At Dolan’s, servers wear shirts that have “Google ‘Uyghurs’” emblazoned in white letters across the front. It’s a highly visible political gesture by owner Bugra Arkin, whose casual restaurant specializing in traditional Uighur cuisine serves as a lesson in the past and present of the Turkic ethnic group currently experiencing ongoing government persecution and cultural genocide in China’s Xinjiang province.
Uighur cuisine is considered a Xinjiang regional staple in mainland China, which Dolan’s kitchen faithfully reproduces with ingredients and flavors that skew Central, rather than East, Asian. Manta dumplings are steamed and filled with soft pumpkin, while its signature stir-fried chicken, leek and potato plate comes on a bed of hand-pulled flat noodles. Our go-to order, however, is the Uighur polo. Cooked with carrot, onion and lamb, the flavorful braised rice dish comes with a side of red cabbage and apple coleslaw and yogurt.
