In the Neighborhood: Afghan in Bethesda

Bethesda has a whole lot of trendy new-ish restaurants, but sometimes I think it's really worthwhile to go back to the smaller, more established restaurants for a great meal.  Bacchus and Faryab are two of my favorite Bethesda restaurants, and they have both been around for a while.  I recently went back to Faryab after quite some time, and it was as delicious as I remembered!  (I guess I'll have to go back to Bacchus soon to refresh my memory there as well!) 

Faryab is an Afghan restaurant, which means you can expect lots of lamb and yogurt.  However, the best thing on the menu is the pumpkin.  We ordered the side-dish version as an appetizer, and ended up ordering the entree version later - it really is that good!  The general consensus seemed to be that the side-dish version is actually better (it comes with a fantastic meat sauce, whereas the entree version is vegetarian), so next time I might think about ordering a double of the side dish, rather than the entree (don't get me wrong, though, the entree version is delicious also - but the meat really makes it!).  We ended up splitting a whole bunch of entrees so we could try some of everything.  One entree per person is good in terms of quantity of food (maybe with a few apps thrown in), but sharing allows for more variety!  We had the lamb with spiced rice (I'm skipping the Afghan names here - instead of butchering them, I just pointed to the menu while ordering!), the steamed dumplings, lamb with spinach, lamb with eggplant, and the aforementioned pumpkin.  Like I said, lots of lamb!  Everything really was delicious, but I am a sucker for eggplant (this dish inspired my eggplant stew) and pumpkin.  All of the entrees come with salad (uninspired, but you're not here for the salad) and bread.  There are chicken and shrimp entrees also, so you are not limited to lamb or vegetarian options.

The restaurant is pretty small, so I would definitely recommend reservations if you have a large party (large being more than four).  Service is quick and efficient.  As I said earlier, I definitely think sharing is the way to go, but be prepared for some complex maneuvering to get everything to fit on the table!  Faryab definitely has increased its prices over the years, but it is still pretty reasonably priced.  There is another Afghan restaurant near my house that I have not been to in a while - I may need to go visit soon, because now that I have eggplant and yogurt in my head, I'm going to be craving it for a while!