Alborz Persian Cuisine

Service is always good. Their koobideh is the best in sf in my opinion. The yogurt cucumber and salad shirazi is always on point. The chicken kabob always seems kinda dry and lacks flavor. Prices are good compared to other sf Persian restaurants.

Alborz is one of the few Persian places in SF. The staff here are super friendly and very accommodating. Azar joon is always welcoming and tries to make people’s experience there special. I have been to Alborz with my friends several times and they all enjoyed the food. The food is not of top quality Persian food, but it is satisfactory and delicious. Their kababs are ok, but I am not actually a big fan of their stews (khoresh).

Mediocre and very expensive for the quality. Came with a large group and there was an overwhelming verdict of meh.

Super delicious Persian food full of flavor. I ordered delivery and everything was well packaged and hot. I ordered the Zereshk Polo and it was some of the best chicken I’ve had. 3 good meaty size Chicken thighs cooked to perfection. Super moist and flavorful as it appears they are covered/​stewed in some type of gravy. A hefty serving of their infamous saffron rice cooked with barberries. Tangy but not overwhelming. That rice is good with a little bit of that chicken gravy poured over it. Also ordered the Baba Ganoush and it met my expectations. Smoky, garlicky and all well puréed. I love this stuff! They threw in some of their Sabzi, pats of butter and some pita which I’ve heard is customary when you eat at their restaurant. Lots of food and it made my belly smile. Definitely looking forward to visiting the restaurant and ordering delivery for those rainy (lazy) days.

We have come here for years. Today’s visit however was very different from ones before. Our food did not taste the way it has tasted before. For some reason everything did not taste right. The rice tasted like it was reheated or something. I don’t know if that had anything to do with us being the first ones in the restaurant as they opened. We were very disappointed because we come here every time we come into the city. Also, I felt like our whole meal was very over priced for what we were getting. We had actually ordered a salad with a skewer of chicken for $ 20. When it came out it barely had any lettuce. «Salad» with chicken for $ 20?!? No thank you! Our serve has us sit in the corner which would have been fine if we continued to get refines on our drinks but we didn’t. We are from this culture and know what real authentic kabobs are suppose to taste like… unfortunately…today we felt like we were cheated.

I’ve actually stood outside this place many times, while waiting for the bus (47 & 49). But I haven’t had time to stop in.
Food = good.
Tabletop flatbread with sliced onions and parsley and butter to start. Delicious.
Aash Reshteh = Persian noodle soup with fresh herbs and pinto beans, topped with fried onion and whey. Hearty soup, and full of flavor. Cup for $ 4.95. (Lunch date had the bowl for $ 6.95.)
Gheymeh Bodemjan = Lean tender beef with yellow split pears and eggplant braised in tomato broth with fried eggplant. Comes with rice. Delicious and definitely too much for me after the cup of soup. $ 14.95.
Joogeh kabob = Skewer of chicken breast marinated in lime, saffron and olive oil. Comes with rice. Lunch date says it’s one of her favorites. $ 13.95.
Prices = moderate but hearty portions. Lunch for two came out to $ 45.00 with leftovers.
Service = friendly. Currently, they’re a bit short staffed currently, so a bit slow, as they’re trying to do everything from serving, bussing and checking on every single table.
Seating = plenty. This is a good place for groups.

This spot is by my work and I finally went! I ordered Doogh, khoreshte bademjoon, salad shirazi, and ghormeh sabzi on tahdig.
The tahdig is NOON TAHDIG (bread tahdig) which got huge points from me.
The Ghormeh Sabzi was also really good, no complaints.
The salad shirazi had a bit too much olive oil in it for my taste.
The Kashke bademjoon was fine– not my favorite.
The Doogh was excellent
The restaurant was cute and very clean, with persian décor, the servers were very nice and accommodating. The food came out quickly and I was in and out of there in half an hour as I was in a bit of a rush. Would definitely go back next time I’m at work and craving persian food.

This place is off da sheezy eh. The tahdig entrée is bomb — three stews for 15 bucks with tahdig, it can’t be beat! Also, their kabobs are delicious. If you’ve never tried persian food, this is a must!
I also go here pretty religiously every Saturday post-​workout. Gotta get dem gainz #yolo

I remember my friends wife cooked Amazing Rice with saffron and raisins in it, i wanted that again, so i found this Alborz on Unilocal,the items i wanted were there, a little different, on their menu on Unilocal was one price, thinking it was valid, I ordered 2 orders of rice and one small small, salad consisting of tomatos, cucumbers, onion lemon juice, i go to pick it up the bill was $ 23.87 for 2 orders of rice and small salad ! i said what, on your menu on Unilocal is lower, they said oh that is an old menu, What you should update it, I think its a Ploy to get new customers, they do it on purpose. the rice was just ok, it didn’t need nuts and orange peel. I shouldn’t have to ask if the prices are up to date online, i’ve noticed some restaurants do the same with the menu printed outside on the wall, i just ask you to update the prices to reflect the real price.

Great food, and great service that has stayed persistent over the years. My favorite Persian restaurant in SF.

good food. nice people.
i have been going there since they first opened up around 12 years (?) ago…

I like this spot. Don’t let the exterior fool you. The interior isn’t run down at all. I’ve only ever gotten their chicken and beef kabobs and it tastes like home cooking to me. They give an unreasonably large amount of rice with the kabobs but lots of Persian restaurants do that. Apparently rice is flows freely from the heavens and you leave what you can’t eat for the gods. I haven’t heard Odin complain yet so I’m OK with it. The flavors are on point for Persian food. Both Maykadeh and Lavash are also good choices for Persian food but I prefer this spot.
Persian pro-​tip: When getting kabobs ask for a raw egg yolk and mix it with your rice. Double butter!

I tried a couple of dishes at alborz and everything was absolutely amazing. My main dish was chicken kabob with rice and everything was moist and cooked perfectly. We accidentally ordered an appetizer with meat and the server took it without a fit and was pleased to bring us another vegetarian option. Also the cook checked on us to make sure everything tasted fine, I was very pleased with service and the food will be coming back.

The Unilocal price for Ghormesabzy was $ 13.95 with rice, but when we picked it up to go they charged us $ 15.95 for a very small portion. We called to complain and the manager was unsympathetic. I would’ve given them 3 stars but they get 1 star for their bad customer service.

The waitress did not smile, the bus boy did not smile.
The ground beef kabob was bland.
The pita bread and the rice were not special.
Given the fact that the restaurant was almost empty, I expected better service.

After coming here a couple of times, I decided to finally write a review.
Food: we always get tadeeg with two different types of stew and shirazi salad or mast e moosir as appetizers. We then order a soltani and kabob barg (or if i remember correctly they have a special for two) as entrees. We usually skip out on dessert but sometimes have tea if we are in a large group and want to stay longer to hangout/​talk. The food has always been delicious.
Customer service: they have always considered our requests and been very friendly. We appreciate the smiles on their face to create a friendly environment.
Price: I think it’s moderate and fair. It is not too pricy, and if you are in the bay area you should be able to afford it
I definitely recommend this restaurant to all the Persian food lovers!

Great baghali polo with basmati rice. But I’m not happy with utensils and plates. Were very old and had a feeling of dirty.
And also decorations and atmosphere is not really Persian style.
But service and food is good. Tnx.

When it comes to Persian food, Alborz is to Anar (review:
) like Tuba (review:
) is to A La Turca (review:
) on the Turkish culinary palate, meaning I would be comparing an upscale white-​tablecloth dinner with its down home-​style counterpart. Do I favor one style over the other? It depends partially on my mood and the state of my wallet but mostly it depends on execution. I have higher expectations that the chef will hit it out of the ballpark in the white-​tablecloth restaurant, even if it’s in the middle of Teheran, but Alborz merely hits a grounder and barely gets a man on base. I convinced Jamie W. to come here after we shopped for moonshine at the BevMo across the street. We had a hankering after we had a taste of some in North Carolina. Don’t judge me.
Anyway, we entered Alborz and were immediately seated at a table facing Van Ness between two rather loud parties. My guess is that they just want to show passers-​by that they are a popular, convivial spot even though the rest of the restaurant was empty. Their specialty centers around their kabobs since there was an entire page devoted to all sorts of variations on them (photo:
), but first we focused on the appetizers as the server handed us some thin pita and raw onion with bits of parsley (photo:
). I assume that we were supposed to hand-​roll some onion wraps since there were Land O’ Lakes butter pats really to smear over the pita. While we did that, I decided we should try the $ 9 Tah Dig billed as «crispy rice topped with one kind stew». I wasn’t sure what to do with that obscure description.
At the same time, I was familiar with the dish because an Iranian colleague of mine ordered it off-​menu at Anar. That was delicious, but this version was not quite as good. It was a chili-​like sauce with bits of beef and chickpeas over a flat of pan-​fried rice (photo:
). It was more about the chili than the rice. Ordering our entrees was easy since it was all about the kabobs, but this is where it would have been helpful if there was a translation of some of the terms in the description so the layman would know if he is eating lamb or chicken. Jamie went for the $ 18.95 Joogeh Soltani which consisted of one skewer of chicken marinated with saffron (Joogeh) and minced onion and another skewer with ground lamb and chopped onions (Koobideh) (photo:
). It was decent enough, but the chicken was not nearly as moist as either of us wanted.
The ground lamb, however, was fine. Mine was the more expensive $ 24.95 Soltani (or Sultan’s meal) which consisted of the Koobideh as well as Barg, a more filet cut of lamb marinated with olive oil and grilled (photo:
). It was certainly meatier than Jamie’s order, but it frankly didn’t appear to be worth the premium to order. We both had the same satisfying sides, a grilled tomato and basmati rice with streaks of saffron. By this time, we were well on our way on the meh train, but we decided to go for their premium price creation, the $ 8 Maklut, a combination of Persian ice cream with saffron and iced rice noodles frozen in rose water (photo:
). It was certainly not anything I’ve ever had before. I liked it enough, Jamie not so much. That pretty much summarizes our whole evening there.
FOOD — 3 stars… rather pricey Persian fare and only sporadically interesting
AMBIANCE — 3.5 stars… big place but i wish they wouldn’t crowd us against the window
SERVICE — 3 stars… enthusiasm was on neutral here
TOTAL — 3 stars… I think Anar wins the battle of the classes on this one

This is a very nice Persian restaurant. It is fairly quiet. It has a nice and elegant ambiance. It has good customer service.
During my visit, I tried the complementary pita bread, koobideh (ground beef), and Makhlut. The pita bread was warm and fresh and it was served with butter. The koobideh was very good. It was a kebab served with buttered rice and vegetables. The meat was moist and tasty. The rice was moist, fluffy and delicious. The grilled vegetables were good. The Makhlut desert was excellent. It consisted of two deserts, one was the Faloodeh and the other was the Persian ice cream. It also came with some lemon juice. The desert was tasty and refreshing.
I enjoyed dinning at this restaurant.

Great location, atmosphere and service. the food quality is great too but it can vary. The best in this restaurant is the crispy rice with pomegranate sauce. It’s so gooood.