Haney

Vali-Ye-Asr Street
Tehran

Iran

Overall rating: 7.5/10

Date of visit: December 2011

When I came through the door here, I was thinking to myself: “Oh no! This looks like a canteen. This is going to be horrible”. The staff was standing behind counters with big trays and pouring food onto your plate, but when I started eating it I was pleasantly surprised.

This restaurant is a chain and serve traditional Iranian food. If you’re in Tehran, this would be a good place to start if you want to try Iranian food.

As I’m writing this review from memory a year later, I can’t say that my score for this restaurant is completely accurate, and I can’t remember everything we had.

I do remember that we had rice cooked with dill and butter beans, a plate of mixed herbs and leaves (including mint and one of those more exotic types of basil that is not very common in Europe), and slowly braised neck of lamb. All traditional Iranian food, but at its best. This was also my first experience with Iranian food, and I was very impressed. At that time at least, the lamb was simply some of the best lamb I had ever had. Tender without being dry, and bursting with flavour. The rice were wonderful. So sweet, yet rounded and flavourful. These rice were really a revelation for me. I often eat rice, and I often mix in other ingredients, but I’ve probably never had better rice than the rice I’ve had in Iran.

I don’t think this restaurant is any different than many other restaurants in Iran, neither when it comes to quality nor what type of food they offer, but it really showed me that Iran can offer some very nice food.