Cafe Arzu
“the Lagman Soup, a hearty blend of chunks of lamb, celery, tomatoes, onions with an array of flavorful spices with chewy strands of noodles.”
“A friend of mine highly recommends the lamb ribs, but they ran out of the lamb ribs the day we went!”
“I was here a few months ago and we had the fresh salad, french fries and some lamb, lulya and chicken kebabs….these are the basics upon which I judge Bukharian restaurants.”
Cafe Arzu
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Cafe Arzu
NY Queens Forest Hills
7:30pm Tuesday 20th October 2015
Four Stars
Gastronauts. Uzbek food is the Malaysian of the Eastern Block. It's a mashup of Russian, Kosher, Middle Eastern, with a splash of Asian. On the table waiting for us was four cold salads. The thinly sliced julienne carrots seemed simple but a subtle complex flavor. The carrots were crisp with a freshly brined pickle taste with hint of sweetness. The Eggplant was super soft and topped with red bell peppers, olive oil, and Parsley. The ripe tomato, small cucumber, and mild red onion was a very classic combination. The best was the potato and salad with mayonnaise with peas, carrots, and onions.
The fresh bread had a crunchy outer layer. The inside was dense, with small air holes and decent amount of salt and sesame flavors.
The Uygur Handmade Lagman is a Central Asian consisting of hand pulled noodles and various meat and vegetables. Here they served a spicy soup with onion, garlic, tomato sauce, and bell peppers. The noodles were chewy but delightfully hearty against the light broth.
The Samsa or known more commonly as Samosa is another Asian, North African, or Middle Eastern food that consists of a flaky puff pastry filled with white gravy and beef similar to Stroganoff. They served it was a tomato based sauce.
The Skewers served on long metal spikes were the best part. We enjoyed Veal Liver, Sweet Breads, Chicken Hearts, Lamb, and Lamb Ribs. Each were cooked with deliberation for temperature, texture, and seasoning.
We then enjoyable Khaseep which was an unexplainable lamb kidney and fat sausage type dish. It was greasy with a masa-like texture. I enjoyed it but it's definitely not for everyone.
The final course was Plov which is similar to pilaf. It is a one pot rice dish that combines Lamb, Onions, Carrots, and Fat into an intensely filling meal. The meat was deeply flavored, tender but textured. The rice was fluffy but still plump with absorbing all of that delicious broth.
Overall, the food was great.
Arzu was recommended by my friend Simon. Boy was he right. They make authentic Brukharian food. Excellent kebobs chicken, beef, lamb. It's so good. They also have some tasty soups as well. If your not Brukharian they will treat you like a dog, but the food is worth the abuse.
FYI, their hours are:
Sun-Thu: 11:30am-10pm
Fri: 11:30am-5pm
Sat: 5pm-11pm
The service is not the best here, but the food is pretty good. I love the carrot salad and the fresh salad!
The kebabs are also super yummy! My favorites are the chicken, lamb, ground lamb, ground beef and beef. A friend of mine highly recommends the lamb ribs, but they ran out of the lamb ribs the day we went! Will definitely try that next time!
The price per kebab is not bad, but you'll definitely need to order a few of each for everyone to share. The bill will probably end up being around $20 per person for everyone to be full. Unless you're eating with me, then it'll be $40 per person. Nomnomnom.
The service SUCKS. I've been to many restaurants that catered primarily to locals, but I've never felt quite so aware that I was not their clientele.
Aside from a short list of the different kababs they offer (lamb, ribs, chicken, sweetbreads, liver, fish, etc.) none of the menu was in english.
Undeterred, we managed to flag down a waitress as she warmly served the other people seated throughout the restaurant. To her credit, she did answer our questions about soups and side orders, and I suppose she tried to be helpful enough, But really, I never felt welcome. We were actually gawked at throughout our meal like animals on display at the zoo. I kid you not.
The widely praised lagman soup was nothing special to me. It lacked a depth of flavor that I had been expecting and while OK, was not memorable. The tomato salad was literally a mound of thinly sliced tomatoes with onions. I suppose their saving grace was their kabobs. We tried the lamb, ribs and chicken, all of which were tender, juicy and very flavorful.
Still, this is Queens and I can get a good kabob at a variety of places. I'd rather go somewhere else for better service.
We were a little skeptical at first, but some of our friends recommended and invited us out. At first glance, the interior is nothing special but that's okay. The drink/soda prices were a little high, but the food pricing was average.
Now onto the food, which blew my mind away. The shorpo soup was delicious, what stood out the most was the mead & noodles, which were amazing. Their french fries were topped with garlic which was a pleasant surprise, Now by far the steal of the night were their kebabs. All of them were good, some of the best meat I've ever had. You can't go wrong with any of them, keep in mind you'd probably need to order 3-4 of them for an entire meal. I was told they taste a lot better when you dine in instead of taking it to go, mainly because the metal kebab stick keeps them warm while you eat.
Grade Pending.
It's never reassuring to enter a restaurant that has no grade outside. So, I took copious notes on my iPhone during my two visits to Arzu, to figure out what could possibly concern the food inspectors about this Bukharian restaurant:
* The location is convenient, a short walk from the 67th Avenue M train stop
* By convenient, I mean for the Queens folks
* The "boulevard of death" doesn't seem as frightening at this crossing
* It's a sausage, rather shish kebab, fest inside… and, I'm not just talking about the food
* Why does the English section of the menu seem smaller than the Cyrillic one?
* "Lemonade" apparently means 'carbonated drink' in former Soviet countries
* The same lemonade is listed under "Sunny lemonade" at Cheburechnaya (it's actually Guarana with citric acid)
* The noodles in the lagman soup seem thicker and more elastic than in other versions
* But, the spirits of the soup need a lift from the company of Adjika (red pepper paste)
* Aha! There no spoon for the Adjika – no spoon, no fork
* Why didn't I dunk the Lepeshka bread in the soup at the Brooklyn restaurants?
* The lamb shish and lyulya kebabs are the highlights of the meal
* The fried pelmeni side dish was well executed in both texture and juiciness of the meat filling (best version I've eaten in Uzbeki NYC)
* But, the beef shish kebab and chicken wing kebabs are a miss on both taste and texture
* What's this unidentified flying object? Dammit fly, didn't you see the sign?
* They probably wouldn't have flies if the diners didn't discuss the likelihood of an economic recovery while keeping the restaurant door open
* The menu has no desserts, but Andre's Hungarian Strudels and Pastries is nearby
Did I mention Arzu is right across from the subway stop and close to Andre's Pastries? That's all you need to know. Oh, and Grade Pending.
This place is great. My bukarian friend took me there and turned me on to a whole different ethnic food. The lagman soup is great. I had chicken shish kebab, lamb shish kebab and liver shish kebab. I do not like liver but it was so succulent I loved it. The plov is great. The best thing is the BYOB policy.
Salad, Lagman, grilled lamb and manti were all very hearty and delicious, exactly what I expected from Cafe Arzu. I love that meaty flavor of lamb/mutton, it tastes like I am back in Mongolia. I was pretty disappointed they didn't have plov when I went. I guess I'll have to satisfy my craving for plov at one of the other Central Asian eateries nearby.