Paradise is a Persian and Afghan restaurant situated at the back of a shopping mall not far from Kevin's apartment in Mountain View. The basics of the menu are yogurt, kebabs, rice and lots of mint and cardamon for flavouring. For starters we simply ordered hummus, a minty yoghurt dip and plenty of barbari bread. Both bread and yogurt are made by the restaurant to ensure that customers get authentic Persian dishes. Neither dip was particularly outstanding, but the bread was wonderful. We had to be careful not to fill ourselves up on it.
In what appeared to be a concession to American dining habits the main courses came complete with a second starter of either salad or soup. The soup was Osh Reshteh, a vegetable broth containing noodles and lentils and strongly flavoured with mint.
For the main course we decided to try the section of the menu marked 'traditional Persian cuisine.' I had Fesenjon, which is chicken marinaded in a sauce made from pomegranates and walnuts. The sauce was so dark that when it first arrived we mistook the meat for beef, but there was no disguising the sweet taste that the pomegranates gave to the dish. I felt that the sauce might have gone better with duck, but it was very tasty, and certainly unusual.
Kevin had Ghormeh Sabzi, a dish of beef marinaded in various spices and severed with what appeared to be spinach. Being a confirmed meat and carbohydrate man, Kevin left much of the trappings, but again the meat was tender and flavourful.
Both main courses came with ample servings of long grained Basmati rice. We also ordered some Aushak, transparent parcels filled with leek and spring onion and topped with a yogurt, meat and mint sauce. Kevin wasn't impressed, but I found the dish delicious and scarfed down most of it.
As we were planning to play pool after dinner, I steered clear of the tempting sounding Australian Shiraz on the wine list and we both ordered the Shabat soft drinks. We opted for the mint rather than the sour cherry, and although you might have thought we would be minted-out by now we found it really refreshing. Coca Cola should look into this stuff. It is great.
For dessert we were fairly boring and ordered Baklava (a sweet pastry) and Persian tea. Once again the food was very tasty, but of course Baklava is pretty commonplace these days. We have eaten at an Afghan restaurant before that served something called Elephant Ears - large wafers of deep-fried pastry dusted in sugar and cardamom - that was absolutely delicious and a better bet to look out for in this type of cuisine.
The restaurant is tastefully decorated with the inevitable Persian rugs and paintings of traditional Persian life. Service was prompt and friendly, and the prices very reasonable. I would not rate it as top class food, but it was very edible and certainly something different. For directions see CitySearch.