- Naomi P.
- Diamondhead, MS
- 0 friends
- 10 reviews
Amazing - totally authentic. Great prices and great portions. Definitely worth the experience and the time. We're only here for a few more days, but I'm seriously considering going back! -
My sister was once engaged to a Persian man and he introduce us to Persian food. Since then, my mom and I became a fan and so I decided to bring her here to dine since she's been bugging me for quite sometime to do so.
Unfortunately, this restaurant didn't met my expectation, as well as my mom's expectation, as we both left feeling unsatisfied. The decor and ambiance was a bit boring and practical while the service was impersonal.
I would not recommend their Chicken Koobideh Kebob as it tasted dry and lacked flavor. The onion and grilled plum tomato was suppose to add an extra touch but instead it failed. I also thought it was non-sense to charge us an extra $3 for flavored rice when it should have been an option. I don't mind paying more but I just didn't think it was reasonable.
As for their Stew Lamb Shank with Dill Rice it was also another disappointing dish. First off, their rice was absolutely dried and tasted a bit stale as if it has been sitting there for sometime. As for the lamb shank, it was just a shank and it's preparation didn't help make it stand out to make me say wow.
With all said, I can't find myself recommending this place to anyone if their looking for really good Persian food. Instead of going to this restaurant, I would highly recommend Shalezh http://www.yelp.com/biz/… on Yorkville. At Shalezh, they don't charge you extra for flavored rice and their servers are attentive and friendly, while their food is absolutely superb!!! -
Totally satisfying, soul-warming food! Sometimes you just want things to taste good. Crazy how simple it is. I had this place on my radar for years now and regret that I only now got around to trying it.
Ravagh is a cozy no frills restaurant tucked on the very random 30th street, surprisingly close to Herald Square / Ktown hub. I love that it's off the beaten path but by 8pm on a Monday it was essentially bustling with locals. There were tables with full parties of 6-8, and single diners who were very comfortably enjoying a Persian meal.
If you've had Middle Eastern food - Turkish, Lebanese - even if it's in the form of Mamoun's, the food here shouldn't be totally foreign. There are dips, kebabs, stews, and rice. Not super complex, but very good flavors. The kind of dishes where you want to lick the plate clean.
I had a superb dining partner who was game for sharing an eggplant appetizer (the mashed, char-grilled eggplant with tomato and garlic - how AMAZING does that sound), the chickpea dumplings, lamb stew in onion and eggplant, and the sour cherry rice everyone raves around.
Most dishes were delicious, particularly the eggplant which came out warm, and the lamb stew. I'm glad we tried something different from the normal babaganoush, though I'm pretty sure they kill every single eggplant dish on the menu.
The stew is of lick-the-plate caliber.
The only thing that wasn't great was the chickpea dumplings. They didn't have much flavor, I ate one after dipping it in the cucumber yogurt sauce that came at the beginning of the meal.
Cherry basmati rice was interesting -- pretty good on its own with a tart flavor, but a bit strange with the lamb stew. They brought out regular basmati rice by accident, which we both thought went better with the stew than the cherry rice.
The waitress/hostess (she seemed to play both roles) was extremely helpful and kind. When they accidentally brought out regular rice instead of the cherry, she swapped it out (though we ate half, thinking the lamb came with its own rice), and didn't charge us for the extra order of rice.
We were sitting directly in line of vent, so our food got cold pretty quickly. However, this only told us that the food here would make delicious leftovers, eaten cold. -
I should have wrote this review awhile back but hey it's better late than never!
This place is my FAVORITE Persian restaurant. This place is close to the real deal and my boyfriend who is part Persian/French knows this is the good stuff.
To start off they give you complimentary crackers/bread with different sauces - my favorite is the dill one! Vinegary and salty. I usually ask for second rounds for the sauces, that's how much I love them.
Appetizer-- kashk-bademjan (eggplant in their homemade tomato sauce). SO yummy! Tastes similar to the ones that my boyfriend makes. This is definitely a safe dish to try if you are a newbie at Persian food.
Entree-- Beef kabob with rice is made perfectly. I am in love with their meat because it's so tender and I always drench the rice with those sauces mentioned above (I know it's kind of gross but I love sauces). The platter is ginormous and I usually end up giving half of it to the boyfriend (hey that's what bfs are for right? eating your leftovers!)
This was definitely my go to place for Persian food when I use to live in NYC. Just fantastic food, service, and not too expensive! Also a huge plus because they are super close to Comebuy (the best bubble tea place ever!) so you can stop by after dinner at Ravagh's! -
Ravagh delivers fresh, authentic, and delicious Persian food - according to my foodie friend who is Iranian. I'm just going to tell you its tasty and worth exploring if you're new to Persian food. On Monday night at 8 pm, the place was still over 80% full and bustling with Persians and non-Persians alike. The staff are friendly and sassy with the regulars, and the meals are hearty enough to share.
I ordered the Khoresh Bademjan - lamb stew with eggplant and tomato which came with a large side of basmati rice. While the price tag of $16 seemed to be a bit much, the meal actually had enough leftovers for lunch, which made it a huge bang for your buck. The stew was thick, flavorful, and had big chunks of lamb and smoked eggplant. Everything was tender and amazing. I really want to go back and try the kebabs and dips. I just wish I lived closer! Supposedly lunch is awesome, as prices are cheaper and the execution just as good as for dinner. -
- Priyanka P.
- Manhattan, NY
- Elite ’13
- 96 friends
- 143 reviews
Mediterranean salad was HUGE, as was the salmon kebab and chicken kebabs. all succulent and delicious, but I think sharing may have been a better idea.
Good service and as mentioned above, good food. But the crowd is old-ish so don't expect anything buzzing here. I came with good company so I didn't mind. -
- Sienna L.
- Lincoln Park, Chicago, IL
- 2 friends
- 6 reviews
Excellent food! Great service. I'm from SoCal originally and have eaten Persian food in many fine establishments in the US but mostly in California. I must say that this restaurant is at the top of my list to return to. Really enjoyed the good food and atmosphere! I highly recommend it. -
- Q B.
- New York, NY
- 1 friend
- 31 reviews
Amazing food, waitresses were nice and quick, decor is beautiful.
I was here for an engagement party and the bride rented the top floor. It holds about 50 people and kind of tight but it was manageable. We also had space to dance.
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