Helmand

Helmand Restaurant Review:

For more than two decades, Helmand has remained one of Baltimore’s most popular restaurants. It’s been an impressive run, especially for a place specializing in a cuisine as uncommon as Afghani. How does Helmand do it? By suiting many types of dining needs: for one, it’s white-tablecloth, gracious enough for special occasions, yet comfortable (and modestly priced) enough for every day. The food is exotic yet accessible --- your most finicky friends will enjoy every bite --- and the food just keeps getting better. Many of the ingredients for such addictive dishes as kaddo borwani (spiced pumpkin mash with lightly garlicky yogurt sauce), aushak (delicate ravioli filled with leeks, topped with minty ground beef and yogurt) and kofta challow (rice with lamb and beef meatballs, sun-dried raisins and spices) are sourced at the restaurant’s own organic Fig Leaf Farm. Don’t miss the Afghan ice cream with dates, figs and mango. Expect to be treated like a visiting dignitary and to be enticed by the extensive vegetarian menu. Members of the Karzai family, one of Afghanistan’s notable families, are the owners, and there could be no better ambassadors for their country’s cuisine.