Six stars. I am always on the lookout for restaurants serving food from different countries. It has now become a challenge for me to find a place that serves food from a nation that I have not had the opportunity to sample. But Conflict Kitchen has one of the most unique ideas I have ever seen for international foodies. As the name implies, they serve food from countries that are in conflict with the U.S.A. Clearly as time passes, they will only have more and more new options to serve up! If that is not enough, there is a feel of a limited time only as the restaurant does not serve food from all of these countries at once. They choose one and provide it to its customers only to then replace the menu with food from another conflict nation at another time. While I was there they were serving food from Afghanistan. Past offerings have been from Cuba and North Korea. They plan to serve food from Venezuela and Palestine in the future.
When I approached for my first time I was not aware of the concept and all I saw was a sign for Afghanistan. I was surprised when I looked inside the kitchen and did not see a single person that even resembled an Afghani. However, when I talked to one of the girls inside she explained that their director actually travels to these conflict regions. Talk about commitment. Then he brings back authentic recipes to serve up in the kitchen. Brilliant. Furthermore, whenever a new cuisine is served up, they provide a taste test to Pittsburgh locals that were originally from that nation to receive their feedback.
The staff are students at the University of Pittsburgh and all are quite friendly. They are happy to explain the concept of the restaurant. Upon receiving your food, you can sit on the grass lawn or tables under the pavilion to enjoy the view of the Cathedral of Learning.
I wish that I had a restaurant like this where I lived which provides a revolving door of variety with international, authentic cuisine. In the meantime, in my quest to try food from different countries, I can now say that I have sampled food from Afghanistan.