Darvish

It's always fun to discover new places to eat in town. I have a few go-to places but that gets boring - who wants to eat the same thing over and over again? There are so many fantastic shops waiting to be discovered, it just takes a bit searching and some willingness to try new things.


Sure there's a lot of choices near the young and college intersection any direction you go. but today I found Darvish, and it's a fantastic find. check out their menu and website: https://darvishrestaurant.ca/

First impression was awesome, the place was dimly lit, romantic, with delicious spices cooking in the air. For a cold night like this, nothing's better!

For starters, we ordered the eggplant dish, aka Mirza Ghasemi. It's spicy, smokey, warm, mix of eggplant and zucchini garlicky yumminess. It doesn't look like much but goes so well with the Iranian bread as a dip. It's not too spicy but the smokey eggplants skins are just adding another layer of flavor. This was my favorite dish of the night.

Next up, I got the pomegranate walnut stew (Fesenjoon) because the ingredients sounded just so good. Pomegranate, good! Walnut, good! Stew, good! I read it's an authentic Iranian dish and well, I have never had it so let's give it a go! There are also pieces of chicken breast cooked in this dish but you can get the vegetarian version. I have to say that I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. The combined flavor is just.. a bit too sweet to me. I think my palate was expecting pomegranate as a side flavor, maybe just a hint. But the actual dish was so full of pomegranate flavor it ended being the dominate flavor. Walnuts did add a thick nuttiness to the dish. It's definitely an interesting dish to try. Not my thing and glad I tried.


And lastly, we got a koobideh and lamb kebob. This is served with rice, pickle, onion, and grilled tomato. The koobideh kebob was the best - it's flavored minced beef with lots of herbs and and so airy. I wish I got 2 of those instead. Lamb kebob had big chunks of lamb pieces but the flavoring wasn't as rich. Eat it with the raw onions and pickles. Yum!

All in all, this was a fun experience. The overall experience was awesome and the decor makes me feel like I had a quick trip to Iran. From decor, to the colorful pillows, to the table cloths - everything felt warm and welcoming. Darvish - I will visit again!