Khatoon Draws You Into Persian Dining

Tom O’Malley | Sep 1, 2011 12:00 pm | 3 comments | 2286 reads

The Liangma River has recently turned an alarming shade of green, which matches well with this glittery, overdressed Persian restaurant on its south bank. Khatoon is so glaringly bright you’ll spot skin imperfections you never knew you had, reflected a dozen times in multiple mirrored surfaces. If you want romance, head to the terrace.

The skewer-centric menu is decidedly more subdued. Our generously meaty chicken kebab (RMB 45) was sizzled just slightly past the point of succulence. The kebab soltani (RMB 85), a duo of minced kobbideh and barg kebabs, passed scrutiny, though it wouldn’t dazzle a sultan.

Lamb shank with sabzi polo, a rice pilaf baked with broad beans and dill (RMB 65), was halfway there – the meat was tender, but where was the trademark crust on the rice? Better was the zereshk polo (RMB 58), chicken legs and rice studded with tart, lemony barberries glowing like amber jewels. Thumbs up for the cleansing mint tea (RMB 30/pot), served in a striking amethyst and bronze-shaded tea set.

The only truly knockout dish we tasted was an appetizer, halim bademjam (RMB 32), a rich puddle of smoky mashed eggplant, yogurt, mint, walnuts and tender shreds of lamb. Partly, and infuriatingly, this is because the menu’s singular gems are only available on certain days. Dizy, a traditional soup of lamb, lentils and tomato, is weekends only. And fesenjan, a slow-cooked chicken stew with pomegranates, is Wednesday’s special. Fair enough that the owners are being financially prudent, but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing if, like us, you visit on a Thursday.

Standout dishes: Halim bademjam, zereshk polo
Also try: Rumi, 1001 Nights

Khatoon
Daily 11.30am-11pm. Liangmahe Nanlu (50m west of Xindong Lu), Chaoyang District (8532 1071) 朝阳区亮马河南路（亮马河南路和新东路路口往西50米）

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Reza's picture Reza Submitted by Guest on Fri, 02/24/2012 - 21:14

I was there again this week.

My observations: The new waitress is smiling, service minded and talks fluent English. The food is delicious, real Persian and still at lower price range.

This is a very small thing, but I just hope they can improve the quality of their "Torshi" (traditional veggie pickle). The real good "Torshi", that I love and miss, has to be crispy Smile
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This time we also tried their fish which is served with rice cooked with different kind of herbs. I can warmly recommend it.

pengusius's picture pengusius Submitted by Guest on Thu, 11/10/2011 - 09:50

Pretty decent decor. Apparently, they have one of those tandoor ovens and make their own bread. The nan is real good.
As for other dishes, you might all know that the main attraction of any Persian restaurant is the barbecue(kebabs). And theirs was juicy, spiced just right and not small in size(Koobideh, barg). On the other hand, the rice accompanying the kebabs,although fragrant, was enough to satisfy a child's appetite.
The traditional veggie pickle was either right out of a can, or 'over-preserved'.
The "Dizi"(traditional stew, served in clay pot, you're suppose to pour the broth into a bowl and have it with pieces of nan, whereas the meat, potatoes and other stuff in the clay pot is to be mashed with a potato masher, of course supplied at the table) was a delightful surprise and involved its own rituals. Went for rmb60. For that amount of money, you'd expect more than a couple pieces of bite size meat.
Service was slow, even though we were the only ones there.
You'd expect owners to come by and, I don't know, try to ask about the food, or just be friendly. But the only person we dealt with was the server, who had trouble communicating in any language.
I sincerely hope they take consumer comments into consideration if they want to survive.

smj's picture smj Submitted by Guest on Fri, 09/02/2011 - 11:21

Had dinner at Khatoon last weekend, there were no tables available (due to a lot of people breaking the ramadan fast at the time we went), so we sat at the counter on the first floor in front of the kebab station. Food was pretty good. Ordered a kebab platter, a rice dish, hummus, pita bread and baklava. The downside is they charge 8 rmb for a bottle of nongfu water...they don't serve regular water Sad
meal for 4 of us including drinks(juice and buttermilk) came to 398rmb

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