Dine & Dash: Punjabi and Afghani 🍽
Mini reviews of King Restaurant Indian Kitchen & Bar and Shah Kabob House
King Restaurant Indian Kitchen & Bar
King opened in January in the former Chef Bob’s Lobstah Trap location on Barnes Road, just off Powers Boulevard. I stop in to nab some to-go food on a busy workday and chat with a friendly staffer who tells me they specialize in Punjabi cuisine. She says it’s a family venture, with 35 years history behind it with other restaurants in Minnesota and Texas. So consider it time-tested already.
The menu’s large but not as overwhelmingly expansive as some other Indian spots in town. Of course I’m drawn to just about everything and quickly find myself in a culinary form of analysis paralysis. (Think man, be decisive!) I finally settle on Dal Makhani, coconut lamb chops and sides of chilli naan and extra Basmati rice.
The black lentils, slow-cooked in cream and makhan (white butter) have a nice spice depth but are sadly over-salted this day, requiring some thinning out at home. The naan’s pretty standard with just a hint of heat, but the lamb chops are wonderful. Though the bones bear bold char marks to the tip, the meat’s beautifully cooked to medium rare, soft and well balanced between the inherent flavor and ginger-garlic coconut cream sauce that permeates it with Indian spices. Mint chutney of course elevates bites with an herbaceous, tangy acidity.
I’ve barely scratched the surface here, but I’ve seen enough to want to go back and dine deeper into the menu. There’s rightfully a lot of attention on Mausam’s opening right now, but King makes a compelling enough case for venturing to it, too, even if imperfect on part of the first visit.
Shah Kabob House
Located just outside of Fort Carson in the King Soopers shopping center, Shah Kabob House opened in March, 2023. Afghani Owner/Chef Shah Alizada served as a special operations linguist with the U.S. military during the Afghanistan war’s final years, leading up to the U.S.’s withdrawal in 2021. Alizada, who speaks four languages, signed on as a local interpreter in the earlier years, but was able to move the U.S. in 2014, gain citizenship and leave the military for a stint. He spent 2015-2018 working as a banquet server at The Broadmoor before deciding to re-enlist in the military.
If you visit his restaurant’s Instagram page, you’ll find the first photo posted in March, 2023 is Shah with a few other troops grilling kabobs together. The caption reads: “This is where Shah Kabob began. We are bringing you back only the good memories. You don’t have to be in the War zone to get real kabobs.”
During a follow up phone chat after my visit, Alizada tells me that during Covid their base had lots of restrictions and food-access was limited, though they were getting shipments of frozen beef. He took it upon himself to start grilling and making kabobs for his unit, doing the recipe research and learning his way through it. They became so popular that every weekend he would fulfill requests to grill what came to be known as “Shah Kabobs.”
Visit the bright, tidy restaurant and you’ll see the walls adorned with military flags and framed photographs of Shah with his soldier friends during the war. He’s outwardly proud of his service and local support from the base is strong he says. I ask how traditional the menu (displayed on big TV’s behind the order counter) is, and he says fully. But one ingredient he’s lacking (at a reasonable food cost) is the proper lamb fat. He says that the sheep breed raised in Afghanistan (and elsewhere in the Middle East) has fattier hindquarters than other breeds and produces a totally different flavor that’s absent here. (He clarifies the majority of Americans won’t notice that factor as they’ve never tasted the other lamb fat flavor, so they’ll find this familiar to their concept of the meat.)
Despite that, his food’s roundly delicious and highly satisfying. I happen to be in on a Sunday, which is the only day currently to get Afghan Bolani, which is browned flatbread stuffed with mashed potatoes seasoned by fried onion and garlic and serrano peppers, further garnished with fresh parley, cilantro and chive choppings. Alizada says they’re equivalent to street tacos back home, served everywhere and widely popular as a “quick and guilty pleasure.”
I find them filling as redundant starches and especially good paired with the Eggplant Borani, which is an outstanding fried eggplant dish (not bitter at all) served with chaka, a homemade Afghani-style, salted yogurt with mint. The eggplant’s soft and swimming in a tomato sauce spiked with onions, garlic and serrannos again. This dish alone is worth driving for.
I also order the Shah Combo, which comes with a side of somewhat al dente chickpeas (vibrant with cumin, cayenne, curry and turmeric) and a trio of lamb, ground beef and chicken kabobs over rice. The bright orange chicken (which gains its color from turmeric, paprika and beet juice) reigns supreme of the three, with lamb in close second. The lamb is leg meat marinated with garlic and turmeric, and the ground beef sees coriander and crushed red peppers; both get black pepper and salt. It’s enough protein for two for $19.99. Any of the above are great dipped in a mildly spicy chakni sauce, which Alizada says is as ubiquitous as ketchup in Afghanistan. It’s delightfully simple, made with vinegar, garlic, serrano and cilantro.
I finish with a flaky, cone-shaped Afghan cream roll pastry and textbook baklava. Alizada’s sister is the pastry chef, and she puts crushed pistachios and walnuts in both items, with cardamom spice for a lightly floral finish in the cream rolls.
Before we’re done talking, Alizada mentions he’s interested in potentially franchising in the future, and our talk turns back to how this all began. He says his decision to get back out of the military related to his sense of discouragement after the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. “I had 11 years involvement in it,” he says. “I participated in over 500 night raids… I lost a lot of friends, and thought we had achieved a lot of things. But I saw all of it turn to dirt in front of my eyes. The way everything went down. It was heartbreaking.
“However, I’m grateful to see my old friends in the restaurant. I miss being around them. The humor. You can’t get that anywhere else… I saw a friend at a bar last night, and had one of the best times of my life… I’m proud that a lot of service members come and eat here. I’m always proud of our soldiers.I love them and will always support them. It’s always an honor and a privilege.”
