Aracosia - Afghan Grill and Chop House by the Owners of Afghan Bistro and Bistro Aracosia - Beverly Road in McLean

[Kibbee Nayee]

Aracosia is coming soon to McLean!

It's nice that the Afghan Bistro owners are spreading out. If they do it like the one downtown, they'll actually close the Springfield location for a few days to get the McLean location up and running with family members and quality staff. Afghan Bistro is in Springfield, Bistro Aracosia is in Palisades, and now Aracosia will be in McLean.

It's opening at the end of March, and it's going to be at 1381 Beverly Road, where Il Borgo Italian Restaurant once stood.

From Northern Virginia Magazine:

As the owner of two critically acclaimed restaurants—the first, Afghan Bistro in Springfield, and the second, Bistro Aracosia in D.C.'s Palisades neighborhood—Omar Masroor often gets approached by leasing agents and developers to open a third spot. It's finally worked. Masroor plans for a spin-off with Aracosia to open in McLean in March. Where Bistro Aracosia expanded the menu and upped the formality of Afghan Bistro, Aracosia will be another step in that direction with white tablecloths, servers in ties and classical Afghan paintings. "We don’t do modern industrial looks," says Masroor of the minimal-and-metal trend long dominating restaurant interior designs. Instead, there will be rich colors like lapis lazuli, burgundy reds, mustard yellows and olive greens.

Aracosia's menu will overlap with the offerings of its sister restaurants, with a few new dishes, including large hunks of meat: a tomahawk chopan, a 36-ounce cut from the ribs meant to feed two or three people; goat shank; goat ribs; and lamb neck. Vegetable-forward dishes showcase okra lawaan (yogurt sauce), okra Mughlai in a spicy tomato-masala sauce with eggplant and Thai chili peppers and a bouranee platter (roasted vegetables with a yogurt drizzle) with the likes of turnips, zucchini, carrots, quince, cauliflower and okra. Opening in the usually cold month of March, there will be warming dishes of tosh payra dumpling stew, oxtail soup, lentil soup and homach soup, a thinner porridge-like dish made from oatmeal and barley. The cuisine is a departure from Masroor's first visit to the restaurant at that very address more than 20 years ago. Masroor tells the story of taking his wife to Il Borgo Italian Restaurant and remembers admiring the upscale decor and the air of formality and said, "If I ever do a restaurant, it will be something like this.” // 1381 Beverly Road, McLean

[TheMatt]

1 hour ago, Kibbee Nayee said:

It's nice that the Afghan Bistro owners are spreading out. If they do it like the one downtown, they'll actually close the Springfield location for a few days to get the McLean location up and running with family members and quality staff. Afghan Bistro is in Springfield, Bistro Aracosia is in Palisades, and now Aracosia will be in McLean.

Well, I guess we know when I'll next decide "Hey, I haven't been to Afghan Bistro in a while...I'll go there for dinner". 

[DonRocks]

Can someone let us know when Aracosia opens in McLean?

[Kibbee Nayee]

On 12/24/2018 at 11:55 PM, DonRocks said:

Can someone let us know when Aracosia opens in McLean?

They don't know yet, according to the friendly young lady at the other end of the telephone at Afghan Bistro. If the owner knows, she continued, he hasn't told anyone yet.

[DonRocks]

Here's the opening announcment:

[hopsing]

They must be pretty popular because I went to Greek Taverna for dinner on Saturday, Jan 25 and the usually empty parking lot was almost completely full.  I asked the Greek Taverna owner why and she said due to the new restaurant on the 2nd floor.  I was at the Taverna again yesterday (we are regulars there) and we got the only parking spot left in the garage arriving at 6:30pm.

[DonRocks]

1 hour ago, hopsing said:

They must be pretty popular because I went to Greek Taverna for dinner on Saturday, Jan 25 and the usually empty parking lot was almost completely full.  I asked the Greek Taverna owner why and she said due to the new restaurant on the 2nd floor.  I was at the Taverna again yesterday (we are regulars there) and we got the only parking spot left in the garage arriving at 6:30pm.

All the way at the bottom, eh?

[hopsing]

23 hours ago, DonRocks said:

All the way at the bottom, eh?

Exactly right!

[MarkS]

I ate at Aracosia last Tuesday.  Service was a bit backed up so the owner gave us each a glass of wine while we sat in the lounge, Nice.  New to Afghan food we were suggested to order one grilled meat platter and one vegetable sampler.  Both were superb.  Funny the couple next to us left most of their food over as they said it was too spicy for their taste.  We did not agree and cleaned our plates.  Spicing was complex and fresh.  Owner came by at the end to ask how everything was and to let us know that food is all cooked fresh with no butter.

This was really good and we will probably go back often.

[hopsing]

It's a favorite of Tom Sietsema.

[MarkS]

We ate here last night with some friends who aren't very adventuresome eaters.  They loved it.  They each had Salmon.  One had Salmon kebabs while the other had Saffron Salmon.  I had a chicken and eggplant stew while my wife had the same stew with veal.  Everyone cleaned their plates.  Next time we will get 1 stew and a vegetarian plate so we don't stuff ourselves as much. 

It was packed when we left at 9 which shows they are clearly filling a void in the Mclean dining scene. 

[Ericandblueboy]

1 hour ago, MarkS said:

Next time we will get 1 stew and a vegetarian plate so we don't stuff ourselves as much. 

It was packed when we left at 9 which shows they are clearly filling a void in the Mclean dining scene. 

The vegetarian plate is mostly starch - you will stuff yourselves even more.  McLean is a weird dining scene - same mediocre restaurants last forever (not saying Aracosia is mediocre).  There's  a new Greek restaurant near Essan that someone should check out.  

[Kibbee Nayee]

A nice email came out from Aracosia today:

Dear Valued Guests, Due to the recent outbreak, Aracosia Restaurant Group will be making some temporary changes to benefit our valued guests at this moment of uncertainty.  For those guests who wish to dine with us, we at Aracosia believe that the best method to fight impurities and illness is prevention.  It is for this reason, that we are constantly keeping the restaurants sparkling clean, sterile and as hygienic as possible.  We have stepped up our doses of immune boosting ingredients, such as healing warm masalas (spices), potent botanicals and fresh healing herbs.  We at Aracosia firmly believe that all impurities in the body and in the environment can be fended off with the right antibodies, in warm spices, potent herbs, botanical's, fresh fruits and vegetables.  For those guests who wish to stay home and let this uncertainty pass  We are pleased to announce that Aracosia will offer family style lunch and dinner catering through our restaurant either for pick up or delivery.  Please contact us for more information. For smaller orders we will be using a third-party delivery service through DoorDash, Caviar and Grub Hub.  This should be perfect for those who wish to eat very healthy immune boosting food with tons of flavor without leaving the comfort of your home or office.  We are very hopeful and optimistic that this too shall pass like everything else in life and we will get through it together. “Our food should be our medicine and our medicine should be our food.”- Hippocrates “The doctors of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition”- Thomas Edison “Don’t eat anything your great-great grandfather wouldn’t recognize as food.  There are a great many food-like items in the supermarket your ancestors wouldn’t recognize as food.” – Michael Pollan Warmly, Aracosia Family

 

[Ericandblueboy]

Getting kebabs from Arcosia McLean tonight.  I hope they're more organized than the shit show at HKP last night (love the food though - just didn't like the mass confusion at the overwhelmed restaurant).

ETA:  They were 10 minutes late.  We waited outside, as did the others.  The seehk kebab was a little dry and not as tasty as Shamshiry/Rose.  The chicken kebab was good, but again not better than Shamshiry/Rose.  

[Torshi]

We go to the one in Palisades.  Lamb shank in herbs keep me pretty darn happy.  Lamb cooked slow can be a bit indestructible.  Your chicken kebab can be a bit more sensitive.   Amoo is a great for kebab.  Don't really eat beef these days, but the koobideh from Amoo is super yum.

 

Sorry for the typo.  My computer lives in the kitchen and is ancient- yeah, "keeps" is what I meant.  But everyone support our restaurants when you can Aracosia, Amoo, any one.  BTW keep our dear city in your thoughts tomorrow.  All our downtown friends will have to close for the next couple of days.  Hope we can give them a boost when this passes.