Amelia D.
Yelp
I took my parents here for dinner recently and we had such a great time! None of us had eaten Uyghur food before, but had eaten other Central Asian food and enjoyed it immensely. I didn't actually even know there was Uyghur food in the DC area, but when checking Yelp, I saw this place and saw that it was a new(ish) location of a restaurant in DC. After this experience, I will be definitely trying their DC location too!
First, the ambiance is impeccable. The decor is colorful, tasteful, and very classy. There is also lots of seating, so we were seated even without a reservation (having said that, the entire place filled up on a Saturday evening, so you should probably have more foresight than I did and make a reservation). They even had live music later in the evening! They do have their own parking garage attached to the building though, so no worries about parking. The service was kind, helpful, and the servers were also quite funny. Because the restaurant was so busy, the food took a while to come out, but I actually prefer leisurely experiences when I dine out, so that was perfect! Plus, the food is 100% worth the wait!
We ordered several dishes to split. First, the Goshnan, a meat pie filled with lamb and beef. This was DELICIOUS! The pastry was flaky and rich, the meat was incredibly flavorful, and it comes with a sour cream-type dip. This was my favorite thing we ate and I would highly recommend ordering this. Second, we got the signature rice noodles (couldn't get the hand pulled ones because our table was gluten-free, sadly). We got them mild, which was great because it still had a kick, but wasn't too much. I'll be first to admit our spice tolerance isn't the highest, but beware that this is a place that clearly takes their spice very seriously. If you're at all worried, I'd recommend mild. The noodles were so amazing, very thick and chewy, and the sauce was, as mentioned, of a great spice level. Also highly recommend this dish! Next, we ordered the sour spicy shredded potatoes, which were fine, but paled in comparison with the other dishes. I'd recommend skipping the potatoes and maybe ordering two of the meat pie instead.
For dessert we tried the baklava cheesecake and the honey cake. The baklava cheesecake was okay, but surprisingly not sweet. I know American desserts are a lot sweeter than many other countries' desserts, but baklava typically is soaked in honey, so I assumed there would be a sweetness to this. The cheesecake part was good (again, not sweet) and the pistachio topping was nice, but the flavor was a bit underwhelming. With a rose honey syrup on top, this would have been a 10/10! However, the honey cake more than made up for the cheesecake - it was incredible! Soft, perfectly balanced in sweetness, delicate little layers - a real home run!