Chairs might soon be a thing of the past at the Sultan Palace Afghan Restaurant.
Right now, patrons can dine like they do at any other Tucson restaurant or plop down on special cushions decorated with plush pillows. There, surrounded by draping overhangs of red and green, they sit around wooden tables that come up only inches from the floor.
These special areas — four in all — are meant to simulate how a traditional Afghan family might dine.
"A lot of times the floor-sitting area gets good business and the rest of the restaurant is empty," said owner Diba Kushkaki. She hopes to make the entire place a ground-level affair by next summer.
Kushkaki, 39, spent her early childhood in Afghanistan. Her dad was a general in the Afghan army before the Soviets invaded and occupied the country for much of the 1980s.
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Kushkaki's family eventually fled to Pakistan, where she met and married her husband, Shafi. The couple moved to Germany shortly after. They had four children and relocated to Tucson in 1999 for Shafi's work.
"It was really hard in the beginning," Kushkaki said. "I didn't know any English. My kids were born in Germany. It was my second home. But it got easier."
Kushkaki learned to make traditional Afghan food from her husband. "When I got married, the only thing I knew how to cook were eggs," she said.
She was a quick study. By 2005, Kushkaki and her family, along with a couple of other Afghan families living in Tucson, opened the original Sultan Palace at 345 W. Drachman St.
When Kushkaki was offered the opportunity to move to East University Boulevard, a hot spot for international cuisine next to the University of Arizona, she jumped on it.
"Most of my customers at the old location were Middle Eastern students," she said. "My goal was to catch even more."
Today, she has a regular lunch and dinner crowd made up of mostly students and professors. They come in for the lunch combos ($4.95-$19.95) that include beef meatballs with rice, a sambosa and side salad ($6.95), or the kebab special ($19.95), two skewers of lamb, chicken or beef.
Sultan Palace's all-you-can-eat lunch deal ($8.95), offered 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, is also a popular draw.
Kushkaki said the restaurant gets its share of adventurous eaters.
"When 'The Kite Runner' came out, a lot of customers who saw the film came here," she said. "They all wanted the experience."
• 943 E. University Blvd. 622-2892.
• Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily.
