Ariana Restaurant

Good food no doubt but should greet the customers nicely and make them feel welcomed. Also should consider serving dessert.

Yum Yum! This place is fresh and delicious. Went with a few coworkers after work, we work close by and decided to try a local place for dinner. Ariana’s does not disappoint. The place is clean and tastefully decorated. The owner is friendly and made our experience even better. We ordered several different savory dishes and two desserts and everything was tasty and satisfying. Incredibly refreshing to have such a great food option, so different from the usual. The flavors, the combinations and pairings… and the spices are fantastic!
It is the kind of place where you could go with friends, or date night. I picked up a take-​out menu!

We went here for the first time Saturday evening for dinner, entirely on the strength of the Unilocal reviews. My wife and I considered it one of great new finds in Greater Boston. Excellent décor, tables well-​spaced, courteous staff, very interesting food — particularly the vegetarian choices, which we prefer. We appreciated the relaxed atmosphere, plus since we went on the early side, wonderful light. We will look for excuses to be back soon.

The only good dish here is their Chopan lamb rack for$ 30. Every other dish seems overly cooked. Our waiter was barely polite and had an attitude for some reason. Maybe because we didn’t order alcohol?
I ordered a vegetarian entrée that had spinach with dirt in it. I was uneatable but the waiter never asked how we liked the food. The pallow rice was not any good either. The dish was $ 17.
Do not recommend this restaurant.
Side note: Very clean restroom and restaurant.

Ariana is an excellent restaurant that serves food that is hard to find elsewhere. There are only two other Afghani restaurants in Massachusetts and none in Rhode Island. I went for lunch at Ariana recently and for my main course had the Aushak, which consists of delicate dumplings filled with leeks and scallions, and topped with a very tasty yogurt sauce. I also had the enjoyable and unique Kaddo, a highly enjoyable appetizer made from «baby pumpkins.»
The restaurant is a very clean and bright white-​tablecloth restaurant. I highly recommend Ariana.

Chicken was incredibly tasty, very moist. Spinach side and rice was also great. I want to come back for the lamb and other Afghan specialties. Place has just started serving lunch sonic was empty, but well worth it !

Hands down, this is the best restaurant I’ve been to since moving to Boston back in 2014. There are a variety of vegetarian options to choose from for those who don’t eat meat. The pumpkin, lamb, and eggplant were all great.

This is a wonderful restaurant for lunch or dinner.
Every vegetarian option is delightful. The ambiance is elegant. The service is excellent. Enjoyed every minute. Highly recommend.

The pumpkin is superb! There were many vegetarian options and we had the veggie special and the aushank and one more dish. Everything was great especially the okra and eggplant. For dessert the tea was not special but the baklawa was delicious. Overall a fairly classy place, satisfactory service and delicious food.

The service was good, waiter was attentive and the wine was good. Having eaten a lot of afghani food in NYC this was a cheap imitation. It felt like an americanised afghani restaurant and the food was pretty bland and meat was dry. The wait staff was very patient and accommodating for our needs so I feel bad for an average review.

Is it delicious? Yes.
Is it amazingly delicious? No
Is it worth the price point? Yes for dinner, no for lunch.
Is it authentic? Probably, i have no idea
I also have to mention that the server is incredibly handsome, and I don’t care who knows I said it

Came here for Valentines Day, and the food was amazing. We had the Banjan and Mantu for appetizer, and both were very good. I’m not a big fan of eggplant, but my girlfriend is and she loved it.
My girlfriend had the Sabzi Challow, and the rice was nicely seasoned, and the lamb was nicely seasoned and cooked. The spinach had a dark flavor, which isn’t my favorite, but it was well made and done very well. For a darker flavor I did like it.
I had the Dopiaza, and every part of it was delicious. The lamb was delicious, well cooked and the sauce on top was sweet and delicious. The mushrooms were well-​cooked, and the rice well-​seasoned.
The place itself was simple, and we sat in the back/​side room which was small and relatively quiet with a nice fake fireplace and store-​front windows. It was nice for our Valentine’s dinner, as the main room was quite a bit louder.
All that paired with the reasonable price made for a great experience, and I’d love to go back.

My boyfriend took me to Ariana for Valentine’s Day. We had been to the restaurant before when it was still in Allston, so this was a greatly anticipated «re-​visit.»
It’s a very nice place, with lots of neat wall decorations, what I presume to be Afghani music playing in the background, and great service. Definitely a nice place for a dinner date!
My boyfriend ordered the vegetarian special and I had something similar, just minus the okra and spinach. The pumpkin with the garlic yogurt sauce, spinach, and rice were delicious. The eggplant was cold, but we think that it might have been because of the sauce. For dessert we had Turkish coffee and backlawa — great choices. The backlawa is sweeter and denser than other ones I’ve tried.
When Ariana was still in Allston, I had also tried their mantu, kofta challow, and trout, which I daresay were even better than the vegetarian special. Next time, I’ll probably stick to a meat dish and get something like kaddo as an appetizer.

This place is so amazing, forget Afghan food, this place took my idea of what food could be. I’m a vegetarian and my wife is a meat eater, we both loved it. Absolutely stunning flavor, it feels like Greek food and Indian food had a baby. Absolutely stunning!!!

Ariana is the BEST Afghani food in Boston.
Like many, I appreciate the culinary delights of the Helmand, but the truth is that Ariana wins every time. Their delicious Kaddo (a sweet, fluffy pumpkin pillow with savory meat sauce) and Aushak (scrumptious (possibly hand-​made?) raviolis) are two of my favorite dishes in the city. A perfect dinner is polished off with a turkish coffee and bucklawa. YUM!
The only way in which the Helmand maybe surpasses Ariana is in the size of their portions, but I prefer the quality and taste of Ariana over Helmand.

The quality of the food is delicate and amazing. It’s a simplistic but refined taste and the service is impeccable. The atmosphere is casual with a majestic feel. I have been her twice for lunch and will continue to come for and join them for dinner.

A friend and I met up at Ariana Restaurant for dinner this past weekend. It was my first time at their new venue on Western Avenue.
First of all, I have to say that the service is top notch at this restaurant. They are attentive and gracious. Parking was an easy experience which was not the case in the old venue
Our table ordered Mantu, Mashawa, Qabili, and a trout special. This will sound strange but my favorite part of the entire meal was the carrot portion of the Qabili. Their lamb was better during my previous visit; all chefs/​venues have off days. Diners should try the pallow and challow rice options.

Wonderful pumpkin appetizer, great lamb chops.

Everything we ordered was delicious.
We got the bowlawni and banjan for apps. I really loved that banjan. The bread and sauces that come before the meal are really good too. The bread is fresh/​warm and it was so hard to decide which sauce was the best. I liked the green and the white ones.
For my main meal I asked for advice on what is the most popular dish. I knew I wanted one of the lamb options, so I was happy when the waiter said chopan. It was a very flavorful and tender lamb, and it went really well with the pallow rice. The pallow rice sounded like it would be sweet, but it was only a little sweet, to my happy surprise. The sauteed eggplant that came with it was amazing too.
My friends enjoyed their meals, which of course I sampled and enjoyed too. They had mourgh kabob and the vegetarian special (which included banjan again, to my delight).
The portions were a little small, that’s my only dislike.
The restaurant is very clean and simple. There is some nice Afghan related art on the walls, but not too much. The staff was all very serious and everything came out very quickly and perfectly cooked.

A night of music to remember.
Great food for vegetarians and others, flavorful food and variety of vegetables. Decaf Turkish coffee! Tea with cardamom! Yum!
There was a rubab (music instrument) with a large guitar pick, itching to be heard, but instead we heard the same song for the hour we were there! We didn’t mind, because there’s a lot in the song, and after several repetitions, we still didn’t have all of the intricacies memorized. Unusual approach to ambient music.

So happy Ariana is open in their new location! We really missed this place when they closed their Allston location. It had become our go-​to for special meals out at a great price.
Food: because Afghanistan is historically at a world crossroad, it has a variety of influences you will recognize from other cuisines: Indian, Chinese, Persian.
Appetizers are a steal at $ 5.95. Our favorite is the aushak (ravioli) — we liked the meat version best for its stronger flavors. The vegetarian one is delicious, but more delicate in flavor. Both have an unusual combination of mint and tomato (reminds me of some Sicilian sauces).
Entrees — any lamb dish is excellent, but in particular, the chopan (rack of lamb) — cooked exactly as we ordered it, juicy inside, lightly charred outside, and compared to rack of lamb at most places, a great deal at $ 26.95. Most dishes seem to come with rice (Pallow or challow) which is light and fragrant and a treat in itself. Pallow is flavored with cinnamon, but we preferred the challow, a less spiced rice that allows the flavor of the rice itself to shine. Sounds crazy enthusing about just rice, but it’s outstanding, and far from the heavy, starchy stuff most ethnic restaurants serve. There is a vegetarian menu, too.
Atmosphere: lovely and relaxing, warm ochre walls, tribal rugs decorating hardwood floors, and white linen table cloths, small votive lamps, and a bud vase of fresh flowers on each table. It makes for a romantic spot if that’s what you’re in the mood for, but the comfortable and spacious dining room means they also would be perfect for large gatherings and those dining alone.
Service: eager to be helpful, but low key, making for a relaxing experience.
Wine — short but quality list with enough variety, affordability, and good value to make us happy.
Only gave 4 stars because I wish their dessert offerings were more extensive beyond the rice & pudding based ones. But their offerings are very authentic, just not as appealing to Americans.

I’ve driven by this place countless times and never noticed it. I’m glad I decided to try it out. Very friendly and accommodating waitstaff. Fantastic food at a very reasonable price. A full carafe of house wine is only $ 20, which served us about 5 glasses or so. We were the last ones eating and wound up finishing a half hour after close, and never were we rushed. In fact the waiter brought us a dessert menu (which looked delicious) at 10:25pm and we just took the check instead. Great Middle-​Eastern restaurant. We will definitely be back.

Everything was delicious, not a great choice for kids who don’t like spicy food. Vegetarian platter was delicious. Not as exquisite as the Helmond but another great alternative. Street parking is easy and plentiful.

Despite the unassuming atmosphere, Ariana serves exceptional cuisine.
The meal opened with a basket of warm, round flat bread; somewhat of a cross between naan and pita, the bread serves merely as a vehicle to highlight the three chutney-​like sauces: a mint vinegar sauce, a chili vinegar sauce, and a yogurt sauce. Of the three, the mint-​vinegar sauce was the winner; the tastes of mint and hot pepper dominated with the vinegar used in moderation to accentuate these.
I ordered Korma Challow; however, I also sampled Kofta Challow and the Bowlawni appetizer, which were ordered by others at my table. Though the Korma Challow was flavorful, very succulent and comes highly recommended to those that like lamb, the meatballs in the Kofta Challow were perfectly seasoned with the right balance of savory and spicy. Though I didn’t get to try pallow rice (maybe next time!) the challow rice that came with these dishes felt like a key player rather than an afterthought.
Portions are a small (just enough, not too much) and prices a little high given the portion size (The bill came to $ 80 for three, though in defense, that did include dessert, wine, and Turkish coffee), but please note this is a slightly upscale restaurant serving an uncommon cuisine. In addition, though there is a vegetarian section of the menu, the menu is predominantly tailored to meat eaters, with lamb and beef prominently featured across the board. As lamb is one of my favorite meats, I can’t complain, but this might make it harder to be accommodating with large parties that may include vegan or vegetarian diners.
Not having had Afghani cuisine before, I struggled to find comparisons to other cuisines. Though drawing influences from the culinary legacies of its Indian, Middle Eastern, and Russian neighbors, Afghani cuisine is truly its own product. Despite high prices and somewhat small portions, I would not hesitate to recommend Ariana and would seriously consider returning the next time I’m in Boston.

I know nothing about Afghanistan’s cuisine, but I do know what good food is and this is it. I look forward to expanding my palate by eating my way through the menu. The ambiance is nice, the service is good, and the prices are reasonable. This place is going into my regular rotation. Keep up the good work!

What a lovely dinner we had!
The warm bread is like a flatbread, but not crispy. Served with 3 sauces. Very different, and quite tasty. The Kaddo appetizer is fantastic. We had it with the beef sauce, a great combination. We all had the
Chopan. The lamb was absolute perfection. Char grilled, yum. Can’t wait to go again!

Great food, bad service. I’ll update rating after I visit again, my guess is that the new location means new staff that just aren’t trained yet.
Food was really really good, it just all came out at the wrong time. The menu has Kaddo in 3 different places, one for appetizer, one for a side, and one as part of a dish. I went out of my way to order the side dish version, and made sure the waiter got it. Kaddo came out within 5 minutes, about 45 minutes before the food.
About 30 minutes after the appetizer was served, the waiter came out to let us know that my wife’s dish (manto) had run out, and asked her to order another dish. Should’ve told her this within 5 minutes, not 30 minutes. She ordered a soup, and then our dishes came out about 15 minutes later. By then the table next to us (seated about 15 minutes after us) were pretty much done already with their main courses. I’d ordered the lamb rack, medium-​rare, it came out mostly medium, probably because they had to reheat it to make it hot to come out at the same time as my wife’s delayed dish.
By the time the lamb came out I’d finished my wine, then I couldn’t flag down our waiter to order another one, so I just ate my food with water.
Near the end of our meal, we heard another table nearby complaining about the service and timing as well, so it’s really possible that it’s just new-​restaurant-​kinks being worked out.
I’ll definitely come here again, if only because the quality of food is great. I never loved the lamb dishes at Hellmand, but at Ariana, the lamb was fantastically flavored and cooked (albeit a little over). And I need my Afghan food trifecta fix – I love rotating between a bite of lamb, a sip of cab, a spoonful of kaddo, then repeat, it’s a great combination of flavors and contrasts and palette cleansing.
Reading other reviews, seems people don’t like the emptiness. We went this past Saturday evening – it was completely full at 6:30pm with a great vibe, but pretty empty by the time we left around 8:30pm.

After reading all the good reviews about this restaurant, I decided to try it out. This place was very underwhelming. We went on a Saturday night and the restaurant was empty except for say 4 tables. I was really looking forward to trying the Manto but as soon as we decided to order, our server informed us they had run out. How can you run out of a dish two hours before closing?
Anyways then we settled on another appetizer and two entrees. The menu did not have any variety, as usual afghani restaurants do. Portions are extremely small, especially for the price. Food was nothing special. Never trying this place again.

Great place with an excellent trout dish and vegetarian options. The new location is larger with plenty of parking.

In the intervening time since my last review, Ariana became my favorite restaurant in Boston. I discovered and tried Helmand a couple times but in general I find Ariana more pleasant and less expensive, and the food is comparable. I was very sad when they closed up on Brighton Ave, and thank goodness they’re finally back!
The new neighborhood has less ambiance and foot traffic, but is more family friendly and less chaotic. The space itself is much larger. There’s a private room to one side as well, which they say is available for reservation, so I’m curious to see if they will begin to draw more large parties. Many of the same staff are there and the service was good as usual.
The food seems about the same, which was a relief. The cilantro sauce that comes with the bread is inexplicably different but still great. I think that the pumpkin and okra we had were a little mushier than usual, but they were both still good. And the eggplant was alarmingly lovely. It was mesmerizing almost. Perfect texture with subtle spices. We got a second order.
If you never went to the old location, I don’t think you’ve missed out on anything, but you should definitely go now.

SEE IMPORTANT UPDATE AT BOTTOM
Excellent all around. The food is great, and the owners and staff are so welcoming, friendly and attentive. There aren’t many restaurants where I’ve felt compelled to tell the owner what a pleasure it always is to visit his or her establishment. This is one of them. I almost hesitate to recommend specific dishes, because I’ve loved everything I’ve tried here. I really like the mourgh challow, any of the soups and any of the lamb dishes. I’ve heard people rave about the pumpkin as well. For dessert I definitely recommend the feereny, which is a white pudding with fresh strawberries, pineapple, blueberries and kiwi.
REVISED UPDATE: ARIANA REOPENING AUGUST 29, 2015
Ariana has been closed for a while, but I’m happy to see the following message now on its website:
Ariana Restaurant will be reopening in our new
location on Saturday ⁸⁄₂₉ after six months of
construction. We hope to see everyone soon!