If you ever wonder why grown Iranian dudes never move out of their parents’ houses, it’s because of the food. There’s no Persian food quite as good as your mom’s or grandma’s. Luckily, they taught me the cuisine and I could make it for myself, but it’s time consuming and requires lots of specialty ingredients.

So even though we could cook for ourselves, my Iranian friends and I (and one “farangi” aka gringo) felt like saving time one night and hit up Alborz for dinner.

Now the menu and service at just about any Persian restaurant in the world is going to be about the same: A selection of chelokababs and stews, some de rigeur appetizers, and maybe some rice dishes. So the only real point of competition, besides price, is in the quality of both the dishes and the ingredients used.

Alborz largely succeeds. We started with an order of mast-o-khiar (yogurt with cucumbers) to dip our lavash flatbread in, and it was good. Rich in consistency, not runny, and stuck to the bread. We added on an order of mast-o-museer and were impressed. Museer is elephant garlic, a hard-to-find relative of the shallot and the leek, and a lot of places cheap out and use either shallots or very little of the real thing. Not these guys - so we knew we’d be in for a treat.

Our next appetizer arrived: tahdig (the crunchy crust from the bottom of a pot of rice) covered in ghormeh sabzi (a spinach and fenugreek stew with red beans). The beans were unfortunately canned, so we had a bit of apprehension before we got to the main course…

And we weren’t disappointed. The kababs were fantastic, and we all shared skewers of the barg (filet mignon), koobideh (ground beef) and joojeh (boneless chicken) and enjoyed every bit. But the real standout part was the rice. The “chelo” in chelokabab stands for the rice, and it’s an integral part of the meal - some might even say the star. Preparing basmati rice in the Iranian fashion is a painstaking process, and many steps are often omitted in the restaurant biz because of the volume and turnover involved. Alborz did not skimp. The rice is fragrant, perfectly cooked, and appropriately garnished with a good amount of saffron - another area where many restaurants would cheap out.

And while we weren’t decked out in black leather and Drakkar, we decided to fully PerZiAn out and capped off our gutbusting dinner with tea and dessert. The darjeeling tea, laced with a bit of cardamom, came in large glasses (we don’t do cups in the Axis of Evil) and with quality firm sugar cubes. The baklava was good, with a decent amount of pistachio. However, the zulubia and bamieh - the closest way to describe them would be honey-dipped funnel cake and churros - were stale. We figured this was because no one ever orders that stuff and didn’t dock them any points for it.

Overall, I was pretty impressed by Alborz. The prices aren’t fantastic because their only real competition in San Francisco is the overpriced North Beach mainstay Maykadeh. But the food was great, service was attentive, and the atmosphere classy but relaxed. The additional light show provided by the sparks flying from the Van Ness muni made for extra entertainment during dinner.

I’ve visited all the Persian joints in the city and Marin and several in the East Bay. I like this Alborz the best.

Still, it leaves a ton to be desired.

I went there with some white friends last night, and they loved the food, but come on Haji, hire another waitress. That poor women was serving a packed house on a Friday night all by her lonesome.

No wonder a couple of our items got forgotten.

The food was good, and for those of you uninitiated in Persian dining, order your meal family style. It just makes more sense, and you have the chance to try a few different items.

I really like that this Alborz is in a decently convenient location.

The shared bathroom with the Village Pizzeria is kind of a turn off, but it reminds you that this ain’t fine dining. It’s not supposed to be.