Another day, another fascinating restaurant opens up on Mill Road. Last week, an Afghan restaurant popped up called Noshe, offering authentic cuisine from Afghanistan while also acting as a coffeehouse.

I was very excited by this one, as I have not had much experience with Afghan food. It is supposed to be influenced by an exciting blend of Indian, Turkish, and other Asian-based culinary traditions. These are some of my favourite parts of the world for food, so I was expecting great things.

As you enter, you are greeted with a place that feels very much like a coffeehouse. It is warm, relaxed, and atmospheric. The team have done a great job at adding a contemporary Afghan style to the restaurant.

At the back of the building is the restaurant area, where we were presented with these charming seating booths. There are 4 in total, with each one equipped with carpet, a cushion each, and a low table. This really brought the authentic Afghan dining experience to life and was something a little different not found anywhere else.

For those of you who are looking at the booth and worrying about being flexible enough to sit cross legged for 90 minutes at a low table – don’t panic! There are regular table options available too. I recommend specifying your preference during the booking process to avoid a chiropractor 🤣

Vegetarian mixed platter

Unsurprisingly, the menu covered a wide range of authentic Afghan dishes. There are also kebabs, lamb chops, and a variety of mixed platters. I was surprised at how competitively priced it is at Noshe for Mill Road, with main dishes ranging from around £12.50-18 (but with most in the general £15 area).

There were 4 of us dining together this evening and we couldn’t make up our minds for starters, so we decided to split a vegetarian mixed platter to share between us.

The platter came with a variety of things to try, ranging from the familiar, like hummus, rice, and naan bread; to the more adventurous, such as, sabzi palak (spinach dish), bolani (a stuffed flatbread), bamya (a stew), bedanjan borani (an Afghan aubergine yoghurt dish), salatee watanee (a colourful middle eastern salad with pomegranates).

I couldn’t recommend the vegetarian platter enough! It was a huge portion, that came with an absurdly large mountain of rice, that will guarantee you won’t be leaving hungry. It was the perfect amount to share between four and gave us the opportunity to sample lots of different things at once. Perfect for newbies like myself who are looking to explore.

I really enjoyed sharing a large dish between the table. It felt like we were encapsulating the true essence of the Afghan dining experience. It got us all chatting between us, recommending dishes we had discovered in the platter, arguing about our favourites – and all of it tasted great. I personally recommend taking the Bolani and using it to scoop up some Sabzi Palak spinach. Lovely!

Drinks

We were given a choice between two imported soft drinks, Kinza Cola and Shani.

Shani is a berry based fizzy drink, popular in the middle east. It tastes similar to Tizer but isn’t as overbearingly sweet. Kinza Cola is a Saudi Arabian brand of cola.

Both were refreshing and hit the spot. I was a fun novelty exploring brands from across the world. It would have been very easy for the team at Noshe to give us a Coca Cola option, so I appreciate the extra attention to details.

Manti

My guest ordered a dish called Manti. This comes with a total of 9 large dumplings stuffed with minced lamb. It is then presented on a bed of lentils in a mildly spicy sauce.

The manti was the highlight of the evening and came as a generous portion. It had a strong garlic flavour and all had a soft tender shell. It was garnished with yogurt and herbs to give it some added colour and for £14, it was one of the cheapest dishes on the mains menu.

Lamb chops

The lamb chops were another strong contender. I find myself rarely ordering this dish in restaurants because the portions are often so small. At Noshe, however, you get 5 incredibly thick and meaty lamb chops, all served on the bone, with a choice of either chips or rice.

My guest thoroughly enjoyed them and said he would definitely come back for these. I must admit, the chips didn’t look too inspiring but otherwise it was a dish that went down well.

Lamb Chophan kebab

Next, was the lamb kebab. This is your text book kebab dish that many of you will be familiar with. It was presented nicely on a rectangle plate with a salad, chips and a side. This also comes with the option of rice instead of chips.

The lamb was cooked really well, a burst of flavour when you bite into it. I thought it would be dry but it was rich with taste that you could eat it without anything else.
The chips were seasoned lovely, they were good to dip into the many sauces on the vegetarian platter (as was the lamb, which worked well with the yoghurt!). The salad on the side tasted fresh and was a good addition to the dish.

Natalie

Kabuli Palao

And finally, a dish that really stood out on the menu was the Kabula Palao – the national dish of Afghanistan. In other words, if you visit Noshe and don’t order this, then you aren’t doing it right 🤣

The dish consists of lamb on the bone, served with rice, caramelised carrot, raisins, and pistachios.

Upon arriving, you could barely see the lamb through the mountains of rice. It reminded me of a dum biryani, and like a biryani, it looked very dry by eye but the succulence of the lamb soon vanquished that.

The lamb was a reasonable portion but it was not huge, with a vast majority of the plate being taken up by rice. The lamb was well done and as you pull it open there is no pinking in the middle. Despite this, it still manages to be tender at the same time. I enjoyed the lamb but it didn’t inspire either.

The caramelised carrot really added some life to the dish with a colourful sweetness that was only complemented further by the raisins. Without these, the dish would have been very bland.

Conclusion

There is a lot to get excited about at Noshe, with everyone tonight agreeing that they would come back to visit again.

Not only does this new arrival on Mill Road’s diverse restaurant scene still manage to add something new, but it is surprisingly good value for the money. I noticed the bill came to only slightly more for four people when compared to my meal for two at Tu Casa next door last month! 

I really appreciated the fact that the service charge was not automatically added to the bill at the end but instead they asked if it could be put on. This isn’t a huge difference but does make things slightly less presumptuous and awkward.

The service got a little muddled at times, which is something I had heard from other reviews on the Cambridge Foodies but nothing that spoiled the evening. Everyone was polite and attentive, adding a friendly atmosphere that only made me want to return again.

I look forward to hearing what everyone else thinks in the Cambridge Foodies community.

Thanks for reading 🇦🇫