What do you actually get when you walk into a small Persian restaurant on a strip of Campbell Road that most people drive past without slowing down? At Al-Khayam, the answer is pretty straightforward: rice cooked the way it’s supposed to be, kabobs that have some real weight to them, and a room that seats maybe forty people if everyone’s friendly about it.
Al-Khayam has been operating in Richardson for years, drawing a steady crowd from the Iranian and broader Middle Eastern communities in the area, along with the kind of regulars who found it once and never really stopped coming back. The dining room is simple — no mood lighting, no reclaimed wood, no cocktail program. There’s a menu on the wall, a few framed pieces of Persian art, and the smell of charcoal and saffron doing most of the work.
The kabobs are the main event, and they come in a few forms. The koobideh is the one to start with: ground beef and lamb mixed with onion and spices, formed onto wide flat skewers, grilled over open flame until the outside has some char and the inside stays juicy. It arrives on a bed of saffron-stained basmati, with a grilled tomato and a pat of butter that melts into the rice while you’re still situating yourself. That plate runs around $14 to $16 depending on the configuration, which is not a lot for the amount of food you get.
The barg — thinly sliced beef tenderloin kabob — is the other one worth ordering. It’s more delicate than the koobideh, with a cleaner flavor, and it rewards the people who actually pay attention to what they’re eating rather than just powering through. If you go with someone, order one of each and split them. The rice on its own, with tahdig crust if you’re lucky enough to get it, is worth mentioning separately. Persian rice done right has a crispy bottom layer, and Al-Khayam gets that detail correct more often than not.
The stews — ghormeh sabzi, gheyemeh — show up on the menu as well, and they’re the slower, more complex option if you have patience for a dish that takes a minute to settle into. The herb and kidney bean stew has that slightly sour, earthy depth that’s hard to fake and impossible to rush. It’s served the same way, over basmati, and it’ll last you through the afternoon if you let it.
Lunch is the quieter window. The place gets busier on weekends, particularly Friday and Saturday evenings, when families come in and the room fills up quickly. If you’re going for the first time and want some space to look around and figure out what you’re doing, a weekday lunch is the right call. Parking is easy — it’s a strip center lot — and the service moves efficiently without being rushed.
Al-Khayam is not trying to be anything other than what it is: a solid Persian restaurant in a part of Richardson that has real density of immigrant-owned food businesses. It fits that landscape without apology, and that’s exactly why it works.
