I stopped in at Tashkent for dinner tonight.

There was a rather awkward bit of standing around when I got there. No indication of whether I could seat myself or if I needed to wait for a currently invisible staff member to arrive. I grabbed a menu and checked it out while I stood awkwardly by the door and the one other table of diners tried not to stare at me.

It got a lot better once the waitress came out of the kitchen. I sat and ordered, choosing manti and chebereki (as the only thing on the menu I'm familiar with) and trying to order the recommended plov. Unfortunately, they were out of plov, but the waitress recommended Bhash instead, another rice dish.

Manti (meat filled dumplings) were good, made with diced rather than ground meat, and lots of onions. Served with a dilly yogurt sauce and a sort of cross between salsa and ketchup, they were pretty tasty. Without the sauces, though, a bit bland.

The chebereki (meat in a fried pastry) was fried hot and fresh. I think it was still steaming when it hit the table, and it the pastry was puffy. It came with a dark, sweet sauce - perhaps tamarind based? It was a fantastic complement to the chebereki in any case.

Bhash was a mixed rice dish with small bits of meat (it said what they were on the menu, but I don't remember since it hadn't been a dish I intended to order) with lots of herbs and spices. A fair bit of dill in this, as well. A touch on the greasy side, but quite tasty.

With a can of coke and taxes, the bill was $22.65 for a meal that was really too large to eat all of.

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an interesting Uzbekistan joint (south of Steeles, one light east of Keele). It's a pretty old school Russian place, and their lamb plov (pilaf) is really worth trying. the plov rather on the greasy side but I quite enjoyed it.

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