Bamiyan is the upstairs lounge of Punjabi Indian Restaurant, with a menu of dishes from the Afghan highlands. In fact, the Bamiyan menu is available downstairs in Punjabi ,too, leaving the third-floor more of an overspill for busy days.

Even though Afghan food maybe relatively unexplored culinary territory – this is Beijing’s first Afghan restaurant – delving deep is easy. We started with a bowl of dal ka soup; a broth ever-so-slightly thickened with puréed lentils, with a texture that holds on to the paired flavours of warming seasonings and lemon citrus. An Afghan staple, kabuli pullao is a rice-based dish that mixes carrots, onions, raisins and spice with fragrant grains. The cooling cucumber and yoghurt sauce served on the side mutes the already mild flavors but can be put to good use after a feast of spicy curries. In particular, the kofta curry is a hit. The moist lamb meatballs in a spicy tomato paste left our mouth buzzing, while the cashews and raisins add a little personality to the heat.

Earning equal praise was the BBQ black pepper chicken sizzling on a cast-iron plate, simultaneously charred on the outside and juicy on the inside. Some dishes didn’t fit our palate: the fried shammi kebab that blends lamb, lentils and potatoes was so dry and gummy that even the mint and tamarind sauces couldn’t make it appetising.

Bamiyan’s dishes offer more delicate flavours to the more robust northern Indian curries of Punjabi, but diners can mix it up by ordering from both menus, which we plan to do on our return visit.

Address: Third Floor, C-8 Lucky Street, Chaoyang Gongyuan Lu, Chaoyang District 朝阳区朝阳公园路1号好运街C-8号3层

Source: timeoutbeijing.com