The World’s Best Persian Food

Nasim Alikhani spent decades as a home cook in the Iranian diaspora before opening this Persian restaurant in Park Slope at 58, which explains why the food feels like someone's mother finally decided to show the city what she'd been holding back. Whitewashed brick, marble bar, black wood beams. The kitchen is faithful to Persian tradition but loose enough to foam a yogurt or call a pomegranate-marinated rib-eye a kebab. A James Beard nominee for Best Chef New York State.

1. The New York Times 2018 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Best Chef: New York State · Nasim Alikhani
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Best Chef: New York State · Nasim Alikhani

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The rice alone explains why the New York Times put this upscale Persian restaurant on its 2024 restaurant list: the tadig comes out with a shattering crust, and the fluffy sour-cherry version beside it is its own argument. Classic stews anchor the menu, with duck fessenjoon and beef with dried lime doing the heavy lifting. The room is relaxed enough for families, polished enough for a proper date.

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The name means "heart, captured" in Persian, which sets the tone before you've even sat down. This sceney Inman Village restaurant is built around sharing, with spreads and house bread to start, a dedicated section of tahdig on the menu, and slow-cooked meats for the table. The crowd arrives dressed to be seen, but the food is the kind that makes people stop talking mid-sentence. A Michelin Guide selection.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. The Infatuation #7 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Atlanta
3. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants Around Atlanta

1. The New York Times 2022 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Roadbook The Best Restaurants in New York City
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Natural light pours through lattice screens and past paintings by local Iranian artists at this modern Persian restaurant on West 4th. The kitchen leans into the architecture of Persian flavors: tart dried limes, fragrant spices, richness from nuts and seeds. A judge once said the food has "a mother's touch," which is either the nicest thing you can say about a restaurant or the nicest thing you can say about anything.

1. Air Canada 2022 · Finalist · Best New Restaurants
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Vancouver Magazine 2024 · Gold Medal · Restaurant Awards: Best Middle Eastern

The barbari bread is baked fresh each morning, which tells you something about how seriously this casual Silver Lake cafe takes Iranian cooking. Azizam runs on the kind of labor-intensive prep that doesn't announce itself, from herb-packed sandwiches to the kofteh Tabrizi, a single family-size meatball in tangy broth. Named to the New York Times Restaurant List and the L.A. Times 101 Best, it landed on Bon Appétit's Best New Restaurants list, too.

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants
2. Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America
3. The New York Times 2024 · The Restaurant List

1. Le Fooding Le Fooding Guide

1. AAA Three Diamonds
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3. Phoenix Magazine Kash O'Bademjan · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

The tandoor oven visible through the display kitchen sets the tone: this is a full-scale Persian restaurant with a dining room grand enough that you wonder if you underdressed. High-backed banquettes, earthy colors, and an inviting bar soften the scale considerably. The menu runs classic, from lamb shank braised in tomato stew to baklava, with a rosewater-and-pistachio ice cream sandwich for anyone who wants to go slightly sideways at dessert.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Rugs on the floor, chandeliers overhead, and a menu built around the kabab shops of Tehran: Berenjak is a Persian grill that started in London's Soho and has since traveled well. The Dubai outpost at Dar Wasl Mall carries the same eclectic, slightly theatrical room and the same devotion to the skewer. The Michelin Bib Gourmand follows it wherever it lands. Open with a sharbat, a fruit-and-flower-petal Persian cooler, before the charcoal smoke takes over.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

The counter seats facing the tandoor and mangal barbecue are the move here, a lively little Persian restaurant in Soho modeled on the kabab houses of Tehran. Coal-fired aubergine and slow-cooked lamb come out generous and smoky, the exposed brick room stays loud and packed, and the Michelin Bib Gourmand keeps the prices honest. There are other London outposts, but this Romilly Street original has the most atmosphere per square foot.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Perched on Al Maha Island with a terrace that looks straight back at the Doha skyline, this Persian restaurant earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand for food that doesn't fuss about being anything other than itself. Flatbreads, coal-fired kebabs, and slow-cooked stews like ghormeh sabzi anchor the menu. When you're done, order tea rather than coffee, because the kitchen has clearly thought about that choice more than you have.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

A Georgian townhouse in Edgbaston, gilded and upholstered within an inch of its life, housing a restaurant that calls its cooking Indo-Persian, pulling threads from Afghanistan, Turkey, and Balochistan into a single menu. The tasting menu covers the most ground, but the Sultani lamb chops, melting and gently spiced, have a way of making the decision for you. It's a room that takes drama seriously, and so does the kitchen.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Persian restaurant on the Upper East Side with linen-draped tables, wide banquettes, and windows onto Second Avenue that make it feel like dressing up is optional but encouraged. The kitchen leans into fragrant, slow-cooked territory: silky spreads, saffron-tinged kebabs over sour cherry rice, and spiced stews that smell like someone's grandmother is running things. Service is warm, occasionally to a fault.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

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The walls are lined with family photos, the celebrities among them suggesting this Persian kebab spot near Al Fahidi has been feeding the right people for a long time. An old-school institution, it runs on marinated mutton, chicken, and tenderloin served over saffron rice, and the portions are generous in a way that feels almost confrontational. Communal tables, no ceremony, and prices that make you look twice at the bill.

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2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

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Persian cooking is rare in San Francisco, and Lavash has been one of the city's few serious addresses for it. The kebab plates arrive piled over rice on wide sheets of flatbread, which is both a practical move and a slightly theatrical one. The tahdig, all crackle and crust, is the thing regulars come back for. Tables spill into a roofed parklet when the Sunset fog cooperates, which is optimistic but charming.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Middle Eastern restaurants in the Bay Area

Saffron and rose ice cream in the shadow of the Palazzo Vecchio is a combination Florence doesn't offer often. This Iranian restaurant in Dante's old neighborhood fills a real gap in a city where the dining scene still tilts heavily Renaissance. The room leans into it, with decor that feels like a genuine gesture toward home rather than a theme. Koobideh, joojeh kebabs, and ghormeh sabzi make up the core of it.

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The kebabs come off a grill tucked inside a Persian grocery store in Longwood, which tells you most of what you need to know about the prices. Beef koobideh and chicken skewers arrive with saffron rice, and you can ask for barberries, grilled peppers, and lavash to round it out properly. The shallot-yogurt dip from the refrigerated case handles any leftover bread. Bastani and faloodeh close things out the right way.

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1. Time Out #35 · The 40 best restaurants in Los Angeles you need to try right now

This is a neighborhood Iranian wine bar in Bernal Heights where the big round tables were clearly built for spreading out. Parents graze through mazze platters with a glass of something cold while kids tally the decorative pots behind the bar, and nobody needs a sitter or a reservation strategy. The sweet and sour chicken stew is soft enough for the teething set, which is more than most wine bars can say.

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Dim enough to feel genuinely clandestine, with tall dripping candles and banquettes you sink into and forget to leave, this Iranian restaurant in the Arts District is the LA outpost of a London original. The menu leans into the Iranian diaspora, with kebabs doing the heavy lifting. It sits inside Soho Warehouse, so the corner booth may or may not contain a movie star, which is either a draw or a reason to keep your eyes on the bread.

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Duck fesenjoon with pomegranate and walnuts is the kind of dish that makes you wonder why Persian food doesn't get more attention in this city. Rumi's Kitchen is a full-service Persian restaurant that started in Atlanta and has landed at Westfield Century City, bringing herb-heavy stews, saffron-marinated kebabs, and a menu that reads like a very convincing argument for going somewhere other than the food court upstairs.

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Nasim Alikhani's minimalist Persian cafe on Flatbush is the kind of place you visit for one thing and leave thinking about it for weeks. That thing is the latifeh, a traditional confection the New York Times flagged as one of 2024's top New York dishes: two rounds of soft, rose-scented cream sandwiched between pastry and rolled in salted pistachios. Made fresh constantly so they never turn soggy, each one disappears faster than you planned.

1. The New York Times 2024 · Latifeh · Hungry for the Best? Here Are Our Top New York Dishes of 2024.