Six of One: The Afghan McFlurry
Six of One: The Afghan McFlurry
Outstanding Afghan food in Catford, plus five other restaurants to visit in London this weekend.
Hello and welcome back to Vittles Restaurants.
Six of One is a column dedicated to London restaurant recommendations. In each issue, six writers will share a restaurant, bakery, cafe or takeaway spot that they believe deserves to be better known. You can find the full Six of One back catalogue here.
Today’s Six of One recommendations are from Sirin Kale, Michael O’Mahoney, Gus Lobban, Zayneb Al Asaadi, Lorraine Yiwen Lu, and Tomé Morrissy-Swan
To read all the recommendations, as well as the back catalogue, please subscribe below.
1. Watandar
I walked past Watandar, an Afghan restaurant in Catford, for almost a year before I went in. I should have paid attention to the enormous tandoor by the front window, visible to everyone from the street. It bore the promise of good things. Fresh naan and £4 potato-stuffed bolani so filling it could easily do for lunch.
Inside is a wall of artificial flowers, one table with a wobbly chair and a few others covered with plastic sheets. Sometimes I’m the only person in there. Other times it’s me and two older Middle Eastern men, dressed in leather jackets and rimless glasses, earnestly debating the best way to juice a lemon. There’s a function room off the main restaurant and the last time I visited a group of 20 or so hijabi women were setting the world to rights as their children ran underfoot and hula-hooped outside in the street. It’s an easy, informal place.
The food is Afghan, but Iran’s greatest hits also make an appearance. I always order a bowl of ghormeh sabzi to share with my companion as a side. The fenugreek-scented stew is slick with iron-furred oil, but the acidity of the dried lime cuts through the richness. Skewers of koobideh, so often greasy or gristly, are tender and light here. The chicken karahi, a tomato-based stew, is spiced with ginger and onion and comes with naan for mopping. If it wasn’t socially unacceptable, I’d drink the shirazi salad dressing from the bowl. Instead I pour it over my saffron-flecked rice.
They are so generous with their portions and restrained with their pricing that I genuinely fear for the longevity of the business model. The mumtaz – one skewer of minced lamb, one skewer of grilled chicken, accompanied by a portion of rice as big as a child’s head and a salad, with beef tomatoes – is just £14.50. I’ve been to kebab restaurants on Kingsland Road that charge £19 for a single skewer of incinerated meat. And of course, there’s a foil-wrapped packet of butter to melt on the rice and a thick wedge of lemon to squeeze on the meat.
But it is the sheeryakh – cardamom-scented milk ice cream, scattered with crushed pistachios – which keeps pulling me back in. It is floral and smooth and completely addictive: it’s impossible not to spoon it into your mouth with a massive smile on your face. A single portion will easily feed two. It’s usual to see customers pop in to collect super-sized portions in to-go cups, an Afghan McFlurry for those in-the-know.
Watandar represents everything I love about both Afghan and Iranian culture: it’s generous, bordering on compulsively so, family-oriented and vibrant. I could eat there every day. Sirin Kale
377 Lewisham High St, SE13 6NZ
Behind the paywall: Llapingachos in Camberwell, giouvetsi in West Wickham, naengmyeon in Hendon, masgouf (kinda) in Greenford, mohntorte in Barnes, and more.