Setaara: An Afghani/French Jewel in A.C.!
Nestled in a little neighborhood just off the Atlantic City Boardwalk is Setaara, an Afghani-French restaurant in Atlantic City, New Jersey. This place has been open since 2017, and more recently has been undergoing renovations to expand the space. Originally founded by Abdullah Panah, in 2014 he encouraged his Aunt Homa Bazyar to sell her restaurant in Colorado, and create a new concept in AC. Thank Allah that she did!
Setaara is vibrant, and you can smell all the spices of Afghanistan with French influences in this little restaurant on Arctic Avenue. In anticipation for this past Saturday’s dinner, I ate next to nothing, and am so glad that I did. I would like to take a moment to thank our dear friend Randee for picking this restaurant for an upcoming MeetUp event happening in a few weeks, and our dear friend, Deirdre Childress Hopkins for joining us for a truly spectacular dinner.
My husband Eric and I had arrived early, so we had time to talk with some of the staff, take a few pictures, and get settled in before the start of the dinner. Thank you to everyone who made our evening wonderful, and we both look forward to eating at Setaara again. Now, onto our tasting menu. For our appetizers, we split the escargot a la bourguignon. Which is snails in a delicious garlic herb butter sauce that melted in your mouth. It brought back memories of our honeymoon in France in October 2019, where we ate escargot whenever we could!
We also ordered the borani banjan, which was a beautifully cooked eggplant appetizer with two different sauces, and fresh herbs. We closed out our appetizers with bolani. It is a dough that was filled with seasoned potatoes, green onion, and cilantro. They were fried to a crispy golden brown, and paired with an amazing, spicy chutney. All three dishes were well prepared, seasoned perfectly, and portioned out very well. Freshly made breads were also served to the table.
Our next course was the soup du jour, which in this case was a lemon chicken soup, garnished with a little paprika. It was delicious! It reminded me of a Greek soup that my husband made one time when I was sick, avgolemono soup. Now, before we get into our entree’s, there is something that should be noted for all of you reading this post. Setaara requires a reservation. There are no walk-ins, it is a BYOB, and they are only open Wednesday through Saturday nights. Now, where was I? Ah, yes, dinner.
For our entree’s, we all had lamb in the form of lamb shank and chops. Both dishes were perfectly cooked, and can definitely be shared. The Uzbeki palau is an Afghan rice dish with slowly braised lamb shanks, cooked with onions, and mixed with shredded carrots and raisins. I absolutely loved my entree! The lamb was perfectly cooked, fell right off the bone, and the spices of cardamom, garam masala, and a touch of citrus kept a dish that could have been heavy, very light. Eric and Deirdre each ordered the Setarra Kabob. It was a perfectly charbroiled rack of lamb cooked to perfection! It was juicy, tender, and paired with three different sauces. It was a lamb lover’s dream!
For dessert, Eric ordered firni, Afghan pudding of milk flavored with cardamom and rose water topped with crushed pistachios. Think rice pudding, but so much better! At first, you get the pistachios, but then you taste the rosewater right at the back of your throat. It was delicious. I had a pistachio and chocolate-based baklava. It was light, crispy, and perfectly decadent. Both desserts were washed down with a Moroccan mint tea that had a hint of honey as well. If I’ve made you hungry, good. Head on over to Setaara, and mention that Tiffany sent you!
Cheers!
