Kabul Palace

or TRFKAKP... (the restaurant formerly known as Khyber Pass)

Khyber Pass reopened as Kabul Palace last month. They renovated and went upscale. Cloth napkins. Nice decor. And when my brother and I came by before, they didn't have their lunch menu ready.

But today they did. Chicken Tikki Masala, with rice and naan for $9. Deal!
Kabul website
Khyber website (for reference)

My co-worker and lunch companion, Seth is eating more veggies these days, so he ordered the Daal meal with naan for $10. Daal is a lentil stew with spices and garlic.

He said it was very good and filling. He would have liked more naan on the side. Previously at Khyber, they brought a basket of bigger pieces of naan.

Here's my Chicken Tikki...

Such a delicious sauce with nice chunks of tender chicken throughout. I did bite into the cardamon pod like I always do... need to watch for that. It's woody texture is the opposite of the tender meat. But overall, this was fantastic.

We also asked for some sauces, which I was surprised they didn't bring automatically. Be sure to ask for them since they are great. One green mint, one spicy red and one cool yogurt.

After we both finished our naan, we realized we could order some more. For $3, you get 4 nice pieces that were actually bigger than we we got served with our meal. Do it. You need it to scoop up all the sauce.

So it's hard to review a place that was something else so recently. The Pass was more causal, had a full lunch menu and bigger portions. The Palace is nicer, only one thing for a lunch price but the food is just as tasty. Not sure if they changed owners or just changed attitude. By adding tablecloths, maybe they think they can charge more. But the food is what speaks to me. And you can't get this Afghani cuisine anywhere else downtown. I will come back in a while to see how they're doing.

Scores of out 10:
Food: 8
Service: 7
Atmosphere: 7
Price: 6 (until they get a full lunch menu)
Overall: 7