Persian Restaurant "Donya" in Bristol Road

Yesterday 3 of us went to Persian restaurant "Doyna" in Bristol Road.

Donya is the restaurant took the place of Phoenix Cafe (aka House of Phoenix) a year ago or so. I ate once at Phoenix, but this was the first time to eat at the successor.

As I don't have photo, I won't write a full review and will keep myself to a short note.

It is a small restaurant of maybe 30 covers or so. Although it was Wednesday evening, the place was more than half full. The menu isn't much different from any other Persian restaurants in Birmingham. Starters (£3) - Kebabs (£6-10) - Stews and rice (£5-7.50).

The lamb kebab came in a generous portion and both rice and meat were delicious and of decent quality ingredients. Stews were very good as well. One featured unusual pickled walnuts (but as it is not written so on the menu, if you happen not like it, it should be hugely annoying. We shared also 2 starters, 2 Persian teas and 1 herb tea. The total bill was slightly more than £30 before service. Good value.

The service left somehow to be desired, partly because it was busy. It was annoying that a waitress took away water and still 1/3 full bottle of wine right after the main meal.

Donya
0121 415 4599
558 Bristol Road
Selly Oak, Birmingham
B29 6BE
Also delivery (3 mile radius, over £10).

Persian Food in a Tin

When I visit Middle Eastern Grocers (there are many in Birmingham), I often buy tin food. Not the ingredients, but those ready-to-eat food that I can just open the tin to eat.

I have tried some sometimes with success and sometimes less of it. This one I bought from Pers on Hagley road was a successful attempt.



It is a rather large tin, and cost me £1.29 as you see in the photo. It is Gheymeh Bademjan - stewed aubergine and yellow split peas with tomato.

This is what I found in the tin.



When I opened the tin, I was taken aback by the amount of oil, but on tasting it, I was really impressed by the flavour.

The red stuff is a half of tomato, and dark grey ball is a dried lime, usual ingredient in Persian stew. The peas were cooked to leave some bite and aubergine, which you don't see here as are hidden below the peas, was sweet and meltingly smooth. It was tangy both in smell and in taste. Regardless of the amount of oil, I did not find any difficulty in eating it.

OK. If you go to Persian restaurants or you are invited to an Iranian family, you will get the better version, but A) it costs much more than £1.29 in restaurants, and B) I am not invited by any friendly Iranian, I can content myself with this tin.

Well worth a try.

Persian restaurant "Danial" near our home

Alert : This restaurant is now closed.

We went to a newly opened Persian restaurant near our home, Danial. No, it is not Denial. It sounds like Daniel; maybe it is a name used among the Persian Christians (I am just shooting).

These are the photos of the food we ate there.

For starter we had a naan panir sabzi to share. It was exactly what it said: 1 naan, feta cheese, and raw herbs.



The feta, however, was very diffrent from the usual Greek fata. It was more watery and REALLY salty. We asked our waiter where it came from. He said it was imported from Iran, and we could find it in Persian groceries. Regardless of its saltiness, this feta was very tasty. It just melted in the mouth leaving behind creamy milky flavour. Some people might be put off by its saltiness, but it is worth trying even just for experience sake. Naan and herbs were both fresh and generous. Very good value for £2.50.

These are the main courses.



Dim chose Kabab-e-Chenjeh (“Grilled chunks fillets of tender lamb with grilled tomatoes, served with fresh naan or saffron steamed rice”) from grill section, and I went for Zereshk polo ba morgh (“Steamed saffron rice with sour barberries, almonds and pistachio, served with cooked chicken”) from traditional dish section, £7 and £5 respectively.

Kebab meat was very lean, almost no trace of fat. It was a bit hard, as being well done. Dim always likes his meat well done (most of the Greeks I know like their meat well done) and he did like the way it was cooked, but I thought it was too cooked. If the meat had not been so lean, it would have been softer as well. Dim thought the meat was marinated in something he did not like, but I could not detect it. Otherwise the dish looked ok. One skewer of lamb was served with a mound of rice, herb salad, two pieces of grilled tomatoes, and purple sour pickles. I liked very much this pickles; they were very similar to Japanese a type of Japanese pickled called "Shibazuke".

My main was the rice served with chicken, not the chicken served with rice. In fact it came as a large mound of rice on one dinner plate, and one large chicken thigh cooked in red sauce, served in gratin dish. The rice (Zareshk Polo) was interesting. It was usual Persian white and yellow saffron rice, topped with some nuts bits (I did not see pistachio) and sweet dried berries. Well presented and tasty, if rather sweet. Chicken was cooked with slices of carrot, tomato sauce, and probably with sumac, as it tasted fruity. It would have been better, if they had used better quality chicken, but it was acceptable. I have to tell, however, it was very difficult to cut chicken thigh in a gratin dish filled with sauce.

They offer also rather interesting Persian sweets, but we were too full to try. The bill came to £15.30 for the items above plus one can of coke. Good value.

Iranian bread

I live in a mult-ethinic area of Birmingham, UK, and one of the advantages of this is that I can find foodstaff of many ethnic groups.

One of my recent favorites is this iranian bread. There is a small Iranian baker with a single small oven (looks like tandoori) that sells only this bread called "naan" and "chapatti" I am pretty sure they have Iranian names for these, but they these names are on the menu, probably because they are familiar to all the ethnic groups and to the English as well.

I have never tried chapatti, but this naan bread is really good. It is thiner than Indian naan and thus righter. You never get tied of eating just this bread without anything.

4 of these cost only a pound: it is actually cheaper than buying naan from supermarket.

Bless our Iranian baker!