Darulkabab (where the KFC used to be at Massachusetts Avenue and Walden in Cambridge)

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

In general, I am not much for writing restaurant reviews, but this place, open for the last few weeks, merits at least a mention. We went Wednesday night, we found the food well-prepared and staff super-friendly, and the prices very reasonable. They advertise Bangledeshi, Indian and Pakistani quisine, with some other more local favortes like pizza, burgers, and wraps. I got a gyro and a poori (poori's have a special place in my heart and I was not disappointed) ant the person I was with got lamb kebabs and a vegetable samosa. We both enjoyed what we ordered.

The interior was not fancy, but neat, pleasant, and well-kept.

Warning: they do not yet have everything on their menu (which at the moment has over 120 items) and are trying to figure out what to keep. I very much wanted to order the virgin pina colada, but I was the first one to order it in the two weeks they had been open, so rather than make it and throw it away each night, they just stopped offering it (if you went in and requested the pina colada, I would be most appreciative:)

We will definitely be going there again. If you have anything to add, please comment.

Comments

[emannths.livejournal.com]

I ate there (dine-in) last week. Very tasty. But as those on Yelp have noted, they need to get a better idea of what they want to be from a service standpoint. It seems like it's confusing for both the customers and the staff, and the lack of things like waiter stations and waitstaff assigned to specific tables makes the dine-in experience slow and confusing.

I hope they get that straightened out, because the food and the prices are both quite good.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

Interesting; they were pretty quick for us and, though they were not super-crowded, they did have a number of other tables occupied.

I expect they will get it together; they have only been open for less than 3 weeks at this point, so it makes sense that they might take a bit of time straightening this sort of things out.

You mentioned that the food was tasty (as was ours); do you happen to remember what you ordered? Pretty much all of the food I saw in the glass display looked appetizing, but a firsthand opinion of anything in particular would be appreciated.

[emannths.livejournal.com]

It was a Friday around 8, but it wasn't more than half-full. The host (owner?) and waitress alternated in tending to us, so we were often asked twice about things like "are you ready to order?" The only POS terminal is the one by the steam table, and there were often at least two employees piled up there waiting to use it or trying to figure out how to use it. And it was unclear if we were supposed to seat outselves, wait to be seated, go to the steam table, etc, as there was no one greeting people walking in the door. Being fully aware that these guys are new (and that the location seems to be cursed), I'm perfectly happy giving them the benefit of the doubt on these sorts of things. It looks like some on Yelp are less forgiving though. They're definitely trying though--while we were there someone called up to order delivery from Arlington. He was told initially that he was outside their delivery area, but they reconsidered and said they'd deliver and let him know if it was too far for future orders. I thought that was nice.

As far as the food goes, we got a couple samosas (good filling, though I would have preferred the wrapper to be more "fried"), the goat curry, and a chicken curry that I don't remember the name of (keemu or something? I think the description included green chilies, which stood out to me). Both curries were really good--they came out looking like doppelgangers, but their flavors were quite distinct. I like that they offer the choice of bone-in or boneless meat for both curries. We chose bone-in, which I think was the right way to go, but be aware that the bone-in chicken was two small drumsticks and a couple pieces of back (I can see the "half of my chicken was all bones!" whine already). The naan looked good--I'm making a point of ordering it next time.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

Huh--the wrapper of the samosa the person with me ordered was notably good--crispy and kinda perfect. Maybe individual orders are different according to the time of day, the cook, or the stars above!:) Lucky for the person with me that he could see it in the display case and it looked pretty good (though maybe you can't always judge by just looking, I don't know, I don't order them much).

Thank you for the thorough review!

[emannths.livejournal.com]

My wife thought the samosa wrapper was fine too, so maybe I'm just a weirdo.

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

apropos of nothing except perhaps that it's Friday, I initially read that as "the wallpaper of the samosa..." and was somewhat confused.

I'm ready for the weekend.

[leighjen.livejournal.com]

We stopped in there a few weeks ago, thinking it was going to still be more fast food than not. We were surprised to be shown to a table.

I agree with the service assessment above. It took a while to both order and get the check.

The food, however, was very good. I had the Chicken Tikka Masala and my husband had the Dal Makhani. The Teka was slightly different than I am used to but it had a nice, creamy sweetness to it and it wasn't overly spicy hot. The Dal, was very rich and had a robust flavor, though it was a little too spicy hot for me. My husband found the spices to be just right for his tastes. We also had an order of Garlic Nan and it was very good.

We might go back, but to be honest, we don't go out for India very often. Now if they delivered to my place, I would order from them over other places in the area.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

yeah, my biggest complaint with the place is it's generally ugly and pretty clearly a former KFC/Taco Bell, yet sort of tries to be a real restaurant anyhow.

The food is reasonably good though, esp for the price :)

[teko.livejournal.com]

I've been twice; the first time I asked for their most popular kebab (I figure a place called 'kabab' should know how to do kebabs right), and got their beef seekh kebab, which was nicely spiced, as well as an 'aloo chop' (a chicken and potato croquette), also tasty. The second time I got the malai kofta, which was some of the best I've had around here for the money, and the DK Naan, a massive naan (seriously, about a foot and a half diameter) covered in almonds, raisins, and dried fruit. Really good stuff, great value.

[ron_newman]

I wish they'd put their website up. Right now it's still a placeholder.

[she-of-emeralds.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear you liked it! I live very close to it and have been thinking of trying it out.