Tony L.
Yelp
I can't remember how this place made it on my list of "To Try at Home", but I am so grateful to my past hungry self for bookmarking it. Urgut Osh Markazi is an Uzbek restaurant situated on Coney Island Ave in the Ditmas Park neighborhood. While it's not located in the heart of the area, it should still act as stiff competition to the more alluring restaurants on Cortelyou Road.
Don't be put off by the deli counter fridge or fluorescent lighting on their main floor -- the food makes up for the lack of inviting decor. We came on an early unassuming Saturday evening and though I was expecting a full sit-down restaurant, this was more of a casual cafeteria type place with only a few tables on the main floor with more intimate, cozier seating in the lower floor, where the bathrooms were.
I recognised a few items from my ventures into Georgian and Uyghur restaurants (the latter being a fellow Turkic country to Uzbekistan), and was excited to try them there. We ordered beef samsa, a plov combo, a lamb kebab, a salad, a slice of honey cake, a berry compote drink (not on the menu but in the deli counter), and a Georgian soda. The berry compote was magnificent and lightly sweet and not too heavy, while the soda had that odd bubble gum flavour. The beef samsa came first -- I'm usually not a fan because of the mealy, pulverised texture, but this one had generous chunks of beef and a really well-made pastry that left me hungry for more. I can't remember what salad we ordered, but it had croutons, diced tomatoes, dill , and a light mayo-based dressing -- a bit heavy for a salad, but good as an appetiser.
The plov combo came after. Plov is the national dish of Uzbek and represents their take on a beef rice pilaf with deliciously tender beef, carrots, and chickpeas. The flavour was very rich and reminded me of my mom's Chinese stewed beef that uses citrus rinds. The combo comes with: a side salad of raw onions, diced tomatoes, cucumbers, sans dressing -- I much preferred this one to the other; the plov itself; a thing of bread with sesame garnish; and a large thermos of tea to share (for two).
The lamb came right as we were in the middle of drooling over how good the plov was, but it reopened our appetites because the meat was so deliciously spiced and tender. You could taste the lamb meat without the extreme gaminess that most people are put off by. This was another hit that immediately made me consider when I'd be returning to have it.
The last thing we wanted to try was the honeycomb cake. It was really well done and my partner really enjoyed it.
Overall, this was really good eats and affordable, at that. I'd definitely come back here and feast again -- we probably ordered too much so we'd pare down next time, but when the prices are so good, the food is this banging, and the service so attentive, you can't resist!
