As if I was a Jewish Kurd trying to make it to Israel on foot, I endured a long, grueling journey to Samira's Restaurant in downtown Bloomington, IN. The journey required me to be stuffed into a bus like cattle, endure a 10 minute ride to my car squashed in between rich and beautiful people texting each other on their fancy mobile phones. Then, I had to zig zag through Bloomington streets and traffic to the center square. Luckily I found a space relatively close to the restaurant right when the previous occupier of the space was leaving.
.......Okay, so I guess the Israel-Kurd analogy WAS a bit politically incorrect.
"Samira" ( سمیرا /SamirA/) means "brightness" in Farsi. The word might be pretty accurate description of the exterior of the building but is actually the name of the daughter of an Afghani immigrant named Anwar Naderpoor, who owns the restaurant. His restaurant, started in 1998, was affectionately named after his daughter.Once hearing that this was an Afghani establishment, my curiosity of this place increased. For one, prior to today I never had the opportunity to try Afghani food. I had always wondered how closely related Afghani cuisine was to my ethnic Iranian cuisine (seeing how culturally similar the two countries are). After today's visit, I would reach a verdict, which I will state in a bit.
I entered the restaurant and as always in Bloomington during lunch on a Friday, it was packed full of the typical Bloomington "cultural oasis crowd" that I've grown to love and hate simultaneously. However, the crowd nor the dining area actually wasn't the very first thing I saw upon entrance. If you look extremely closely at this picture, you can probably see the giant white wall that greeted me upon entrance. Just a giant white wall with no host on a podium to greet me or anything. It left me a bit confused, so I peeked my head to the right where the wall ended and saw the cluttered dining room filled with a majority of people who obviously felt "so cool to be eating in such an ethnic restaurant."
After a minute of so of awkwardness trying to make my presence obvious to the ONE waiter working the floor, I was told to wait five minutes, which I didn't mind at all. A minute after that, I then saw what I am assuming was Mr. Nadepoor working the floor as well. He asked me if I was helped, to which I replied yes. Mr. Nadepoor was attentive and giving his all to the busy crowd, which was something I admired. For me it's always a refreshing sight to see an owner giving his absolute all in his business.
I finally got my seat and told to help myself to the lunch buffet, which was what most of the people opted for today. However, I asked for the lunch menu as I wasn't really in the "buffet mood." Mr. Nadepoor then randomly showed up at my table and gave me a plate that had a slice of naan covered in hummus/olive oil. I actually had never tried hummus prior to today and, wow, I have definitely missed out! A very nice touch.
The solo waiter then came by to take my order. I decided on the Lamb Kebab and was told to help myself to the salad bar portion of the buffet. As I did that, I got a good glance of the buffet. The buffet was small with just a few types of rice, vegetables, meatballs in tomato sauce and chicken. The salad was separated into two trays, one for lettuce and one for veggies and on the side was a vinaigrette dressing. I took a light serving of that and headed back to my table. The salad went well with the additional bread that the waiter put on my table.
And then eventually, the moment I had been waiting for came when Mr. Nadepoor literally came out of nowhere and placed my entree on the table. To my slight disappointment, it was your typical "Arab/Greek style" kebab, on a metal skewer with veggies. Damn. The meat on the lamb was standard fare, maybe a little bit dry but that's normal with lamb. In total, I only had 1 skewer on my plate though it was only a lunch portion. It came accompanied with a relatively small rice mound covered in a tomato sauce with carrots and raisins and a serving of spinach. Now the rice did taste like the Persian "polow" that I know and love. Finally, a place in Bloomington that can make rice! The accompanists to the rice kind of offset the flavor but were decent anyway. The spinach was good, though bitter tasting when I ate it alone. All in all, it was not too bad though the portions were a little small for my hunger; afterwards, at home, I kind of contemplated going out and getting taco bell.
Price-wise, it came out to $13.07 including a slightly generous tip. Not too bad, considering I've spent more for a buffet at a Moroccan place in Indianapolis that wasn't all that great. I'll definitely be back in the future to try some more dishes and the buffet. I definitely recommend it to all to at least try.
If you do decide to go, be sure to tell Mr. Nadepoor that I sent you. And enjoy the hummus.
