Persian food in the Bay Area

In the city

I'm Persian-American, Iranian-American, and I've been living in the Bay Area for I want to say 18 years now. It's not the same scene as SoCal, Los Angeles, Tehrangeles, but it is still California and we have a lot of Persians. The Bay is pretty big, and so if you're in the city, the go-tos are Maykadeh, which is, in my opinion, kind of too buttoned up and stuffy, and the food is not that great, and the prices ain't right. Lavash opened up relatively recently in my time here and people seem to like it. I hear the service is kind of hit or miss. I personally've never been, been meaning to go.

There's this place in the Mission called Komaaj. They actually make Northern Persian food from the Shomal area, as we say. It has a lot of interesting flavors. I still think that the classical Persian food for a first timer is still better. But they have a lot of stuff there that's very much homey. Northern Persian food, they like to mix sweet and sour a little bit, and certainly a very Persian trait to love the sour flavors, but this is herby, they also like their plums. Northern Persian food, it's not for everyone.

Northern Persian food, it's not for everyone.

The gold standard

If you really want to experience the best Persian food, the gold standard of the Bay that everyone will refer you to is called Shalizaar in Belmont. It's actually also a fairly somewhat buttoned up and formal place. You could imagine having a big wedding dinner or something like that there. It's a little bit fancy. It's not my favorite. It is the gold standard for the Bay that most people cite, but for me, it's not really worth the drive, if I'm being honest.

South Bay is where most of the action is at, and Chelokababi is the oldest in the Bay, I think 1978, 1979. They're close to the Apple campus in Sunnyvale, near Cupertino, and so if you're in the South Bay, that one is pretty good. But for Persian food, bread is so important, and Chelokababi oddly serves plain pita bread, which is a real shame because in the Bay Area, we actually have a lot of really good bakeries. Pita is not a Persian bread.

Pita is not a Persian bread.

Stone Stew in San Jose

As far as the recommendation that I usually make, it is actually this place called Dizzy Sangyi, and it's in San Jose. The lady is fresh off the boat from the neighborhood next to mine in Iran. She started in a food truck and then she would serve in the back of an international food store, bodega style. The key thing is they have this dizi sangi dish, also called abgoosht, and it's potato, lamb. It's very rustic, not super refined, but it's also got a bit of a reputation as a men's dish or a mountaineer's dish, and if the ingredients are good and it's done right, it's amazing.

Stone Stew is the English name of that place. Definitely give them a look. They do the kabobs, they do all that stuff, and the price is right, definitely compared to a place like Maykadeh. Stone Stew actually has really good ghormeh sabzi, and they can do that stuff vegetarian, which is also nice. Stone Stew's my go-to just because it tastes like home, and they have the actual dizi sangi on the menu, and they always have ghormeh sabzi and gheimeh. That's my all-in Bay Area pick.

Stone Stew's my go-to just because it tastes like home.

Yas in the South Bay is worth a mention. In my opinion it's not as classic as Chelokababi, but it's also not as authentic as Stone Stew, but it's in an old diner and it kind of has a neat feel, and the food was perfectly fine every time I've been there. I'd totally go back. In the South Bay, Esfahan Kabab was also pretty good as well.

Persian homestyle cooking

If you're really looking to do some cost saving, get a lot of food for pretty good price, then I would recommend hitting up International Market in the South Bay or Rose Market in Mountain View. Both of those places have kind of a steam table type setup, but critically, you don't go there for the kebab. A lot of Persian homestyle cooking is actually done as stews. It's stew and rice with good bread, good yogurt, that sort of thing. If you want to make a nice Persian spread and have something homestyle, you go to these places.

At Rose Market and International Food Bazaar, you can get a pretty big variety of things. The nice thing about both of them is you get great bread selection as well, especially at International Food Bazaar because there's a bakery right next door. There's also International Bread that's pretty close by, too, and that's a dedicated bread bakery. In the East Bay, there are not as many options. There's a lot of Afghan food, but not a ton of Persian food. There are Persian markets similar to the ones I described: I know that there's one in Berkeley, I think it's called Middle East Market, and there's also Tajrish further east.

My favorite ice cream spot

If you're all the way south, you should definitely check out Petals. It's my favorite ice cream spot in the whole Bay. They really took Persian flavors and elevated them, but you can also do some really traditional stuff. They have a carrot juice float, which is something they do in Iran: they have these special sweet carrots, and they put traditional saffron ice cream. My dad's a really big fan of that, and it's certainly a splurge. I really prefer their more creative tastes. They bring almost a haute cuisine, Michelin sort of interpretation to the ice creams, which I really appreciate.

It's my favorite ice cream spot in the whole Bay.