Uyghur cuisine at its best! For those who have never hear of Uyghur: Uyghur cuisine is halal, and a unique fusion of flavors from China and Central Asian (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan). It is known for its hearty dishes, with emphasis on lamb, noodles, and spices. Uyghur people primarily live in Xinjiang (also known as East Turkistan/Turkestan, Eastern Turkistan/Turkestan, Uyghuristan, or Chinese Turkistan).
Many years ago, I visited the original Nurlan restaurant near the Queens Botanical Gardens on Main Street, when they first opened. Soon after, that restaurant was sold to new owners; that restaurant is now called Nurlan Uyghur Restaurant, and is still open now. The original owner opened New Nurlan on 39th St about a year ago. It's located in the lower level of the Best Western Hotel. There are stairs and an elevator leading to the basement. Nothing fancy; small restaurant. But.....the food is packed with flavor! There was not a bad dish! Note that portion sizes are large, and they do offer a cash discount! The consensus among my group of 12 was they loved the food and can't wait for a return visit.
Here is our Menu (shared in groups of 4):
~ Lagman w.Beef $18: very flavorful dish; but I liked the texture of the flat hand-pulled noodles in the Big Plate Chicken dish more than this Lagman.
~ Lamb Polo $20: at first glance, this lamb (with bones) looked like bland boring boiled meat....Wrong! It was neither bland nor boring, but very tender and packed with flavor. What a nice surprise.
~ Cumin Mushrooms $22.50: this dish was good; albeit very over salted. It was better when added to the noodles or rice; making it less salty. Also, I question the high price of this dish. $23 for mushrooms?!
~ DaPanJi (aka Famous XinJiang Chicken or Big Plate Chicken) $25.50/small: This was one of the Best dishes of the night! First, I was shocked at the very large portion for a "small" size! This dish comes in small, medium and large. 5 ppl could have easily shared this small sized dish. Outstanding dish! The hand-pulled noodles were perfection; excellent texture! My fave noodle dish tonight. And the chicken (on the bone) was incredibly tender and flavorful. Recommended!
~ Lamb Kawap (skewers) $4.99 each: these skewers were so well seasoned! At first glance, they looked very plain but they were packed with flavor. Get these!
So the theme with these Uyghur dishes were flavor, flavor, flavor! Each dish was packed with flavor and there was not a bad dish in the bunch. Due to the large portion sizes, we had plenty of leftovers; which nobody complained about, and gladly took home. We would definitely return to try other menu items!
One downside of this restaurant is that they are located in the basement, with an open ceiling; leading to the Best Western Hotel lobby. This definitely brightens the feel of the basement restaurant, but there were two issues tonight:
1. On this hot & especially humid evening, the mild air conditioning could not be contained in the restaurant due to their open ceiling. We were all sweating the entire time we were eating.
2. Due to the open ceiling, you couldn't help but smell the strong essence of Marijuana coming from the hotel lobby; especially when walking up the stairs to the main lobby. As it turns out, there were 5-6 boys, ranging from 13-14 yrs old, smoking marijuana right outside of the front door of the hotel. The automatic front door kept opening, letting all that smoke into the lobby; eventually down to the restaurant. The boys came into the lobby and we're hanging out in the lobby. They proceeded to get cups of water from the hotel water cooler, and kept pouring cups of water over their heads; making a complete wet mess in the lobby, all over the tables, chairs and floor. Yup, they were flying high as a kite and were bothering everyone in the lobby! I actually questioned the employee (manager??) at the front desk about why this is being allowed in their hotel lobby, and he said he felt bad to kick them out because it was raining outside. What?!?! (He was serious!). They were not guests of the hotel. (Where are their parents?!?! How did they even get the marijuana?!?! Isn't this illegal for 13/14 yr olds??). The employee/mgr actually asked me if he should kick them out...Really?! If this were my hotel, they would have been kicked out a long time ago. Why is the employee/Mgr(?) asking my advice; a random person in the lobby? Lmaooo
Anyway, I digress. It's not New Nurlan's fault that the hotel allows pot smokin' preteens to hang out in their lobby. But yeah, the open ceiling is a problem.
Come to New Nurlan for the food, not the atmosphere! If you've never tried Uyghur cuisine before, this is the place to come! Looking forward to a return visit! read more