By Syma Sayyah, Tehran
Darakeh is a village on the slopes
of the mountains to the north of Tehran and is one of the many spots that people
can go for a soft or hard hike depending on how far they wish to walk. When I was younger, and before it become
so popular amongst the young as a place to meet friends, I used to get up very
early in the morning, on Thursday mornings usually, go there, hike about an hour
or so, have breakfast and be back home for a shower and a change and get to work
by 9am. But these days due to my uncooperative knees I can hardly undertake any
such adventures without painful consequences for weeks
afterwards.
However, Darakeh has also been a
very popular place all year around and especially on summer evenings for people
to go and enjoy the nice air, although now it is rather spoiled with all the
many cars that are allowed along the very narrow street which goes from Shahid
Beheshti Square to Evin and Azadi hotels on the Shahid Chamran Expressway
(Parkway) corner in a long horseshoe shape. There on the side of the mountain there
are many small and large restaurants and places to spend and enjoy kebab and
some seasonal delicacies.
Last week with a few friends we went
to experience a rather new restaurant where we had heard about its high tech
service. The place is called SPU
which is the name of a spring higher up and it is run and operated in a very
efficient manner. There you may
choose to sit at metal tables with heavy chairs or you may go for a more
traditional choice and sit on Takhate
– cushioned carpeted platforms where you sit on the floor.
We chose a night in the middle of
the week as we were told it was very busy and so it was. We waited for about 15 minutes before we
were lead to our Takhate. As we were led there by this nice
middle-aged section manager, we saw a younger worker was vacuuming it and make
it ready for our use.
SPU has a short menu which I
prefer (http://www.spu-restaurant.com/Menu.htm),
so when Mr. Salimi, the gentleman who took our order, came with his
walkie-talkie and blue-tooth earpiece, we ordered some Zaytoun-Parvardeh
(olives in pomegranate paste and walnuts) and Mirzaghasemi (a lovely
mixture of egg-plant, tomatoes, eggs and garlic) plus salad and
mastou-mosear (thick yogurt and shallots) to start with, and chicken on
the bone and shish kebab (basically barbecued lamb chop) for dinner plus some
Dough (yogurt drink), plus some freshly baked bread made at the
restaurant. He took the order and
entered it on his palm-pilot. So far all was true. Soon we discovered that the rest of what
we had heard about this place was true too. Those who served us (Ali and
Seyavoush) were very polite and courteous; and despite the large number of
tables and guests everything was efficient and well organized and the food was
sooooooooo deliciousssssssssss!!
Your place was very empty. I have a few pictures from that night to
share with you from the restaurant and Darakeh Square where we strolled for a
while afterwards and enjoyed some lavashak (dried cooked mixed plums or
berries) and some fresh walnuts; and if we were not so full maybe we would have
had some barbecued corn on the cob.
Here is the address and telephone
number if you wish to make a reservation:
SPU: Darakeh Square, Tehran, Iran
http://www.spu-restaurant.com
Telephone: 0098 21 224
19494
Fax:
0098 21 224 19495
