Business is going well enough at a new Afghan restaurant on Columbia Pike that the owner just might skip the grand opening.<\/p>\n
Helal Habibi, who hosted a soft opening for Ziafat\u00a0in August, told ARLnow that he has been off to a successful start at 3400 Columbia Pike,\u00a0serving up an array of kebabs and other traditional dishes, including a breakfast menu, with an emphasis on hospitality.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had planned to do the grand opening next month, but then we got really busy,\u201d he said. \u201cNow all I am doing is just improving the food and the restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ziafat replaces another Afghan establishment, Kabobistan, which relocated to D.C. under the name Bonjon Rumi in summer 2025.<\/p>\n
Habibi moved to the U.S. from Afghanistan three years ago with the goal of starting a business. As he was adjusting to the area, he visited several Afghan restaurants trying to find a favorite spot, but he said they all were missing something. Most didn\u2019t have table service, and some didn\u2019t have the dishes he was looking for.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why I collected all the missing things and [gave] them to the people,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I couldn\u2019t find it, I\u2019m sure there\u2019s a lot of Afghan people looking for a good restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Habibi serves chicken, lamb and beef kabobs, plus other grilled dishes like lamb chops and chabli kabob, an Afghan-style beef patty with herbs and spices. Traditional options include mantu (steamed dumplings with beef and onions), ashak (leek dumplings topped with a yogurt and meat sauce) and sides like chickpeas, potato curry and spiced, sauteed spinach.<\/p>\n
Habibi is proud of all the dishes on the menu, but especially the kebabs and qabili palau, a traditional rice dish with lamb, carrots and raisins.<\/p>\n
Ziafat also serves Afghan and Turkish breakfast platters, which come with a variety of egg dishes, breads, jams and jellies.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something very new, very different,\u201d Habibi said.<\/p>\n
Ziafat\u2019s website promises \u201csophisticated atmosphere, attentive service, and cuisine that honors authentic Afghan tradition.\u201d Habibi said he\u2019s just getting started.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not done yet,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m still working on the menu.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ziafat is open from 11 a.m.-10 p.m. on Thursday and from 8 a.m.-10 p.m. every other day except Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Business is going well enough at a new Afghan restaurant on Columbia Pike that the owner just might skip the grand opening. Helal Habibi, who hosted a soft opening for Ziafat\u00a0in August, told ARLnow that he has been off to a successful start at 3400 Columbia Pike,\u00a0serving up an array of kebabs and other traditional<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2196,31240,1735,7,8],"class_list":["post-39406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-restaurants","tag-around-town","tag-columbia-pike","tag-new-restaurant","tag-restaurant","tag-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117433062120877459","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}