When we want to grab some delicious skewered meat in abundant quantities, our first impulse is to go with Kabul in Sunnyvale. When we want meat on a stick quick and cheap, however, we turn to Rose International, which features Persian cuisine. On our most recent visit we brought home some koobideh (ground meat), chicken and barg (top sirloin). The koobideh and barg were flavored very similarly. The koobideh was delicious, as it almost always is, but the barg was overdone and chewy in some places, but absolutely perfect in others.
Keep in mind all the food is for carry out. Rose International, after all, is a grocery store. And, you order a la carte in the truest sense of the term. The rice, meat and even tomato have to be ordered separately. For example, the broiled tomato, which was a little underdone, was a dollar. You order at the register, pay, then go outside and hang a left to go to the pick up window on the other end of the building.
In the photo, the pickup window is the hole in the wall on the right side of the building. So, the rice (and there's a lot of it) makes a trip from the chafing dish in one corner of the store to the pickup window at the opposite corner of this long building. All the meat is grilled at the window. It's an odd system but it works.
You can try calling in your order, as we did, ahead of time. But, we still needed to wait in line like everyone else to pay. And only then did they start putting our order together. So, the benefit of calling in an order as opposed to showing up to order isn't clear. We ended up paying $28 to feed three adults and two kids.
Rose International
1060 Castro Street
Mountain View, CA 94040
(650) 960-1900
