Chef/owner Matt Pikar’s successful Afghan Grill in North Dallas draws a faithful crowd of international diners. When he decided to open another restaurant with a similar menu, he smartly assessed that he would encounter too many fussy, Archie Bunker-style diners on lowest Greenville, so he named his new outpost Nora Restaurant and Bar. The name doesn’t imply that you will find a menu filled with exotic concoctions created from various combinations of pumpkin, eggplant, leeks, spinach, chickpeas, lamb, meatballs, and chicken. If you can get your meat-and-potato-minded friends in the front door, they will leave satisfied and enlightened. Start with the kadu, thick slices of sautéed pumpkin covered with a slightly sweet and spicy yogurt meat sauce laced with onions, tomatoes, garlic, cloves, turmeric, cardamom, and mint. If that is too much of a leap, then pick more familiar items such as grape leaves, hummus, or sambosa goshti, a savory baked pastry pie. Entrées include qabili palao, tender bits of lamb sautéed with a handful of carrots and raisins. Meat dumplings are steamed and served beneath yogurt meat sauce with a swift kick of mint. The Archies in your group will gravitate to a grilled rib-eye or beef kofta (ground beef sausage) kabob served with saffron rice. They won’t be offended by the gentle scent of cumin. If you’re really clever, push a glass of Kavaklidere Yakut red wine from Turkey in front of them and tell them it’s a Pinot Noir. The big reveal after dinner is always rewarding.

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