Apadana is a newly opened Persian restaurant, well situated amongst other popular restaurants in Viaduct Street (opposite the entrance to Tesco’s car park). There is plenty of on street parking both in Viaduct Street itself and nearby, and it’s free to park after 6pm.

As someone who is always likes to try new cuisines from around the world and never knowingly had Persian dishes before, I was keen to try Apadana. We chose to go on a Tuesday evening at 6pm and turned up without any reservation. I had considered phoning beforehand to check availability but could not find the number listed anywhere, or a web-site, possibly due to the newness of the business, but not great from a business perspective if you want to generating bookings!

We were the only diners in the restaurant and although it made no difference to our experience, we remained so for the duration of our meal. The restaurant gave a good overall visual impression with neatly laid tables, with table cloths and pleasant background music. The décor was fresh, as you would expect for a newly opened business and had a Persian theme. The toilets were clean with plenty of liquid soap and paper towels, although in the ladies one of the doors did not shut properly.

We were warmly greeted on entering and shown to a table set for 3 and handed a food menu. The waitress returned shortly to take our drinks order, although there were no alcoholic drinks listed on the menu we were given, they do sell wines, lagers (both bottled and on tap) and spirits. We ordered a glass of white wine, a bottle of Peroni, a coke and a glass of tap water.

The menu had a good variety of starters and mains, catering for most diets. Main courses broadly consisted of a selection of different kebabs served with rice; a selection of stew style dishes, primarily with lamb; plus fish and vegetarian options. Lamb featured strongly in the mains, which is good news for me as it’s one of my favourites. There were also a selection of accompaniments and side dishes. All of the dishes were reasonably priced with starters from around £2.50, and mains averaging around £9. I was spoilt for choice and intrigued over many of the unusual names of the dishes. The waitress was both helpful and knowledgeable when we asked for a bit of guidance. We decided to share a few starters and went for ‘olviyeh’ ( a chicken, potato, gherkins and mayonnaise dish), 2 tafteen breads and hummus. For mains we ordered a Ghafghazi kebab ( 2 lamb kebabs, one of minced lamb and one of lamb chunks), a Momtaz ( A minced lamb kabab and diced chicken kebab) plus a Gheimeh Badenjan ( a tomato based lamb and split pea stew with aubergine). All of the mains we ordered came with rice, but we swapped the rice for chips on one without any problem.

As we had no small children with us we did not see a children’s menu or know whether one exists, although the staff proved very accommodating and I am sure any younger or lesser appetites could be catered for.
The starters arrived promptly and the hot flat breads quickly disappeared. The olviyeh was very creamy- more like a dip, but it went okay with the bread (it had only cost £2.50). All of the main dishes were fairly substantial with very generous portions of rice or chips. I had the lamb stew which was very tender with interesting subtle flavours, I tasted the lamb kebabs which were also good but didn’t get a look in on the chicken which my son quickly demolished. We all enjoyed our meals.

After we had eaten the main course and the plates had been cleared the owner came over to see if we had enjoyed our food. Although we were all quite full we had a look at the desserts on the menu. There wasn’t a very wide choice but they were all reasonably cheap. I wanted to try the Persian sweets but was told that these were not available and the baghlava was recommended . We ordered one baghlava with three spoons and were served 3 portions all for £2.50! I’m not normally a great fan of baghlava but this one was very nice and finished the meal off nicely.

The bill came to a very reasonable £49.00 (including drinks at £7.50). The service throughout the meal was good. The staff were friendly and informative and the whole experience was relaxing and pleasant.
I will definitely go back to try some of the other dishes on the menu and would be happy to recommend it.
In summery I would say that Apadana is a welcome addition to the growing varied cuisines now available in Huddersfield.

Visit Apadana: www.facebook.com/pages/Apadana-Restaurant-Persian-Cuisine

To see this restaurant on Virtual Huddersfield click here > Apadana

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