Pamir Kabob House

We came here for a private event, buffet style, and it was awesome! The bread was fresh and soft, the variety of meats was amazing (ground chicken kabob, kubideh, lamb shanks, chicken breast kabob, and spicy chicken kabob made from thighs). I heard they have a great (and cheap) lunch buffet as well. Will definitely have to try it out.

It was Mom and Son date night and I, like most people, are hesitant to eat at a place where every single table is empty during prime dinner hours. That feeling resonated as soon as my Mom and I walked in to find that there wasn’t a single person eating here… at 6:30pm, which we can all agree is during prime dinner rush hours. Part of me was ready to turn around and leave and I could tell by the look on my Mom’s face that she felt the same. But we decided to stay and try it out as previous reviews have stated that it’s under new management. (It’s called Shish Kabob Express Now.)
The food was suprisingly great and my Mom agreed. We ordered the Lamb Kabob platter and Kubideh (Spicy Beef) Kabob platter. We both love spicy food so we requested that they kick up the spiciness a notch for the Kubideh Kabob and they gladly accommodated… it packed a flavorful punch. The naan was quite nice as well.
I did find it a bit odd that the guy that brought our food out was wearing headphones that were blasting music, but he was still nice and the food was pretty darn good so I can easily disregard that.
I also noticed a sign that they have a Lunch buffet so I’ll have to give that a try when I’m back in the area. Definitely a great find and happy we ended up staying.

Now called Shishkabob Express.
First time visit today and was pretty jazzed by its $ 10 buffet of kabobs and related sides. They’re apparently under new management and really eager to please. The restaurant is larger than it appears from the outside, and the dining area is better than you’d think from a place with «Express» in the name. I was the first customer at 11:30am today, and by 12:30pm it was practically full so this is a popular place already. The buffet food itself was great. I didn’t count all the items available but it was north of fifteen, so there was plenty to choose from. Fountain drinks were only $ 1 and included self-​refills. I included two pix from today so be sure to check them out. I definitely recommend this nice little café, one of the places I’ll visit on a weekly basis. Final thing, no wifi available but I get a strong Sprint Wimax signal there.

Gyro was good. They were about to close but they still let us in :). Kabob was not great may be because it was closing time. Its worth giving a another shot.

Love this place! Came here a few weeks ago, the place was empty but the owner Said was very helpful, even found some eggplants from the back because I’m not the biggest fan of chickpeas.
I came here during an odd time, the place was empty but the chicken was tender and the rice just the right moisture… I don’t know what’s wrong with some of the posters here.
Will have to come back for the lunch buffet!

I didn’t care for the food here, but seeing their other reviews, it might just be due to my own personal preference. I didn’t care for the spices used on the rice, and kabobs were just ok. I ate at Charcoal Kabob earlier in the week, and prefer their style /​flavors.
I will say that the pricing here is cheaper than Charcoak Kabob though.

Pamir’s is one of the best hole-​in-​the-​wall kabob places in the herndon vicinity of the greater dc metro area. They don’t seem to get much business for some reason… but their food is fantastic and have amazing special deals. I always get the chicken special with chickpeas. you can’t go wrong with this order… I will keep coming back and will always order the same thing… nuff said.

Very good lamb platter and samoa. I would definitely go back.

I only go eat to this area after the Business Lunch is over. Love the buffet especially the chicken tandoori and lamb. The lamb is a bit on the dry side because they cut out too much fat or just chose the cheap cuts of the lamb. Be definitely coming back in a month or so to check if the owner have done some improvements on the menu.

Three and a half stars. Their buffet runs an hour longer than the sushi place next door, but I arrived with barely any time to spare so I ordered off the menu. The guy behind the counter was soft-​spoken and very polite; I appreciated being warned that the bone-​in chicken would take an extra 20 minutes since I was in a hurry to get back to the office. It was humorous seeing the social divide of workforce bachelors eating at small tables facing the TV, and parties of two chatting on the other half of the restaurant.
Sambosas were moderately spiced with finely chopped filling, like a delicious hybrid of wonton and samosa. Chicken breast kabob wasn’t too dry, but the green sauce and thick yogurt sauce were welcome additions. Rice very wet. Standard salad veg, subtle spicing of the chickpeas. Naan was crispy and on the thin side, folded in half to fit easily in the takeout bag. I’ll be back to try their lunch buffet, and partake in another order of sambosas to go.

I go there because it’s near by my work and it’s the only halal place around. However the food could be better, it’s on the dryside. The portion size is average. Overall I will continue to go since it’s the only option I have.

Walked into Pamir for the third time and got exactly what I expected – a small but decent buffet at a great price ($ 7.95 plus tax without drink). I’ve been here three or four times since last October and the food has always tasted the same. Maybe a few variations in the buffet line but overall, everything is consistent. I always leave stuffed and satisfied.
If you work in the Herndon/​Reston area and like Middle Eastern food, Pamir makes a great lunch spot to frequent.

Don’t know what the other reviews are saying.. . The buffet is very good and the staff is friendly. Not a great drink selection but there are 16 menu items to choose from and are in English so you aren’t wondering what you ordered. (rated 5 stars to offset bad ratings).
Meat is tender, rice fresh, green sauce is amazing, decent buffet selection.

Lots of mixed reviews. They are under new ownership as of 3 months or so ago, and I like this place.
8.95 gets me two kabobs (usually chicken and lamb or kubideh), fresh bread, salad, rice, and chickpeas. You can pick something else if you don’t like chickpeas.
It quick, cheap, and good. The staff is very courteous and I’m in here at least once a week when I’m working in Herdon.

The young lady who runs the cashier is very friendly! the price is great for the amount they give you and the food is great! I brought my husband there for the first time today and he loved it! Of all the kabob places, he loved it most along w/​Reston Kabob (it was a tie). I usually am a fan of MOby Dick but this place is great! for $ 6.75 you can get a special: 4 pieces of meat (chicken, lamb, beef and something else — i forget), salad, naan, and a side (chick peas, potato, squash, etc) PLUS a soda! It’s like a kabob happy meal to me! LOL!!! Highly recommended!!!

It’s average, not in a bad sense, but in that I expected more flavor from the food. I had the lamb and chicken kabob platter. The meat was a little on the dry side, but not disappointingly so. The rice was fine, the potatoes were good, the yogurt sauce was tasty; next time I’ll ask for a little more. Overall, not bad for takeout, I just wish it was a little spicier (I’ll ask for that next time, too).

I heard there were new owners, so I decided to try it out. The thing that caught my eye first was the renovation, they did a great job! I ordered the Kubideh Kabob, which comes with bread, rice, kabob, salad, and a side of your choice. The kabob was very juicy and flavorful, definitely a change from the other owner. The rice was very flavorful as well. The bread had a great smell to it, and the chef made it extra soft, as I requested. Overall, great improvement and nothing bad to say about this restaurant. Highly recommended to anyone craving flavorful and rich food.

so, i work in the worldgate shopping center and have only been to 2 or 3 of the restaurants because they look «safe,» not in a ghetto way but in a way that i hope i will have a good meal/​experience and not get sick or something.
well, after work one night i was starving. and i LOVE kabob and have passed this place many times so i went in, thankful they were open until 10 p.m. i ordered the ground beef (koobideh), my usual at moby dick. i nibbled on the bread on the drive home which wasn’t bad but theres definitely room for improvement. i got home, opened my styrofoam container and looked at the meat, it looked well, different. taste = ive had MUCH, MUCH better. i only ate one of my pieces. the rice was bland and not steaming. they’re version of the yogurt sauce is just okay, it was a little thick and very yogurt based with not much flavor. i LOVED, however, the spicy green sauce they gave to me. much better than moby dick’s because it is thicker. but other than that spicy green sauce, ill pass.

I wish there was a half star because thats EXACTLY what this deserves. I read what Chad wrote and thought to myself ‘It cant be that BAD’. I was right, it wasn’t THAT bad because it was WORSE. Stay away from this place.

Some colleagues mentioned in passing that there was a new kabob restaurant over in the Herndon Worldgate so I stopped by to check it out for lunch. Parking at the Worldgate is always impossible, and this time I spent a few minutes driving in circles before I cut someone off and snagged a spot. Survival of the fittest.
The windows for this place advertise «Fine Afghan Cuisine», so I expected another good meal. To be blunt, I was completely disappointed, and I doubt I would ever come here again. There wasn’t a single morsel that I put into my mouth that I thought tasted good. It was so bad that I have to break it down into sections.
I ordered the Lamb Kabob platter with rice, salad, and bread.
The Lamb — The lamb was… interesting. It was hard to chew, almost stale, and the marination left the kabob itself crusty on the outside. The taste of the meat itself was bland, covered by copious amounts of garlic, and a horrible lack of salt — not exactly a preferable lamb marination. I was beginning to doubt how «Fine» this «Afghan Cuisine» really was.
The Rice — The only rice that I have had at any kabob restaurant that I can consider «Fine» is Shamshiry’s. Everywhere else has decent to average, maybe even good rice. But Pamir Kabob House may as well be serving it raw, because both of their two styles of rice lacks basic essential flavoring, and the texture is indicative of rawness. Rice should be moist, steamy, and aromatic; it should bring all the various pieces of a dish together. Pamir’s rice was dry and saltless, and it helped ruin my lunch.
The Bread — the bread was essentially raw dough, almost like Ethiopian Injera. The texture was rubbery, and it was tough to rip a piece off. Good tandoori bread should be crispy on the edges and subtly flaky as you make your way towards the soft center. The stuff they gave me here was just rubber, and it tasted like raw flour. I didn’t eat more than a few pieces of this because by now I had realized I got gypped.
The Salad — the salad wasn’t spectacular, but I guess it served the purpose. The dressing it came with was good; pretty similar to what I’ve had at other Afghan restaurants. But I came for the meat, not the salad, so I can’t say this really did anything to change my already set opinion that this was a pretty terrible place to eat.
Now I don’t know if I came on a bad day, if the chef quit on them the day before and they had to improvise a recipe, or what the hell happened, but I’ve eaten at a lot of solid kabob restaurants, and this one just really disappointed me. I think they are pretty new, and only opened a couple of months ago, so hopefully for their sake they will get their act together. But until then, granted all the other great eateries in Herndon, there is absolutely nothing that would have me come back to this place.