Review Afghan Masala - Dandenong

Place was very disorganised, and though empty, being seated and ordering took longer than expected. The server did not write down our order, even though he only appeared to be able to retain two items in his memory at any one time. Ordered a few dishes. One dish came out almost immediately, and looked and tasted as if it was precooked, then microwaved to within an inch of its life. Table had only one napkin, which was filthy and probably not removed from last guests. As you can see from the picture, we did leave quite a bit of food, as it wasn't particularly good. I have give this place two stars as the cakes are okay.

We bought sweets from this place twice within a week and must say that they were like really good.. I mean really good. So, we thought of trying out their restaurant as well. Quantity wise, it was good, the curry was very tasty but the disappointment was around the quality of chicken used. It was either old or was left slightly raw during cooking. While the dining place was neat and clean, the bathroom was not so.

Hands down one of the most underrated restaurants/bakeries in Dandenong. Their sweets are absolutely delicious - especially the cakes! and the prices are super reasonable! Highly recommend this place for those who love sweet baked goods!

Went yesterday along with my Ozzie friends and felt so embarrassed. This place don not have any heaters in, secondly the girl who attended us said chef is not here, don’t know when will she come🤷‍♂️. Third she really need to learn some manners to welcome guests, she was chewing gum and popping bubbles while talking_disgusting. We ended up changing restaurant and excused to my friends. Not recommended at all!👎

Pretty good restaurant, the reason why I give 3 stars is because, the butter chicken is nice but it was a bit too sweet as if it had a lot of sugar in its sauce. The chicken skewer plate was ok but again could’ve been better, there was not much marination with the chicken also wasn’t as tender as other Afghan restaurants I’ve been to. Now finally the place itself needs a make over, other then this the food was still good.

Ordered a plate of Biryani there. It was so greasy and bad cooked that Oil was dripping out of the spoon. Didn't even eat a bite of food and spit out the raw chicken meat. Zero Stars indeed

Very good food and the prices are not too bad. Yes the place does need an uplift and perhaps they need to have more staff during peak time as it gets really busy and the same staff that takes your order is also serving at the sweets counter so you may have to wait for a while before you even place your order. We also had to ask for the tables, chairs and floor to be cleaned before we were seated!

Guys, please don’t go here, will give you the worst food ever, yesterday me and my friend went there and ordered Tika kebabs, what they did, they warmed up the old meats and served us, we asked why, no answer we asked where is the owner, and the owner was bided, shame and shame, paid $46 for a rubbish food

Some great authentic Afghan dishes on the menu which were well made a delicious. The service was fast and efficient.

Decided to try the food but very disappointed with the interior which was shabby around the walls with absolutely no atmosphere nor interior decoration. We liked the unusual tables but that's about it and they had an air conditioner!<br/>No BYO and no alcohol served whatsoever, a big disappointment and the food was nothing to crow about.<br/>Rice pilaf good and chicken was almost cremated and lamb shank flesh was too dark brown to be from a lamb.<br/>Service was good but menus were dirty and grubby.<br/>Groups of men outside were perving in and one actually walked in and had a good look at me because I had long blond hair facing back to the outside.<br/>Not impressed and not returning.

Love the food here :) very nice people, we were patient with each other. Never had Afghan cuisine before this restaurant. We ordered the Afghan Special Set Menu for 4 people and added 1 special of the Afghan rice with a lamb shank. There were 5 of us and it was HEAPS. We had to take some home.<br/>The atmosphere around our table was great for chatting, too!<br/>

Their kebab on a skewer is yum. I couldnt eat much because i wasnt hungry that time but I tasted it. It was good. I would recommend the lamb and the chicken.

came here this time for the restaurant...coz someone recommended it... ordered a few lamb dishes and they were all good ! compared to other afghan restaurants in the area...they give 8 kebab sticks instead of 4....so they're generous on quantity... will be coming back again

This place used to be really good a year ago, our fave place to go foŕ Friday lunch when we were working in site office in Dandenong. I then came back few times after and made an effort to drive 1 hour to come back here but it was disappointing experiences. Their rice was so good previously and its tasteless now. The mix kebab used to be my fave and now it wasn't good anymore. It took long time for serving as well even sometime only 2 customers there. I noticed this place starting losing customers, it used to be busy and now just 1 or 2 people.

We had a lovely experience. The staff was courteous and efficient. The food arrived promptly and the servings were generous. All the food was very fresh and tasty, we loved the bread and found the meat was so well cooked it slid easily off the bone. Having never experienced Afghan cuisine before I now would not hesitate to recommend to friends. The dining room was comfortable and decorated with an exotic flair and we really felt like we had been transported to a different culture. A really fun lunch for our group. Thank you Afghan Masala!

Food is great with generous servings, but the service is horrible.<br/>The Iranian girls that used to work here were efficient and kind but the new girls are terrible. <br/>Slow service, they're rude and moody. <br/>Get your menus and cutlery yourself as well and while you're at it, order at the counter unless you want to be forgotten about for 20 minutes. <br/><br/>Also, you forgot two servings of our bread.

كان يوم سيئ جدا كنا ١٢ شخص ووضعونا في طاولات متفرقه المقبلات كانت جيده وتوزيعها بالتساوي ، لكن الوجبات الرئيسية وضعوها في طاولة وحده ولم يخبرونا بانها مشاركة بعد انتظار ١٥ دقيقة وعندما سالنا اين وجبتنا الرئيسية قالو بان الطبق الذي بالطاوله الاخرى كانت مشاركه واصرت العاملة بان الخطا خطانا!! كيف خطانا وهي لم تخبرنا بان الطبق مشاركة ، ايضا كيف تضع طبق مشاركه لطاولتين منفصلتين؟ وتعامل العاملة كان سيئ جدا وليس به اي مهنيه بعد ذلك قام مدير المطعم باصلاح الخطا واعطائنا طبق جديد لكن بعد وقت متاخر تجربة لن تتكرر ابدا!

First impressions were not good. First walked in lots of biscuits on counter open to public to cough sneeze and touch. Then to not be seated and told just take a seat to find a dirty plate on the seat I was going to sit in. Salt and pepper shakers had finger prints on them. Bread and rice on the floor. Dirty cutlery! We were recommended to this place so we stayed to order. Food was nice but was service was very poor. Had to ask for table water a number of times and when asked for more bread lady said yes and continued doing what she was doing and brought it out when she was ready 20 minutes later when we were finished. Will not be back

Bad bad very bad. To just enter the restaurant, it smells like a toilet or someone had a pee on the tables. It stinks n all the table are sticky. The staffs are so rude that when you ask something they roll their eyes on you and dont bring the thing you ask. We pay for God sake we dont eat for free. They serve the sides for one person if you go alone or 4 people.<br/><br/>Where is council to send food safety inspectors to check on them to check if they are clean or not.

Service could be a little faster but the food and warm service more than makes up for it. Lovely dishes and excellent value. A few vegetarian options so everyone should be happy.

Just an amazing spread of Afghan food each time you go here. Slightly slow service that's forgotten when the food arrives - very popular with the locals you'd note either from the packed tables or the the queue waiting to be seated. <br/><br/>Tip: Grab a kilo of 'Jelabi' from their shop front on the way out. Worth driving over for.

Great Afghan food. Great decor. Great service. Cheap too. Superb for an early afternoon lunch. We keep on going back as it is so good. Superb.<br/>

Too cold, oily food worst Afghan place thus far !. Ordered food thinking it would be comparable to other Afghan restaurants. Thought wrong. Oily, warm food! <br/><br/>What's worse is that they had the aircon on and denied it when I raised it with girl in the hijab! We couldn't feel our fingers had to wear our jackets. Disgraceful. No wonder the place was empty.<br/><br/>Think twice.

Ambience is poor and kebabs were burnt and rice wasn't fresh too. Been to a lot of afghan restaurants, this one rates low!

The Afghan Masala Persian Cuisine covers a lot of geographical ground.  It offers Afghani and Indian food and the owner of the place is Persian so they do Irani style cuisine as well. 

Afghan Masala is a lovely Afghan/Indian restaurant that serves honest food – simple and to the point. The service is warm and friendly and the menu is very reasonably priced.

Great food, cheap and nice staff. Great food, with insane quantities and plate sizes! 3 mains is more than enough for 4+ people. We had the saag lamb, mixed kebabs and the $20 special (lamb + lentil + rice + salad + naan). The meat in all three dishes was some of the most delicate and tender I've ever had. The lamb shank in the special just fell off the bone. Delicious!<br/><br/>The interior decorations are very traditional. Although, not to my liking, they do have an authentic feel and nice. The staff are also very helpful and nice. Although, they could be slightly more attentive as they didn't notice us calling for them for about 15 minutes - however in their defense, the place was pretty packed with new customers.<br/><br/>Great place in Dandy! Cheap, authentic and good variety.

Dinner. Really enjoyed the dinner there, especially the dips & eggplant dish. Really loved the furniture & ambience. Our waiters were very courteous & accomodating. Very disappointed however with the take away baklava which was oily, tasteless & obviously not fresh. Had to throw it out. The Greek & Turkish make it much better. Looking forward to going there again.

Recommended by a friend and definetly didn't dissapoint! absolutely delicious! The lamb the chicken the bread the rice the dips were all beautiful! Going back again very soon.

Getting even better!. I always liked the food there but was not happy with the shabby furniture and ugly/unpleasant environment of the restaurant. So I had stopped going there until yesterday that I was in Dandenong again, very hungry with a craving for some good kebabs. Headed to Afghan Masala and when we got there we couldn't believe our eyes! The whole restaurant area was renovated, with whole new set of furniture! Not saying that it has turned to a fancy, elegant restaurant, but it is very clean and decent now. The food also arrived with whole new set of plates and cutlery. The quality of the food was also better than before but the prices were the same. Not sure if the management has changed or what, but now it is a place I would like to go very often!

Nothing. I normally go to dandy for good afgan/indian food, but this choice was the worst by far!<br/>Dirty dishes and utincils and bad service. Even the straw for my can was dusty and disgusting

Interesting sweets. It's probably not fair to compare other Muslim bakeries to Balha's in Brunswick, because that's the best Middle Eastern sweet shop that I've encountered anywhere in the world, and I've seen a fair bit of this planet. But it was with visions of Balha's that I was drawn in by the sight of Afghan Masala's pastry case. (This place also has a sit-down restraurant, but I had already eaten.) Afghan Masala has a good selection of pastries for a smallish shop, maybe 20% of what Balha's has. I'd rate it as comparable to the Aviv Jewish bakery in Elsternwick. Masala also has lots of Indian-style galub jamun/chickpea flour-based sweets.<br/><br/>I bought a small box with a variety of the Afghan style bikkies. The ones I liked best were the wheat-based ones that had flaky, layered dough. They weren't overly sweet, had a crunchy, tender mouth feel, and actually tasted better after sitting in my fridge overnight than they did fresh. That made the texture a bit denser. The small baklava pieces I had were over-macerated and soggy, so their phyllo had gotten thick and mushy. Overall I was happy with the box, which had a half-dozen things for $6.

This place was fantastic few yrs ago. It was run by a Persian woman. Beautiful food and flavours. The food stil maintains good flavour which is hard to get. It's hit & miss in dandenong sometimes. I do get concerned with the new sweets counter. So many sweets. I'm sure they don't dispose it every week yet it's out in the open. Couldn't be good for your health. The staff are fine. I saw a review where a customer said they were rude. They want to talk to u just as much as u want to talk to them. I had dinner with a mate & we were speaking about something and laughing.. A staff member thought shed share her experience about some unrelated thing. I thought it was cute. I didn't understand what she was on about but I could appreciate the effort she made. It was genuine and I felt I was having a dandy experience

Tastiest Food I've ever had. Nice, happy and smiling serive. The food was excellent and tasted wonderful; the best kebab I've ever had.<br/>The kebab is full of flavour and is never dry, and have plenty of delicious sides to pick from.<br/>Good set up in the restaurant, suited everything.<br/>Good quality food and service, best recommended.

Disappointing Service & Food. Absolutely poor service, went in the afternoon over easter sunday, went with family of four, took up a table was rudely asked by the waiter to change to another (for no reason at all as the entire restaurant was empty), there was no offer for drink/ water after guests settled in to their chairs, just wanted to walk out instantly but wife insisted to continue the ordeal as all of us were quite tired and hungry after a long drive, the food was absolutely poor, the chicken biryani that was offered did not have any chicken, I have eaten afghani / pakistani biryani all over the world & they are absolutely delicious,the butter chicken had a few boneless pieces of chicken thrown into tomato sauce, the lady waiter asked us to "choose ur drinks" from the refrigerator, so thought that these were part of the set ordered, there were no glasses given till the end, the rice of the "chosen drinks" were added at the end to the bill (then why ask to "choose", cant they tell what is on offer and ask what is needed instead), while paying the cheque i said i wold like to pay by card, the lady said that they do not accept cards, then a male colleague intervened and took the payment,<br/>Overall an absolutely rubbish experience even for the price paid. Afghan Masala restaurant without the masala !!

Lovely. As always the food was beautiful with a reasonsbly cheap price compared to other restaurants and the service is amazing. <br/>always happy with the restaurant.. especially now that its gotten bigger and there's heaps of room

All you can eat buffet: At first I was surprised to see this place offering an all you can eat buffet. After dining in I understood that this place was not honouring there claim. At $9.50 for all you can eat I was eager to see what I had got. I was given a plate, than advised I can eat any of the meals in behind the glass window. I had only seen half of what was on the menu l. Anyhow I proceeded to get the tongs to get the food. My hands were burnt as it was scorching hot. I had to get a tissue around the tongs! The curry was reasonable with chicken pieces that looked delicious so I placed some Rice and chicken my plate. Than I wanted the kebab though their Was only a few pieces at first I thought it would be replenished and took what i had in front of me. I went back after I had completed my plate and saw that the curry was not replenished neither was the kebab. I asked the girl and she said oh I will get some. When she had placed the kebabs I went up to get some though no joke it was as if they were serving a cat with the amount she had placed. I knew from here that they were not providing a true all you can eat buffet. They wanted me to feel odd asking for more food so they decide to place minute amounts! The food was honestly ok though great if you needed a a major boost of sodium in your diet! Very salty. I have come to this place before and purchased take away and can assure you they make the all you can eat food a lot tastier! Not happy!!!

Very Dissapointing... my first visit a few years back was good but tonight I went with my family and was very upset at the service and the description on the menu and what we were served with. We have eaten the same set menu's at other Afghan Restaurants and paid less and served much more. I am a very easy going person and not fussy so this was real bad fro me.