Caspian Grill Reviews

First of all the food is excellent. Home-style Persian food that is fresh and tasty and doesn't leave you feeling bloated or heavy. They have a whole concept of food as medicine and the owner (super nice guy) can tell you all about it! I've been here for lunch and dinner and both are good. Lunch specials are highly affordable as well.

This was our first time but it won't be our last. We planned on meeting friends for dinner and they wanted me to pick a place in the 183 area, which is kinda central for us. This sounded like a great place and we weren't disappointed. Service was great, food was great and who I believe to be the owner, was very personable.

First time at a Persian restaurant. Loved the vegan Biriyani & Lentil Soup. Not spicy, as others have indicated, but very tasty. We'll be back!

I live close by and my neighbors have been singing praises of this place. Now I have a new favorite neighborhood spot for lunch or dinner. The portions are large. Plan on splitting a dish or even better take the rest home for your next meal!

Excellent Persian and Mediterranean food with an excellent lunch menu selection with prices around $10. I had the vegan lentil soup and Greek salad, only one of several vegan options offered by the restaurant. My colleagues had the ground beef kabob and the chicken shawarma salad. All were beautifully seasoned. There was a television in the dining room, but rather than showing sports or news, it ran a long looping video of places in the world to visit. The servers were friendly, polite and kept the water glasses filled. I highly recommend this lovely restaurant.

We have eaten here periodically for several years and have typically found the food good and appealing. On this visit the overall experience was at best average. The Baba Ganoush was good and the highlight of the meal. The Greek Salad was simply poor. Decent greens but very little feta and almost no olives with a very watery creamy feta dressing. Almost tasteless. The grilled beef kebab was okay but very oniony. Even the rice failed to be up to their norm - it seemed to be a different type and much less aromatic. Hopefully this was an off night and they will be back to normal on our next visit.

This place has the best lamb shank I've had in ages! I've been craving it for a whole week since I ate there! Did I mention that it's also the cheapest lamb shank I've seen anywhere? If that's not enough of a selling point, you'll love the personal and super friendly service of the owner! Definitely going back soon... Maybe even tonight!

On Saturday I ate at Caspian Grill for the first time and ordered lamb shank, homemade pita bread, and baklava.....Yummy food with a Persian ambiance! This is my new favorite restaurant and I haven't been able to stop thinking about the scrumptious food. Everything on the menu looks delicious and the best part is that dishes are prepared with fresh ingredients. From the moment you walk in you are made to feel like family....1st class customer service.

Well that was a treat. My wife and I were in the area and I found this place on Yelp. We got there early for a lunch and the manager (owner?) came over and was amazingly patient in helping us make our selections. We started with the roasted eggplant appetizer, Mirza Ghasami, which was chunky, rich and exciting. My wife got the surprisingly delicious herby Soy Kabob Rice plate. I had the beef and eggplant stew, Bademjan stew. My stew was exotically spiced and extremely satisfying. We finished by sharing the Roulade with fresh whipped cream and chocolate sauce. We plan to go back often when in the area.

The place stayed busy on a Saturday night. I recommend the eggplant appetizer and the kabob plates were tasty and fresh. For a pricey Austin, the prices here are reasonable. Don’t let the convenience store next door through you off.

Found this restaurant on Yelp, somewhat close to Seton Nwst Hospital, while my mom was being treated there. Lucky us (my wife, youngest (grown) daughter, and me). Arrived 1/2 before closing. Greeted warmly by our server, who may have been the owner, Sean's/Shawn's (?), wife. Place had nice feel, tastefully decorated, even a unique, hand painted tile wall decoration that had my wife swooning. Varied menu, reasonable prices, appeared to be authentic Persian offerings. Vegan stew was flavorful, a tad (appropriately) spicey. My daughter had a smokey flavored eggplant dish that she thought was great. My wife had lamb chops. Large portion. She thought they were among the best she'd had, and choose salad instead of rice. I had the cornish hen, which was tender with a wonderful array of flavorful spices on the skin/top of this great dish I too had the salad which was nicely dressed. Turkish coffee for dessert was perfect, as was the cardamon tea. Too full for dessert, but saffron/rosewater ice cream sounded great. Owner totally engaging and added to the experience, as did the lovely, accommodating server. A really nice find off 183. Lots of restaurant choices in Austin. This was a place we'll go back to. Soon.

Grill? Some menu items are deep fried! So be careful. Service was slow, two people in our party received their order first then few minutes later one other then one more, and now everyone had to wait 5 minutes for the last order to arrive. food quality is OK at best. Side orders are small and ridiculously high priced. They added 20% gratuity without telling us when we had included a tip. They should tell you if they include the tip ahead of time, not knowing we ended up paying it twice.

I really enjoyed the lentil soup. The sour pickled vegetables were different than anything I've tried before, with an interesting combination of spices. The entrees were slow coming out, but the food was worth the wait. My companions enjoyed the lamb and the chicken stew.

Had a chance to visit this restaurant with some work colleagues for lunch. Did not know what to expect as this was our first time there. Ordered Chicken Kebab and Lentil Soup. Both delicious and healthy. Service was great as well. The atmosphere is no frill and simple. Clean and pleasant. Will be back here again.

Dropped in for lunch to check them out. Very clean interior. No odors. Ordered Tofu and Vegetable Stew with Salad and Rice. The stew was very good. The rice and salad were okay but not special in any way. Everything was fresh and seemed to have good quality. I will definitely go back.

Great food with good price. We enjoyed the quality and taste of food however I didn't see any kids menu and we have to order adult portions

This is a hard to see little place in the corner of the Oak Knoll/Research shopping center. Inside it's nicely painted but very sparse- there was a huge piece of wall art propped against a wall so perhaps the decor is a work in progress. My hubby and I ordered the mixed grilled kababs. It comes with a GIANT mound of rice, broiled tomatoes and a chopped iceberg salad lightly dressed with olive oil and lemon and sprinkled with a little dry mint. The chicken was chunks of breast meat (not tenders) and tender and delicious. The meat was the usual finely ground beef. My son ordered the fried potato & stew and we all were quite surprised to see it was stew topped with FRENCH FRIES! He really didn't care of it at all. It was quite tangy and very little meat. I loved it however. My daughter got the gyro in a pita and said it was tasty. We didn't get dessert although they sounded delicious. Al in all it was a good tasty fresh meal. I felt that some one had just cooked it and not just reheated something cooked days earlier.

Love Persian food and was suggested this place. Never even knew where it was...and wow. Great food, service and prices. Nice atmosphere, decor..well worth giving this place a try if you haven't given them a shot yet. Compared to the other Persian restaurants in area.. these folks get it.

Had a hankering for Middle Eastern food. I've been several times before and the food is always delicious--fresh, well seasoned, and great portions. This time, I got the eggplant flatbread, the lamb shawarma salad and a small baklava; because I'd had an issue ordering online, they threw in some tah digh (a Persian rice dish that is basically comfort food). Havent had a bad meal there--and the manager was most generous.

We tried Caspian Grill after seeing overwhelmingly positive reviews on Google. So glad we did! We started with zaatar bread and yogurt with cucumber appetizers - both were delicious and recommended by our waiter. For the main course, we had their lamb specialty and a pomegranate walnut chicken stew. I particularly liked the chicken stew; the chicken was cooked to perfection. The flavor was funky and something I had never tasted before, but I really liked it. To top it off, we had pomegranate ice cream for dessert, which had crumbled pistachios on top. The staff was very friendly and was thoughtful in helping us to choose appetizers based on our preferences (if you like eggplant, want hot/cold, etc.) Definitely give this place a try!

Visiting Austin and wanted to try Middle Eastern cuisine. Awesome place with generous servings. An appetizer of feta and herbs and my dinner was a chicken kabob served with rice infused with lentils and raisins. Perfect! Have the Persian hot tea here. Absolutely the BEST!

My wife and I took six friends to the Caspian Grill for dinner last night and it was a smashing success. All our friends want to return, soon! I love Persian food and I have been able to enjoy it in places like Dubai, New York, Washington DC and others. This restaurant serves the best Persian food of them all. The cuisine is authentic. The food delicious. The service excellent. The prices very reasonable. I recommend it without hesitation.

This was my first visit to Caspian Grill. I ordered the Chicken Shawarma Wrap. The wrap was large with a fresh pita. It was filled with more lettuce than meat. The chicken was good and hot. There was so little tzatziki sauce I couldn't even taste it. The side salad that came with it can't be called salad as it was a small pile of lettuce and onions. The service was fast and friendly. The price was high considering the quality of the food. Disappointed to say the least.

I returned here after a 2-year absence and will return more often for sure. The appetizers are delicious and works of art in their presentation. One can feast on those alone, but the main dishes and house specialities (such as the lamb dishes, my own favorite) outstanding. Reasonable prices make this eatery all the more attractive.

I have been here several times for lunch and it is always delicious. I usually have the Salmon Salad, but today I tried the Vegan Stew (tofu and lentil). Equally delicious and with the salad and rice you definitely will not go hungry.

This is my second visit to Caspian Grill and they are providing a consistent good Persian food in Austin. The Cornish Hen (Akbar Joojeh) was so tasty that I finished every last rice on my plate. The combination of Mirza Ghassemi and Zataar bread (Flat bread) was amazing. The ice cream topped it all. Very best. Highly recommend them.

Awesome food. Full of flavors and so ethnic. Well kept beautifully served and serviced. Not expensive and family friendly.

So many choices! The best part is you get a mini lesson on how to pair foods either for energy or calm. I had the Cornish hen and it was juicy and tender. Hubby had the lamb shank that just fell off the bone. Order the Doogh it’s great for your digestion. Any questions just ask they are so helpful and nice!

I get it. Several people are not happy about how things have changed. I had the Sabzi appetizer and the Lamb loin with the dill rice. True I'm used to a Sabzi having more than one type of herb and lavash as well as radish etc. That was not here. And the dill rice, well not the best I've had. So instead I'm giving the benefit of doubt here with an extra star because this is a unique restaurant with staff who are trying very hard to be perfect. Small details and the chef will make the difference and I will come back. But... There are things that need to be improved.

We started off with the eggplant appetizer with an egg on top. Tasty and delicious. Two of us ordered the lamb shanks and the other two ordered lamb kabobs. We all sampled both and thought they both were delicious. Service was very friendly and attentive. I would definitely go back.

Really relaxing environment, attentive waitstaff but not intrusive, the food came fast and had a nice presentation, but most interesting to me was the flavors of the meats (kebabs). I don't think I have had this cuisine before. My spouse ate vegetarian and loved her meal as well. I'm certain we'll visit again.

An authentic Persian restaurant; good friendly host and efficient service. We tried several of their dishes as we have been there several times and were yet to be disappointed. Everything seems cooked fresh and their stews are delicious - home cooked, unusual flavors and very tasty. if you like Persian food it is worth a try - and don't forget to try their hot tea!!

Love this place! I can't even say how grateful that they are here. My mother is 88 years old, Iranian and really can no longer cook our traditional dishes. Her appetite has decreased significantly this past year and I've been worried about how to get her to eat. Well.. Caspian Grill to the rescue. Her eyes light up when I get takeout from them (it's now on our weekly scheduled) and it's a joy to watch her eat with gusto. Their food is as authentic as it gets, the flavors, use of spices and herbs are just exquisite. Their portions are enormous so two of us eat one portion and are very full. I'm now making a habit of ordering several meals and having them for days on end. I love their rice with barberries (zereshk polo), rice with dill (baghali polo), fesenjan, their meat is always juicy, flavorful and well seasoned. Nothing is overly salted so I feel safe having my mom eat it. Their shirazi salad is delightful! I am not a lamb person but I used to go pre-covid with a friend from work and he would ALWAYS order the lamb shank and practically drool at the mention of it :-) Just top notch all around and I'm so grateful we have this fabulous taste of home here in Austin!

We like to try new cuisines, and my fiancée had never had Persian food before. I had, so I had a level of expectation when we decided to give this place a try. Located in a strip mall on the southbound access road of 183, this place is easy to miss if you don’t know it’s there. As soon as we opened the door, our senses were greeted by a wonderful aroma. The interior was nicely decorated, and the tables placed so to maximize the space without making the cozy environment feel crowded. We started with an appetizer of the Mediterranean flat bread, which was extremely tasty. My fiancée ordered the makh soos, and I got the chicken kabob. Each came on a plate with some saffron-covered rice and a side salad. The presentation was great, and the food was excellent. Every bite was delicious. This lived up to my expectations. The wine selection was also good, and the staff was extremely friendly (and checked on us frequently). Great food at reasonable prices with great service, what more can you ask for. This is a place we’ll be coming back to again!

Excellent food and top rated service. We were late but were accommodated and got top-notch service. Definitely recommend

My wife and I have been 4 times in the past month. She found it while searching for vegan restaurants. It's not very eye catching as it is in a little strip center at the northwest corner of Oak Knoll and 183. Inside it is a large room with some decor and 2 large screen TV's tuned to travel channels. Love the food--a bit of Greek, Persian and such. Several choices for my vegan wife and for non-vegan me. Always start with a beet dish, a heaping serving of pickled red beets with a family secret blend of herbs. The gyro salad is my favorite with a vegan biryani a close second. Then there is a lentil stew that is superb. More visits will let us sample more dishes.

From the drinks (doggh) to all the main courses, everything was incredibly authentic. I especially enjoyed the shishlik - it had a flavor I had not tasted in the years since I left Iran. Service was very good too. Wish I had time to go back before I left Austin, but I certainly will go there on my next visit.

I have some colleagues from Iran mentioned might like this restaurant. I started out with an eggplant appetizer bit found it oily and with too heavy a smoke do not taste anything else. The owner was nice and stated this was done the way back home. Gave sample of other dish with yogurt was ok not much flavor. The pita was not homemade and standard thin type. The beef kabob with dill rice was quite good and juicy but no better than what have gotten elsewhere. The salad with it was good. They do specialize in vegetarian and vegan offerings. I hope to return to try he lamb and the Cornish hen. The cardimon tea was good. I could have had a potful without sharing. The ice cream is mix saffron and rose water. Very subtle but quit good with almonds and pistachios for crunch. Highly recommended

Food was tasty! Service was quick. But nothing over top wowed us. If you’re looking for some Persian food in north Austin, this place is worth a stop. A little on the pricey side for what you get.

Let me tell you about the experience I had at this place. This was my first time at Austin Tx. The restaurant is very nice. The atmosphere is very good. I ordered Beef Sultani and chicken sultani. Both meats were very dry. It had no flavour to it. Look like it was out of freezer. They need to change the flavours. The rice was also old with no flavour in it. However the staff members were very nice and polite.

I lvoe this place. The owners have done a great job to give diners the feel of their homealnd (Iran) and the choices and presentations are interesting. Not cheap, but worth the money, entrees like cornish hen with pomegranite seeds make you want to return soon.

Was anxious to have Persian after a great experience in another city, but Caspian Grill was a little disappt'g. For a strip center cafe, they have done a decent job of creating some ambiance inside and the menu was impressive. But all the meats we had (chicken, lamb and the ground beef kebabs) were really dry. Even the dill rice was dry (the barberry/almond rice was much better!). She said we could order lamb cooked less well cooked in future ("not an option on ground beef or chicken"), but aside from too well-done, the chicken and ground beef, esp, had little flavor of marinade or spice. Plentiful portions of everything, though not very artfully presented, just a ginormous platter of meat, rice, iceberg salad w/mint & cukes, etc. No flat bread, no tazhiki sauce included (which we asked for and they brought, and it went a long way toward flavoring the overcooked meat). They were so nice, though, we may give it another try!

This was a nice “hidden gem” we’d discovered, but no longer. The chef had changed, so what formerly had really exotic tastes were very bland. My wife had the beef barg kabob, and I the chicken koobideh. The savory flavors we were expecting were not present at all. She couldn’t even finish hers that it was so bad. The service was practically non-existant, as we had to ask multiple time for napkins and for our waters to be refilled. When we did mention how things weren’t very good to our server, he didn’t seem to care as there was no apology or offer of amends. Certainly as it had taken an unacceptable time just to get beverages, and there was nothing going to be done about an adjustment on the bill, we simply paid cash and left. It’s been a rare occasion where we leave a restaurant looking for another place to get a snack. We’d liked this place because it was nearby and easy to park, but now there’s no reason to return to it. It was very obvious they didn’t care about providing a positive customer experience. We’re scratching this off of our list of places to eat.

Wish I could get my money back. Do NOT be fooled by the other reviews as we were. We are new to Austin but not new to Persian/Mediterranean food. We had a craving for this food and started looking on Yelp and came across this place. Sounded great from the reviews and we ordered online. For starters, we should have clued in when they told us they do not have hummus. What kind of Persian/Mediterranean restaurant doesn't even have hummus??? We ordered the lamb, a Gryo wrap, a Greek salad and a side of pita bread. Okay, I am sure they do not make the pita at this restaurant. It was okay but when you order the pita, you just get one piece! Ridiculous! The Gyro sandwich... the worst ever. The meat was dry and tasted like possibly reheated in a microwave oven. No flavor and more than likely something they reheated. It came with black olives! I can't ever remember having a Gyro sandwich with black olives but IF you are going to use olives, they should be Kalamata olives. No red onion, no feta cheese and just a slice or two of tomato, all drowning in some white sauce they are trying to pass off as tzatziki sauce (and it is NOT). On the side, the Gyro came with jalapenos and a lime (if that tells you something about the people who are making this meal). The Greek Salad was just as bad. Just chopped up iceberg lettuce; not Romaine as it should. White onion instead of red, no feta cheese, and sliced black olives from a can instead of Kalamata olives. No pepperoncini's and again, smothered in that white dressing that was on the Gyro sandwich. And the lamb shank... horrible is the only word to describe it. And it was over a bed of what they called "dill" rice. Dill rice???? Saffron is the traditional rice! Short of this horror story is after trying everything, threw it all in the trash and went out in search of a REAL Persian restaurant. I spent 13 years working in the Middle East and have been to some amazing Persian restaurants throughout this country. This is NOT a Persian restaurant and the cooks here clearly are NOT Persian. I have no idea all these "5 Star" ratings who these people are other than possibly know the owners or something. Last, they use styrofoam instead of recyclable containers. I've researched this many times and the cost difference for using recyclable containers is negligible and if anything you can pass the cost along (maybe a 10 cent increase in prices). They charge 25 cents for the grocery bag at the local store... I'm sure people won't mind a slight increase to pay for something everyone benefits from.

Though the place is a bit short on atmosphere, everything else is first class. Our server was excellent, familiar with the menu and friendly and professional. The food was delicious and very nicely presented. The eggplant appetizer was especially outstanding but everything we had (cornish hen and lamb) we really enjoyed. Nice wine list so also at reasonable prices. Gluten, vegetarian and vegan friendly too - an added bonus.

It's nice to spend some money to eat in a restaurant like this, the environment is simple, the two girls who work there are kind and polite, and then ... I'm European, but the food was great ....

Went for dinner for the first time. Wonderful Persian food. The pita with feta and herbs is a great deal at $5. Chicken in walnut sauce with pomegranates is very good as are the grilled meats. Good wine prices. Clean! Good, friendly staff! This restaurant deserves to be a regular destination. Bravo!

The place is tucked away in a shopping center at the SW intersection of Research & Oak Knoll Dr. Decor and ambiance are pleasant enough, though not especially warm & cozy. The welcome & service are very friendly & attentive, however. The dishes are tastefully, artfully presented, but most importantly they are excellent the two eggplant-based appetizers, Mirza Ghasemi and Kashk B ademjan, are delectable. The Baghala Polo with lamb shank is superb - fall-off-the-bone moist, with extraordinary dilled rice, the best rice I've had in a long time. For dessert the Persian ice cream, wonderfully flavored with saffron & rose water, is a perfect conclusion. The Caspian Grill's website is not yet complete, but features the menu. It does not mention the modest but respectable wine list, available on site. Prices are reasonable, good QPR. I have been there twice and shall return.

This place gave me a good first experience of Persian food.The vegetarian food has a couple of options and it was really tasty. Tips: 1) If you are an Indian vegetarian you might have a different take on the food depending on the level of spices you like. I like non-spicy food so the food was great. 2) The flatbread was to die for. I have fatayers and zaatar based dishes before but this was different.They topped it with yogurt. 3) The ambiance is great and I loved the decor of the place. 4) Be sure to have the Persian tea.It not like the normal Indian tea or a normal black tea we are used to. The aroma is pretty relaxing. 5) I have eaten many vegetable biryanis before but this was totally different.It had great flavor, not at all spicy and the serving was very pretty.

For lunch we tried the Borani dip (yogurt and garlic dip, eaten with triangles of flat bread similar to pita), then Adas polo (lentil and raisin rice, with Chicken kabob), and Persian ice cream (Rose and pistachio flavored). Everything was tasty - if you like Persian food this is a good place to get it! (If you don't know Persian food, it's like Indian food but uses sweet or sour or savory spices instead of hot spices.) My date had Turkish coffee and said it was good here.

It was a late night, after 8 p.m. and I was really tired. My husband and I decided to go to Caspian Grill. We were seated immediately, given menus and I began to relax in the warm fragrant smells of the restaurant. The waiter brought me a lovely rose hot tea with sugar cubes which helped immensely. We ordered the eggplant appetizer which was amazing, Persian pickles, and Fesenjan which is chicken stewed with pomegranate served with a side of butter rice and salad. We then finished off with saffron ice cream which was amazing with its savory, sweet and crunchiness due to the nuts in it. The service, food and ambiance at Caspian Grill is truly like stumbling upon a fine jewel in the desert. You are driving along and you run into this fabulous combination of art, music, fragrant aromas, good food, service and ambiance. Everything about the food is excellent. The service too is first-class but is not conducted in a hovering way and everything is served quickly. My tea cup was refilled over and over and I finally had to say, "No more refills, please." I spoke to the co-owner afterwards, and asked about special dishes. He and the other co-owner are open to the ordering of special dishes for a special occasion. I cannot wax eloquently enough about this place and I look forward to my next trip there! Highly recommended!