Kane Restaurant — Review by Sonny Side
Erbil, Iraq — Kurdish
Sonny Side travels to Iraqi Kurdistan to experience authentic Kurdish cuisine, culminating in trying patcha, an extreme traditional dish made from sheep and calf parts cooked for hours. The reviewer finds the food culturally significant and worth experiencing, though acknowledging its overwhelming heaviness and intensity. Throughout the journey, he explores various Kurdish dishes including mlama omelettes, cassette dumplings, roasted game birds, and finally the nose-to-tail patcha experience.
What was great: The patcha dish was worth experiencing despite its extreme nature. The broth was rich and flavorful with concentrated depth from slow-cooked animal parts. The stuffed stomach (intestines with rice) was surprisingly good and clean-tasting. The calf foot was tender and gelatinous with rich collagen and protein. The overall cultural experience and storytelling behind each dish was exceptional.
What could improve: The patcha was extremely heavy with limited flavor variety to cut through the richness. The calf foot had overwhelming heaviness with lots of fat and random tissue without much seasoning or balance. The dish lacked complementary flavors or garnishes to provide relief from the intense richness.
The Dishes
The meal begins with mlama, a traditional Kurdish omelette made with ground beef, caramelized onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes, served with sheep clotted cream (similar to Iraqi kaymak but from sheep's milk) and Kurdish bread. The reviewer finds it mild but flavorful, relying on caramelized onions for depth rather than heavy spices.
Next comes cassette from Kazwan restaurant in Erbil, a massive dumpling made with a thin shell of cracked wheat, rice flour, and cooked rice, filled with ground lamb and beef mixed with almonds, raisins, and celery leaves. The dumpling is boiled in broth and served in multiple varieties from different Slemani neighborhoods. The reviewer is struck by the unexpected pairing of celery with turmeric and the generous filling packed inside.
The menu also features slow-cooked game birds including wild pigeons, partridge (susa), duck, and chicken, all boiled together for 2-5 hours to create a concentrated broth. The partridge stands out as the reviewer's preference over wild-caught birds, with dark, fatty, tender meat that resembles turkey but with more grease.
The final and most extreme course is patcha (or su in Kurdish), a centuries-old dish consisting of sheep heads, sheep legs, calf feet, and various organ parts boiled together for hours. The platter includes the stuffed stomach (essentially vegetarian sausage filled with rice), calf hooves that become gelatinous and tender, intestines thick with fat and rice filling, and various soft tissues that have broken down into tender strands. Everything is served soaked in bread and the concentrated broth.
The Experience
The review takes place across multiple locations in Kurdish Iraq, starting in a mountainside home in Shush Village with local entrepreneur Azu as guide, then moving to Kazwan restaurant in Erbil (Kurdistan's capital), a bird restaurant in Erbil's streets, and finally Kane restaurant in Okra, a mountain town 1 hour north of Erbil. The reviewer also visits a local butcher shop where the proprietor demonstrates his enthusiasm for various animal parts, particularly by repeatedly inserting his thumb into a lamb's eye socket to show how soft the eyeball is.
Throughout the experience, the reviewer is clearly uncomfortable with the extreme nature of the food but approaches it with respect and curiosity. He learns about the cultural significance of nose worms (removed from sheep heads for hygiene), the pastoral history of the region, and how the Kurds' mountain heritage shaped their resourceful approach to cooking.
Value & Pricing
The patcha dish costs almost $100, which the chef notes is worth the price given the ingredients and preparation time. Most other dishes appear modestly priced, though exact prices are not mentioned for the mlama breakfast, cassette, or game birds.
Notable Moments
The chef says the first moment you taste it, you will find the reason why you would like it.
This thing is a beast. This is a big ball of protein.(referring to the cassette dumpling)
It's like a sheep graveyard in here.(observing the patcha pot before serving)
In general, in the US, we don't like our food looking back at us. We don't want to see eyeballs.
When you slaughter one of these cattle, nothing from the animal gets wasted.(explaining the philosophy behind nose-to-tail cooking)
The Verdict
Despite the visual intensity and extreme heaviness of patcha, the reviewer ultimately respects the dish as a representation of Kurdish heritage and resourceful cooking born from pastoral necessity. The broth is rich and deeply flavored, the various textures are interesting, and the overall experience tells a story of a culture that wastes nothing. However, he acknowledges the dish's overwhelming richness without complementary seasonings to provide balance. This restaurant and experience is best for adventurous eaters interested in authentic cultural cuisine and those willing to embrace nose-to-tail cooking traditions. The lighter dishes like mlama and cassette at Kazwan offer more accessible entry points into Kurdish cuisine for less daring palates.