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Helmand

August 11, 2010 by Jennifer Che 14 Comments

Helmand
One thing I love about living in Cambridge is the wide diversity of ethnic restaurants you can finding within a few mile radius. Stand in the middle of Central Square, and you can probably walk less than 15 minutes to enjoy Chinese, Italian, Ethiopian, Middle Eastern, Puerto Rican, North African, Portuguese, Indian, Irish, or Korean cuisine – not to mention all the excellent pubs, bakeries, and sandwich shops.

Whenever friends and family come to Cambridge, we love taking them to Helmand for Afghan food, partly because the food’s fantastic there (of course), but also partly because it’s so unique. Most people haven’t tried Afghan food before, and lucky for us, Helmand does an excellent job of making it. Better yet, it’s reasonably priced and not too far away.
_MG_3893
One of the best things at Helmand is actually the free bread that you get at the beginning of the meal.
_MG_3896
There’s usually a guy in the middle of the restaurant continuously hand kneading and baking the bread, so it’s always super fresh.

_MG_3895
It’s fired up briefly in this huge stone oven right in the middle of the restaurant.

SousVideSupremeSample (1 of 1)
It comes with three dipping sauces – red pepper (spicy!), cilantro, and yogurt. My favorite is the cilantro, and I like mixing it with the yogurt sauce to cream it up a bit.
_MG_3903
I frequently get the Shor Nakhod ($6.95), which is a simple yet filling salad of potatoes and chick peas on a bed of mixed greens served with cilantro vinaigrette dressing.
_MG_3902
Bryan almost always gets the Chowpan ($22.50),  which is a half rack of lamb marinated, grilled and served on a bed of afghan bread with sauteed eggplant and pallow rice.
_MG_3901
Qabelee ($17.95) Pallow (Afghan-style rice) baked with chunks of lamb tenderloin, raisins and glazed julienne of carrots.
_MG_3892
The Mantwo ($14.95) is like the Afghan version of a ravioli or dumpling. It’s a homemade pastry shell filled with onions and beef served on yogurt and topped with carrots, yellow split peas, and beef sauce.
_MG_3891
The Kaddo ($7.50) is something I order every single time and one of my favorite items at the restaurant. It’s a pan fried baked baby pumpkin seasoned with sugar & served on a yogurt garlic sauce topped with ground beef sauce. I love how the savory beef sauce complements the sweetness of the pumpkin.
_MG_3900
Shorwa ($6.95) Lamb and fresh vegetable soup
_MG_3899
Lamb Lawand ($18.95) Leg of lamb sauteed with onion, tomatoes, garlic, mushrooms, fresh cilantro, yogurt and spices served with sauteed spinach and challow rice.

Things to Know
This place is super popular and almost always gets completely booked out on weekend nights. Don’t be surprised if you show up on a Friday or Saturday and they just turn you away because they are fully booked for the night. I typically try to call right at 4pm (when they open) to get a same day reservation.

The house red wine is very reasonably priced and tastes good. I think it’s something like $16 or so for a whole carafe, which is hard to beat!

The menu is quite vegetarian-friendly. In fact, they even have a separate vegetarian menu that offers vegetarian versions of several of their items (for example, you can get the sweet pumpkin without the meat sauce on top).    The menu’s a bit lamb heavy, but there are several chicken, beef, fish and vegetarian dishes to keep anyone happy.

Interesting facts
The Helmand is actually owned by Mahmood Karzai, brother of the current Afghan president, Hamid Karzai. Their sister, Fawzia, is the general manager of the Cambridge Helmand (there are others in Baltimore and San Francisco, all owned by the same family).

My thoughts
I really like this place. The combination of the reasonable prices, wonderful ambiance, good service, and fantastic food already makes it a perfect place to spend any evening. The fact that the cuisine is unique and that it’s close to my house bumps it into a top choice for taking out-of-town guests.

I highly recommend coming here! Seriously, for the bread alone it’s worth it!
_MG_3894

Helmand
143 1st St
Cambridge, MA 02142
Helmand on Urbanspoon

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Filed Under: Cambridge, Kendall Square, Restaurant, Review

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Comments

  1. Pam @ Kitchen Cookware set says

    August 11, 2010 at 1:30 am

    Well, I do not live at Cambridge and I wished I did. I loved your review here. I usually like Afghan food but have not eaten much lately, now I have incentive find some cool hangout or make something easy afghan food at home, love the spicy sauces.

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  2. Elina (Healthy and Sane) says

    August 11, 2010 at 8:49 am

    I’ve never had Afghan food – looks (and sounds) delicious! There are so many amazing restaurants in Cambridge, it’s definitely a great spot for taking guests out.

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  3. Lily says

    August 11, 2010 at 9:49 am

    I agree – the bread at the Helmand is fantastic! The food at the Helmand is excellent too; unfortunately, like you said, it is hard to get a table on a weekend night. There’s a new Afghani restaurant that just opened in Allston on Brighton Ave. call Ariana with a menu that is almost idential to that of the Helmand. Reviews on Yelp say that you don’t have to wait for a table like you would at the Helmand. I am hoping to go try it out soon; maybe it’ll be a good alternative to the Helmand!

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  4. Angela says

    August 11, 2010 at 10:17 am

    i’m half afghani so i LOVE hearing that people enjoy the food…it’s definitely not a common cuisine where i live in PA. so happy you enjoyed it!! i hope to make it to the baltimore location sometime in the near future.

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  5. tinyurbankitchen says

    August 11, 2010 at 10:23 am

    Hey Lily,
    Thanks for the tip! I had NO IDEA there was another Afghani restaurant in Boston. Of course, with Brighton Ave you get all the traffic/parking headaches if you don’t live nearby!

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  6. tinyurbankitchen says

    August 11, 2010 at 10:24 am

    Thanks! I tried making the kaddo (sweet pumpkin dish) at home once, but substituted butternut squash. It ended up surprisingly decent, but not as good as the restaurant version!

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  7. tinyurbankitchen says

    August 11, 2010 at 10:25 am

    I’ve never been to the Baltimore location but I would guess that it’s similar. And yes, we love your food!! If only there were more restaurants. 🙂

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  8. Alycia274 says

    August 11, 2010 at 11:14 am

    Oh my that all looks DELICIOUS! Now I am hungry! I am in NY at the moment so I will have to try Afghani food.

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  9. tinyurbankitchen says

    August 11, 2010 at 3:55 pm

    I’m sure there’s no shortage of Afghani food in NYC!

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  10. Emily says

    August 13, 2010 at 9:09 am

    I live around Central square as well and am excited to have stumbled upon your blog. Where do you get Chinese? I have yet to find a go-to place in Cambridge! Looking forward to reading more.

    http://www.acambridgestory.com/

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  11. pete.v says

    August 13, 2010 at 4:49 pm

    Karzai’s brother!?! Shouldn’t that family have enough cash from pilfered US foreign aid and opium revenue – gotsta charge $20 for a few chunks of lamb and a scoop of rice? I joke, the food pics look great as always.

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  12. Shannon says

    August 20, 2010 at 5:09 pm

    ooh, i recently went to teh one in baltimore and loved it!! totally adored the pumpkin with yogurt sauce 🙂 can’t wait to go again!!

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  13. jentinyurbankitchen says

    August 20, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    That’s funny that you’ve been to the one in Baltimore but not Cambridge? Or have you been to the one in Cambridge?

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  14. Proxies Century says

    September 26, 2010 at 11:05 am

    Important idea you have to know what spices rack. Do not install in your kitchen, consider a model anti-network, high, or more generally as support for spices. People who are not in conflict with the state may choose to maintain a wall shelf or suspension of the bar kitchen. Can be placed on the wall or put it in the pantry, or even the back of the cabinet door can be an ideal place for wall-mounting rack to save space. See more details at http://www.rack-spice.com

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Welcome to Tiny Urban Kitchen!

JenChe

Hi, my name's Jen and welcome to my cooking, eating, and travel site! I am a Boston to Hong Kong transplant, born and raised in Ohio with parents from Taiwan. Feel free to head on over to the About page if you want to learn more about me, or just explore away, maybe starting with the Recipe Index or one of the travel pages! I hope you enjoy this site!
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