Afsona Restaurant
Afsona Restaurant
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
3 reviews
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If you're willing to put up with the virtually inexistent service, Afsona's delicious and affordable food will not disappoint you. Come here with an open mind and ready to embrace a completely new cuisine.
Afsona ignores most of the common customer courtesies restaurants provide, to an almost comical degree. Usually a waiter will tell you any items missing from the kitchen–not here (as you go through the menu and order, they'll tell you flatly "We've just ran out."). For some reason, the restaurant couldn't provide us with tap water, only bottled water. When paying the bill, they wouldn't allow the bill to be split, and they didn't provide an itemized receipt at the end.
One of the bathrooms also doesn't have a working light (but hey, it's got the same faucet as my apartment, which I found cool).
The term Soviet-era hospitality is an oxymoron, needless to say. However, it's worth ignoring because the food here really is that good and dirt cheap.
Most of the menu isn't quite in English but we still ordered well. The lamb rib and ground beef kabobs (listed in the menu under shishlik) were smoky from the charcoal grill and perfectly seasoned. The bread was fresh and warm, almost like a focaccia with a golden egg-brushed crust, topped with sesame seeds. The Armenian cabbage was crispy and slightly pickled, a refreshing start to the meal. I was a big fan of the samsa (puff pastry filled with sweet onions and beef) and the manti (boiled dumplings, also filled with meat).
The total for all that food came to roughly $40 with tax and tip for 2 people–a real bargain considering the quality.
If you're in the area, come here with an open mind and ready to embrace a completely new cuisine.
This place is solid with wonderfully flavored Uzbek food. Standouts include the chicken tabaka w/ fries and of course, the succulent chicken kabobs you can usually find at Uzbek/ Tajik places. You heard me right- french fries. This place puts all other kartoshkas out there to shame. They had it perfectly seasoned w/ just salt and dill. And at $4 for a heaping plate, it was a steal.
We ordered the fries because they "ran out" of rice ($2). When I asked the guy if they had plov ($8), he enthusiastically nodded yes. Don't be shady, my friend. They seemed to run out of items arbitrarily- like regular water and the aforementioned rice.
Anyway, service is spotty and slow but pleasant. This is a place where they take their time making your food- my chicken tabaka order took 30 mins to prepare. Totally worth it though, for real.
One caveat; please be prepared to get stared at if you look mildly like an Uzbek woman dining with a man who doesn't look like he's from Uzbekistan.
O.K. I need to write a review here because both reviews from the past year don't really have anything to say about the food, and questionable things about the decor.
This is a straight up Central Asian restaurant with some great food and atmosphere direct from Tashkent.
As for the language issue, the staff doesn't speak much English, but the menu is in reasonable English and Russian. A little Russian will help, but it's not a requirement. When in doubt ask one of the restaurant workers' kids, who will no doubt help you.
Another idea stick to the restaurant's great versions of the cuisine's greatest hits: plov, manti, samsa and shishlik. Say those words and you'll have a good meal. I'm particularly fond of the samsa, which are baked freshly daily.
Much better than Cafe Sim-Sim and in the running for the best Central Asian restaurant in the neighorhood, it's a crime that this place has had 1-Star average til now.
Go and see for yourself.