Kashkar Cafe

On New Year’s Day you’ll find a line outside Kashkar Cafe—of New Yorkers from across town, carrying tote bags and waiting to cap their ice-cold polar plunge in the Atlantic with one of the most warming meals in Brighton Beach, maybe even the entire city. On the other 364 days of the year, this Uyghur-Uzbek restaurant stays pretty quiet.

But whether you come here in winter or summer, dripping with ocean water or not, Kashkar Cafe always feels like a refuge. Tucked behind a tented entrance area adorned with string lights, the restaurant's curtains match the ikat table runners, and even the fluorescent lights are oddly comforting. Most importantly, the food at this lamb-lover’s paradise (steamy lamb-stuffed dumplings, lamb-laden soups, tender lamb skewers) is phenomenal. It’s the type of meal your mind might wander to on a bad day, a good day, and every kind of day in between.

Kashkar opened in 2003 in Little Odessa, an area known for its Russian speakers and Central Asian food. The halal restaurant used to be BYOB but isn’t anymore, so start with a pot of tea as you browse the slightly battered and stained picture menu. Small white stickers next to each photo have handwritten, updated prices: one for cash, the other credit. Carry cash, order lavishly, and trust that your server will remember the longest list of dishes, even if they never write a single thing down.

Everything is made to order in a kitchen that’s just about visible through a small, arched window in the back. So there’s ample time to settle into your cushioned chair, watch YouTube videos on a TV in the corner, and marvel as a woman hand-pulls a mountain of noodles, and drops baseball-sized dumplings into a fryer. Meat scents attach themselves to your clothes, and every so often, a radiator hisses.

Be patient as you at stare at the wiped-clean plates of neighborhood regulars sitting at the other tables. Your time will come, as some pickles from a big jar behind the counter arrive, or maybe some lamb-stuffed samsa, with flaky swirled dough, baked to a perfect golden brown. Many more permutations of lamb and dough follow, each dish with its own delicious difference: a little more cumin here, some dill there, chewy or soft, tangy or sweet.

Just when you think you’ve forked your last bite of bouncy lagman, or shoveled the last tiny dumpling into your mouth, you may find yourself—beyond stuffed and more relaxed than you have been in years—going to work on a lamb ribs skewer with the ferocity of a very determined chipmunk.

Food Rundown

Pickle Plate

Start your meal with a plate of pickled cucumbers, cabbage, and green tomatoes, and also one small green chili, which is not pickled but very spicy. Turn to these whenever you need a tart break from the fatty lamb dishes.

photo credit: Alex Staniloff

Khushang

Baseball-sized fried manty filled with herby lamb arrive right out of the fryer, astonishingly hot. Let them sit for a moment, no matter how difficult it may be. Admire them while you wait, golden brown and glistening.

photo credit: Sonal Shah

Samsa

It’s hard to choose between the fried manty and these tandoor-baked hot pockets of flaky dough. Take a few people so you can order both.

photo credit: Alex Staniloff

Juvova

There are about 20 tiny dumplings in an order, which means throughout your meal you can always return to the plate for another one, like an old friend, or your favorite pair of socks that will never get a hole in the toe. They are warm and gentle, stuffed with lamb, and swimming in just a bit of the water they were boiled in, which glistens with fat, and would be delicious all on its own.

photo credit: Alex Staniloff

Noodles

Order at least one noodle dish. Try the hand-pulled bosu lagman first: thick, chewy noodles fried just enough that some of them stay soft, and some have just a slight char. The tsomyan—strips of dough somewhere between a hand-torn noodle and a dumpling—is our second choice. Both are stir-fried with chunks of veggies and tender hunks of lamb.

photo credit: Sonal Shah

Kebabs

We try restrict our usage of the word succulent to descriptions of plants. But we'll make an exception for the skewers at Kashkar. Every kebab, even the chicken, is tender on the inside and singed on the outside—a level of grill-master we thought was only achievable outdoors. The veal and lamb are particularly juicy, and we also like the liver, but the skewer to prioritize is the lamb rib. Each piece tastes like the best lamb chop you’ve ever had, but in tiny-sized rib form. And also better.

Polov

This is lamb and rice, but it’s also so much more than that. Every place in Brighton Beach that makes polov (or plov) does it a bit differently, and Kashkar’s version has heady spices and lots of carrots.