Since 1967
About Apadana
درباره آپادانا
Apadana Restaurant has served Kensington since 1967: a Persian restaurant and bar at 351 Kensington High Street, in two rooms beneath copper reliefs of Persepolis, with tables on the pavement.
Two rooms and tables on the pavement. The front room sits beneath the copper panels, with the lamassu at the door; the second room, at the back, is where the bar is. Children are welcome throughout; dogs at the outdoor tables.
Everything on the menu is halal. Walk-ins are welcome; to be sure of a table in the evening, book.
Why Apadana? · scroll to raise the hall
Built by Darius the Great and finished by his son Xerxes, the Apadana was the hall where the Persian empire received the world.
Seventy-two columns, each rising more than sixty feet, carried a roof of cedar.
Fourteen of those columns still stand at Persepolis today.
In 1933, archaeologists found gold and silver tablets beneath the hall, naming a kingdom that ran from Sind to Lydia.
Analysis of the stone has recovered its original colours: Egyptian blue, ochre red, mineral green and gold leaf. The palace was painted, not bare.