Daarbaand

As a Persian myself, my mother and I regularly eat here whenever we want to have Persian food in the city. The owner is very friendly and the restaurant itself is very cosy!
I would recommend everyone, Persian or not, to eat at this Persian restaurant!

Having been exposed to Persian cuisine in LA at my friends’ homes and at restaurants I was quite impressed with the tastiest lamb dish to date served roasted with apricots and dates. My compliments to the chef!

AMAZING Persian food! I saw the pictures here on Unilocal and had a sudden craving for Persian food, and this place did not disappoint. I had the Joeje (grilled chicken) kebab, which was served with basmati rice and grilled tomatoes… the meat was seasoned to perfection and very juicy and tangy. The owner (or I think that is who he was) was very friendly and attentive. Oh and this place has free wifi for guests dining with them. I plan on returning before leaving Amsterdam!

Yum! Checked out this restaurant last night and loved it. The lamb kabab was so juicy and delicious. It came with rice and grilled tomato.
Prices were reasonable except for the coffee. We wanted to order a cup after our meal but it was € 6.95!!! We ended up going down the street to Starbucks and ordered a venti (large) for € 4.50. The price for coffee would be my only complaint.

Absolutely delicious! I love Iranian food and was so happy to find this place near by. the owner was wonderful and even when I asked for a few items that weren’t on the menu. they magically appeared. I didn’t take photos but I will be back and will do so on my return!

I’m not quite sure how these other people rated this place so highly. Maybe they’ve never had Persian food before in their life.
When you first walk into this place, it seems charming and all but looks are deceiving. Maybe as an American, my standards for customer service are much higher than Europe’s.
They claimed to be halal, but I don’t know if the owner lied to me just to make a sale. From the menu, it seems like they have quite the selection of Persian dishes. I ordered something very simple– joojeh kabab. It looked delicious, but was so bland & tasteless. Devoid of spices & cooked with hate, I only ate a few bites. Even the sumac tasted off and couldn’t save the dish. The rice was extremely bland as well. What a waste of money.
I wanted a taste of home, but left wanting to get on a direct flight to Tehran or even Atlanta, where Persians immigrants know how to represent.

Located on the Overtoom in a small restaurant you can find Persian food from Iran at it’s finest. It appeared like the owner was doing everything, the taking of food orders, waiting on the table, cooking the meal and finally acting as the cashier. It wasn’t that busy so he handled it quite well. He was very charming, friendly and welcoming. It was a very comfortable, relaxed environment., peaceful even. The music though relaxing was the same musical phrase being repeated ad infinitum. It was vaguely annoying. The décor was newish modern deco with soft lighting and colours.
We started with a complimentary appetizer which were deep fried and triangle shaped. They were tasty and spicy. For my main course I had the stewed lamb with vegetables. It came with fried potatoes and a green salad. My dish was a lamb shank stewed with carrots, onions, mushrooms and what seemed like eggplant. It was very spicy. I think next time, yes there will be a next time, I’ll try a sampler being there were so many different dishes to choose from. To tame the spicy aftermath in my mouth I decided to have a little bahklava as a dessert. I’ve had better, fluffier, crispier but it was still good.
And finally for you dog people out there they are dog friendly!

Take this place off the list … The service was s#!t… The food was dried up kabob, kookoo sabzi– full of oil and the herbs they used were still dry … and we were starving… still waiting for our bill an hour after finishing :-(
The only reason for 2 stars was for the soup and that the location was easily accessible by the tram… dropped you right in front.

We were looking for a traditional Iranian kebab in Amsterdam and found this cozy restaurant. I strongly recommend its Koobideh kebab :) personnel are friendly and great in playing Iranian host role.

I was undecided about giving this a 4 or a 5 because it’s missing ambiance. But now that I’m writing this almost a week after I ate there, it definitely is deserving of 5 stars since I’ve probably thought about that meal every day this week and I want to go back for more. It was sooooo yum.
Unfortunately since a week has passed I can’t remember the names of the dishes but we ordered the mixed grill (the one with the beef and the lamb) and the chicken dish with rice that another Unilocaled raved about in a previous review. All were delish!
The service is friendly and attentive. It’s a little too bright in there but it didn’t matter, I was focused on savoring my meal and not on the décor.
It’s also a good value. There are many comfort foods that are ridiculously more expensive in Amsterdam than in NYC and for once this was actually a better price. Icing on the cake.

Can I just say that this was one of the many memorable meals we ate in Amsterdam (¹¹⁄₂₀₁₂)?
I had the Pollo Alballoo, which was a glorious meal. It’s a chicken dish with sour cherry rice. I think that I finished my entire meal (which is something I rarely do, portion control). My partner had something similar to a chicken tandoori dish which he thought was also really good.
We’re from the SF Bay Area, which has a number of Iranian/​Persian restaurants. We tried many Iranian/​Persian restaurants in search of a meal comparable to Daarbaand’s version of Pollo Alballo, only to be disappointed. Unfortunately, nothing compares!
When we visit to Amsterdam again, we will order the Pollo Alballoo again!

It’s hard to find Persian, let alone great Persian food. We split a four kebab meal after an appetizer of khorma. The khorma was a mixture of sweet and savory and really didn’t work. The kebabs were two koobideh, one chicken joojeh, and one lamb barg. My wife enjoyed the koobideh, which is just a ground lamb with some spices. My usual favorite, chicken joojeh, had little taste (although it did have yellow coloring from the saffron), and the barg, our favorite that evening, was excellent. I’ve made joojeh at home that was much better than what was served making this a disappointment. Sorry Daar Baand, your one chance didn’t meet expectations.

So, my mom is Iranian. This, of course, makes me half Persian. I was not raised with Persian cuisine, because my mom is not a great cook.
We now have established the taste of Persian food is not common to me. I have tried some dished at fiends places, but didn’t like them most of the time. It all tastes so much different then I’m used to. My most favourite dish is ‘zereshk poloh’ with ‘kabab kubideh’ (rice with barberries and kebab). Here at Daarbaand I tried a lamb stew dish I would usually not order, because it tried it somewhere before and was actually disgusted. I loved it! Maybe my taste has developed in a way that I appreciate this more (I was a little kid back then) or this is just a great place to eat.
Also, try the ‘doogh’ drink. It’s a Persian fizzy buttermilk with herbs. You’ll either love it or hate it.

I wasn’t hungry anymore… but I so wanted to keep eating… luckily my wallet prevented me from going on.
This review will be slightly biased since I have Persian heritage, but unlike most people who will turn knit picky and judgmental because their «mom can do it better» or whatever, I find this place absolutely delightful because you don’t have many Persian restaurants in Holland and this place simply nails it with textures and flavors.
If you think you know «KEBOB» then forget everything you think you know. «kebob/​kebab» is a Persian word which simply means «grilled food» or more accurately «charbroiled food». Anything can be kebob, even a tomato.
The flavor of the ground meat kebob here is superb!!! Ground meat is called «koobideh» and I highly recommend it. You get a portion of white high grade basmati rice topped off with some saffron basmati rice. The rice is VERY flavorful, floral and the texture is very, very good! Persian style rice is absolutely NON-​sticky basmati with a soft core. They cook it and then steam it. You get two charbroiled tomatoes on the side with your dish which is awesome! I love charbroiled tomatoes on the side, and so will you! (seriously, shut up and try it).
When I put the first piece of «koobideh» (charbroiled ground meat) in my mouth it was, and I took the liberty to translate this awesome Dutch saying that I’ve adopted because it makes sense, an angel was pissing on my tongue. It was THAT good!
The service is very typical Persian as well. Nice, attentive and warm! He kept calling me and my cousin «my darling» in Persian, kind of a-​la chef Ramsey. It’s been a while since I’ve been around real Persians so it felt refreshing and warm.
Persians have this sour yoghurt drink that’s thinner than buttermilk and they add mountain herbs to it from the Persian regions and it’s called «doogh». However, here they have a commercial version of it that I really liked it’s without the herbs but its carbonated instead! A fizzy buttermilk! Awesome. BUT, in all honesty, this is something that you will either absolutely hate or absolutely love. So be warned.
And then we had Persian ice cream! (I forgot to take a picture as I gobbled it down before the waiter/​owner could let go of the dish itself). It’s flavored with natural ingredients such as rosewater, saffron and pistachios. I’d go there for just that alone!
If there’s a pet peeve then it’s the saffron topped rice which didn’t really taste like saffron but had the color, only. Perhaps because of the high cost of saffron, the relatively cheap menu and because the busy night that they came short. I don’t know but honestly, I don’t mind that much since the rice itself was very fruity and floral in flavor.