Samira Restaurant

This charming restaurant, nestled near the IU campus, boasts a captivating and distinctive decor. The service was great, and we were delighted with the grilled eggplant with carrots and Afghani bread. While the soup was a bit of a letdown, the chicken and lamb kebabs were simply amazing! I highly recommend a visit to this delightful establishment.

Samira is a solid spot for Middle Eastern food in Bloomington, and there’s a reason it has lasted for so many years in this college town. The menu is simple and straightforward, but the food is fresh and full of flavor. I especially want to highlight the hen—it was incredibly tasty, even better than the lamb or beef options in my opinion! The beef kebab is about $4 more expensive than the others, and while it’s still good, I found the lamb to be fresher and more satisfying. So unless you’re really craving beef, I’d suggest going with the combination platter or trying something else on the menu. Even though I’m not vegetarian, one of our friends ordered a vegetarian dish and it looked amazing—clearly a great option even if you don’t eat meat. Prices are very reasonable overall. The resta

A really terrific change of flavor! As an Indy resident, Afghan or really any West Asian food is hard to come by, so it was an easy choice to land on Samira for my latest trip to Bloomington. The restaurant has a chic, comfortable vibe and friendly, fast service to compliment. I sat at a two top at the front of the dining room facing the street and the mirrors made for extra good people watching while I dined. I was surprised by the complimentary grilled eggplant and carrots along with a basket of fresh bread. I probably could have just doubled down by ordering extras of those and been happy and full. They both had so much flavor! For my entre I asked for the quabili pallao with lamb and was brought a true, heaping helping of basmati topped with so much delicious lamb, veggies, seasonin

Too bad that I took this long to come to Samira. This is just the kind of food I love. The meats are cooked to perfection. Breads are baked to be as fluffy as anyone would love and the the rices are seasoned for an experience. Really enjoyed my visit here and the service was great. Would be back again and again!

Awful experience with dinner at Samira tonight. First, I made a reservation several days in advance for 7:30PM and confirmed it. However, when we arrived today at 7:30PM, we were told it would be a 15-20 min wait. So Samira knows how to take the reservations, but not how to actually honor them. Second, the service was horrendous and among the worst I have experienced in a long time. Our waitress (red hair in a ponytail) was really bad. Everything took forever. Our drinks took 30 min. We ordered iced tea and 25 min later were told they did not have any. Lemonade took 45 minutes because, as we were told, it was being "freshly made". Appetizers took a total of 50 minutes to come out and both the Greek and the cucumber salads had more onions than anything else. I asked for more wate