Buzkashi, a new restaurant a few blocks north of Porter Square, shares its name with Afghanistan’s national sport, in which two teams of men on horseback vie for possession of a headless goat carcass. Translated as "goat grabbing," the sport makes polo look like equestrian croquet; in comparison, our own national pastime seems like a game of Parcheesi. At the restaurant, the only reference to decapitated goats is an image of a buzkashi match on the menu cover. You can’t grab a goat here. Lamb, beef, and chicken, though, are all fair game.

Given the nature of the sport the restaurant’s named after, there’s some expectation that its food will be similarly intense, similarly beyond your realm of experience. But the space — with two walls of windows looking onto a busy corner of Mass Ave — and its fare are more like badminton than buzkashi: tame, mild, familiar. The mantwo ($11) is a dish of soft pyramid-shaped shells filled with beef and onions, served on a yogurt sauce and topped with carrots, yellow split peas, and beef sauce. The vegetarian special ($12) includes a small wedge of baked pumpkin, a slice of pan-fried eggplant, sautéed spinach and okra, and a king-size bed of pallow — rice that’s boiled, seasoned with cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, and cumin, then baked. It’s a soft-spoken meal. For more volume, go for meat off the grill, like the combination kebabs ($12–$17), for example, or the dwopiaza ($15), marinated grilled leg of lamb.

Buzkashi is Cambridge’s second Afghan restaurant. The other is the acclaimed Helmand, and there’s more than enough room for both of them. They may not yet play on the same field, but Buzkashi shows promise.

Buzkashi, located at 2088 Mass Ave, in Cambridge, is open on Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday, from 5 to 10 p.m., and on Friday and Saturday, from 5 to 11 p.m. Call (617) 876-8664, or visit www.buzkashi.org.