Samarkand, a hidden Uzbeki gem found in the colourful and bustling area of Dalston Kingsland, East London, marks the second restaurant we treated ourselves to (see our London-based Georgian experience here) and my oh my, this did not disappoint.
We ate our way through varying traditional dishes, that left us both stuffed like a Christmas turkey and even more so excited to visit Uzbekistan and eat our way across the country.
So, let’s begin our dissection of the culinary delights we tried:
First up, the most important dish and the crème-de-la-crème of our blog – the dessert.
Medovik otherwise known as ‘honey cake’.
It is said that Medovik first originated within the Russian Empire, gaining popularity across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and it is easy to understand why. Although the Uzbeks have put their own spin on the honey cake, the fundamentals remain the same – a decadent multi-layering of honeyed sponge soaked in and interspersed with cream.
This hands down has to be the most delicious cake I have ever eaten. It offers tasters a deliciously deep flavour of caramelised honey in a sponge that melts on the tongue, that can only result in one wanting more.
I’d urge anyone to try out Medovik if they come across it, though unfortunately it is not dairy-free! Though my heart sings for this dessert, my stomach weeps, therefore I’m docking 0.1 from my overall rating.
Rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars.
Prior to dessert we ate our way through varying starters and of course a main. First we’ll walk through the Somsa dish.
These homemade puff pies were filled with diced lamb, onions and authentic herbs. A vegetarian option was also available on the menu: pumpkin.
To be honest the lamb Somsa very much reminded me of the classic Cornish pasty – traditional of course; so the Cornish girl in me was very contented eating it.
I believed this dish was dairy free in this instance, though method variations exist so always ask the seller before buying if you suffer similarly.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Next we have Manti.
Manti are small handmade dumplings, steamed and filled with onions and a choice of chicken, lamb, or pumpkin – think steamed gyozas or Chinese wontons.
We opted for the chicken filled Manti, not realising that x5 dumplings would appear on this plate and not the x2 we had of the Somsa. At this point we realised that we had ordered far too much food and that our eyes were seemingly larger than our stomachs.
Anyway, something about this dish didn’t hit right, perhaps it was our filled bellies or that they lacked a certain flavouring that the yogurt side-dip didn’t quite fix.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars.
The other star of the show had to be the Uzbek Pilau / Palov, which was the main meal we had.
Palov is a national Uzbek food and is a classical main dish all around Central Asia. This dish is made up of layered rice, carrots and meat cooked with varying aromatic spices. A simple Google search also tells me that this meal has supposed aphrodisiac qualities, and it is typically served on a Thursday – a popular day to conceive children. I can confirm that no babies were conceived in the making or writing of this blog, but glad to hear Thirsty Thursday has gone global.
Between the lamb palov or the chicken palov options on the menu, we opted for the lamb version and boy was it the right choice. The lamb was tender and blended perfectly with aromatics of the pilau. For a rice dish I would have expected it to be quite dry, but this was quite the opposite.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.
All in all our visit to Samarkand was great – the food was delicious, the portions generous and the staff friendly. I’m not a particular lover of lamb as I find it fatty and the flavour sometimes too much – this restaurant would fast have me eating it in many dishes.
We didn’t quite get any recommendations on places to visit in Uzbekistan, but what I do know is that if we see Medovik I’ll be eating it.
