Kazakh Kyrgyz Restaurant

Kazakh Kyrgyz might not showcase Central Asian food at its very best, but eating here is quite an experience, nonethess. The restaurant lies in the otherwise discreet Pasha boutique hotel and is accessed via a footbridge over an indoor pond. Mongolian, Turkic, Dungan (Chinese Muslim) and Slavic people, young and old, come to chat at long, low tables and enjoy the camaraderie fostered by the restaurant's Facebook group, belly-dancing classes, parties and special-occasion menus. Seating ranges from benches to colourful bean-bags on the exotic carpet. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were both on the Silk Road and consequently both their cuisines incorporate influences from Russia, Turkey and China. Pickled herring may seem to sit oddly alongside starters of meze and funchoza (a cold Chinese noodle salad), but the variety is actually rather exciting, and prices are low. It's the Central Asian specialities - plov (rice dishes), flatbreads, kebabs, stir-fries, lagman (wheat noodles) and plump, moist hoshani (steamed, fried meat dumplings) - that shine. Finish your meal with warm pistachio and cinnamon-flecked baklava, or chak-chak (squares of puffed rice with nuts and honey). Wines are as inexpensive as the cooking (well under £20 a bottle). Come on a Friday night and you'll get entertainment from musicians and a belly dancer too.