Unaabi Grill

Unaabi Grill
http://www.unaabi.com
914 Kildaire Farm Rd.
Cary, NC 27511

We were intrigued by the new restaurant Unaabi Grill, but honestly, we were not impressed with the outside. Unaabi Grill is in a converted Pizza Hut, and from the street, it looks it. But Unaabi Grill turned out to be like many of the hidden gems we found in Beijing, the inside is all carved screens, flowing curtains, shining polished wood and bright Afghani fabrics, so peaceful and pretty that we felt a bit underdressed.

Our waiter, Driss, was very knowledgeable about the different dishes, which was great because neither of us had tried Afghani food.  We like Middle Eastern food and love Indian food, so according to the map, we were excited to try this!

The pumpkin bolanee, flat fried turnovers, were amazing, served with a cool yogurt sauce like an Afghani version of cucumber raita. (Did you see how I just dropped that in there? Like bolanee is something everyone knows, and not a word I heard for the first time a couple hours ago!) There were quite a lot of vegetarian options, hearty main dishes with eggplant and cauliflower, not just a token salad.

Stick got a Turkish coffee, and I tried a gingery green tea, both were awesome. Well, Stick’s coffee was awesome if you like drinking sludge that makes your hands shake, but that seems to be the standard of good Turkish coffee. I always like appetizers better than the main course (see also: metaphors that can be applied to my life) but the kebabs were good too. Main dishes were between $12 and $20 a person, for more food that I could possibly eat.

Unaabi Grill opened just three weeks ago, but everything seemed to be running smoothly and, although it wasn’t exactly packed, it did have a pretty good turnout. Unaabi Grill is also getting good reviews and ratings on local sites, but it was really just the word “Unaabi” that first got our attention!

Edit: Just wanted to make it extra clear that this isn’t a paid or sponsored post in any way.