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| - Uzbek food isn't something you encounter every day in the Rust Belt, so when you find a restaurant that specializes in it, you've got to give it a try! My girlfriend and I stopped by Kavsar on a recent weekend trip to Pittsburgh, and we were both very pleased that we did.
This seems to be a small family-run operation, and when we arrived, the first-story café-style seating area was being renovated, so we were shown to a table upstairs in a more formal dining area. The decor is odd and traditional, with paintings on what appeared to be animal skins and dyed textiles covering the walls. I got quite a kick out of the "entertainment" - a TV screen showing a slideshow of facts about Uzbekistan (did you know that Uzbekistan is a major producer of uranium? I did not!), accompanied by spooky Central Asian cover versions of 70's soundtrack tunes like "Theme from The Godfather."
Kavsar's menu is quite large, and it was hard to decide where to start, as it features both traditional Uzbek dishes along with many Russian dishes that became popular in the Soviet era. We ended up getting an order of homemade bread known as "non," which was absolutely delicious. Despite the name, it doesn't really resemble Indian naan, and it's somewhere between Greek-style pita and French bread - it's thick and doughy but also very fluffy in texture, and the sesame seeds on top were a nice touch. We also sampled the eggplant rolls, which were simple but very tasty - cold strips of lightly fried eggplant wrapped around tomatoes and onions.
As for the entrées, I decided to stick to the Uzbek fare and selected the "nuhot shurak," a dish of beef broth with chick peas, onions sautéed in vinegar and various seasonings, and braised shredded beef on top. I also suspect there was a bit of tripe in the broth, though this was not specified on the menu, and the beef came with all the fatty bits still attached, which I enjoyed, though I imagine that the typical American diner would not be so receptive. Curiously, the dish reminded me more of Mexican menudo than anything else, and though the beef was a bit dry, I would certainly try it again. My girlfriend tried the Russian crab salad, which I later learned is still a very popular dish in Russia. Seafood salads aren't really my thing, but she was still talking about it for days afterward!
All in all, Kavsar offers a pretty one-of-a-kind dining experience, and if I lived in the area, I would come back all the time for the bread alone.
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