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617-492-4646
Sun-Thur 5-10
Fri-Sat 5 - 11
143 First Cambridge, MA
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Our Story

 

The Helmand Restaurant has been providing exquisite food from the Afghan tradition for over 29 years. We are consistently listed as one of the top restaurants in the Boston area. We offer traditional Afghan cuisine with the exceptional hospitality of being a guest in our home. In addition to our delicious meat offerings, we have a large selection of Vegetarian dishes and Vegan options.

We have a full table service bar and an extensive wine list. A visit to the Helmand Restaurant is a very memorable experience that will keep you coming back, time and again.

The Helmand is an Afghani restaurant named after Afghanistan’s longest and most important river in the south. Located in East Cambridge, the Helmand Restaurant’s dining room is flanked on one side by a small fireplace, and on the other by a woodburning oven, where the restaurant’s famous flatbread is cooked. We use fresh Grade AA meat of the day and Halal.

 

Phantom Gourmet
Boston Magazine
Zagat Survey
Boston Globe
Zagat
Boston Magazine
Where Locals Eat
Boston Globe

Boston Globe – Best Restaurant for Date Night
The well-established Afghan restaurant located steps from CambridgeSide Galleria. A crackling fireplace. Luxurious Afghan rugs. Dishes with mellifluous names (to Western ears) like dwopiaza and sabzi. The swirling aromas of cardamom, coriander, and turmeric. It all coalesces into a mood that’s at once faraway and yet comforting. The food is a revelation, and if it’s got the words “lamb,” “pumpkin,” or “brick oven” in the description, it’s an awfully sure bet.

ONE PERFECT MEAL Kaddo (sugared pumpkin with meat sauce, $9.50), Chowpan (grilled marinated rack of lamb, $42.95), Turkish Coffee ($5)

ZAGAT Survey
Promising a most enchanting evening, this unique dining experience in East Cambridge entices with its magical Afghan specialties infused with out-of-this-world flavors. From the outstanding flatbread to the divine baby pumkin appetizer to the unbelievable qabelee (rice baked with lamb shanks and raisins), the dishes accurately reflect the motherland’s location halfway between the Middle East and India.

America’s Top Rated
Extraordinary! Eat at this class act in East Cambridge where a simple meal becomes a pure delight and an education. The exotic yet accessible Afghan cuisine far exceeds expectations in a setting with the warmth and comfort of a living room.

ZAGAT Boston Restaurants – Extraordinary to Perfection for Food
Who knew Afghani cuisine was so wonderful? goes the common refrain from first-timers to this exquisite East Cambridge eatery where the unusual, delicious food from another world includes plenty of vegetarian options and scrumptious bread that comes from a large oven in the center of the warm romantic main room. Everything is well priced and comes quickly.

Helmand – Best Restaurants in America
Where the locals eat.

World’s Top Restaurants
Bored? – then eat at this class act on a strip of industrial blight in East Cambridge where a simple meal becomes a pure delight and education. The exotic yet accessible Afghan cuisine far exceeds expectations in a setting with the warth and comfort of a living room.

Appetizers – Soup – Salad

Vegetarian Appetizers 

Entrees

Specials

Vegetarian Entrees

Sides

Dessert

Our Kitchen

Enriching the city with a dining experience brimming with history, culture and exotic spices.

The Helmand Cambridge; One of the best restaurants in Boston. Family owned since they opened their first restaurant in Chicago in 1975. Locations in Baltimore in 1987 and San Francisco in 1989 followed. Only the Baltimore location is still active along with this Cambridge location which was opened in 1994. The only authentic Afghan Restaurant in the Boston area.

*Anyone who tries to copy The Helmand menu or recipes can not compare with our flavor.*

Catering

We offer catering for large and small events. Business Meetings, Weddings, Birthday Parties.
617-492-4646

We accept all major credit cards.