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    Shirin Cafe

    4.5 (72 reviews)
    ModerateRussian, Uzbek
    Open 12:00 pm - 11:00 PM
    Updated 3 months ago

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    Shirin Cafe Photos

    SHIRIN CAFE ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Casual
    Romantic
    Moderate noise
    Good for groups

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    Recommended Reviews - Shirin Cafe

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    Walter E.

    Thanks for great home cooking made me remember my background luv you guys Frankie my bestie plus Nadia, Inez Albert you and Marina rock my taste buds. The best place this of the Caucus.

    Kompot (homemade cranberry punch)
    Stacy N.

    John, me, and our friends Yuri and Lou did some celebrating at this charming and exotic little cafe on Route 9. Shirin Cafe specializes in dishes of Central Asia, featuring grilled meats, pilaf, stuffed doughs and dumplings, and hearty soups. Recipes from Uzbekistan, Armenia, and the Caucasus region are represented. Our goal was to sample as many appetizers as we could without exploding. We waded through: Uzbek traditional bread (a round, flat, dense yeast bread traditionally baked in a tandoori oven) Armenian lobio - a kidney bean and herb salad topped with julienne-cut basturma (dried meat) This was outstanding! Chuchvara, boiled (small meat-filled dumplings) two kinds of Samsa (stuffed flaky pastry triangles), the first filled with meat and the second with sauteed pumpkin and onion (ohhhh my!) two varieties of Kutabi (a thin round flat dough, filled and folded over, and stuffed with ground meat or a combination of leafy vegetables, onions, scallions, and dill) Hachapuri - a flaky triangle stuffed with cheeses, scallion, and dill Plov (pilaf) - an entree of rice and vegetables topped with sliced lamb Homemade Kompot (cranberry punch) and hot tea accompanied the meal. Russians, (and I suppose central Asians) often accompany a meal with sweet fruit punch. These beverages are almost always waaaaay too sweet for me, and this one was no exception. I would have to cut this with a lot of club soda to enjoy it, however, John, Yuri, and Lou -- all sweet tooths -- were as happy as clams. The tea was brewed from loose leaves. My three companions enjoyed drinking it through their cut sugar, while I, not surprisingly, sipped it straight. Everything was fresh and tasty, with lovely textures, seasonings, and flavors. My favorite appetizers were the lobio, the pumpkin samsa, and both of the kutabi, but I would happily order anything that we sampled again. I look forward to dining here again and trying soup on my next visit.

    Uzbek green tea.
    Edward C.

    Uzbek food = new foodie experience so sign me up! Had a chance to try Shirin Cafe (and Uzbek food) for the first time and what a nice experience. Located in a strip mall off of Rt.9, the restaurant is decorated with a lot of Uzbek themed clothing and ornaments that were pretty and not over the top. Service was very polite and cordial. Ordered three appetizers: Uzbek bread was delicious. It was very similar in texture and taste to Turkish Pide bread marked by a crispy crust exterior and airy, light, soft, and pock-marked interior perfect for any types of spreads and/or butters. The Pumpkin Samsa and Hachapuri were both delicious too. The puff pastry on each was so delicately flaky and buttery. Pumpkin Samsa filling of shredded pumpkin and other vegetables was yummy, but the cheese filling in the Hachapuri was wonderful. It was the most delicately pungent (a good thing) spiced goat cheese. Note that the Samsa and Hachapuri are made fresh to order as our waitress told us right away that each take 30 minutes to prepare, cook, and serve. Entrees consisted of: The Lamb Kebab was served on a huge metal skewer, on top a bed of vinegar brined white onion slices, and a side salsa-like dipping sauce. Lamb chunks were pretty substantial, but I think a tad more salt & pepper would have helped as well as a bit more grill flavor and a notch lower on the temperature (the lamb was a tad above medium, but I would have preferred medium-rare. Nonetheless the lamb was fresh and very meaty. The vinegar brined white onion slices were delicious! Beef Stroganoff was excellent. The slow cooked beef was so tender and beefy. The beef and gravy taste was so reminiscent to that of the Polish Hunter's stew I've enjoyed at Krakowiak (Polish restaurant). The bed of fried potato strings (basically French Fries) were fresh and awesomely soaked up a lot of the meaty stew and beef rendered beef fat (not the most appetizing of descriptions, but trust me....delicious). Also ordered a piece of the Napoleon. In this case my sister enjoyed most of it, as Napoleon's happen to be one of the few desserts I don't like, and she indicated it was excellent. I also have to mention the Uzbek green tea which was a perfect drink to compliment the meal, as the tea was mild and soothing. It was served in a very pretty and almost British high-tea formal style of cubed sugar, raisins, and a sugar-crusted peanut snack. Aside from the slight foibles on the Lamb Kebab, Shirin Cafe is a really solid 4 to 4.5 on my scale.

    Beef stroganoff  -  not one of their better items on the menu
    Samson L.

    Really had a great time at this byob Uzbek/Russian restaurant. The owner was very personable and food was outstanding! Never experienced this type of cuisine, but after this meal, I highly recommend. The owner happened to accidentally knock over my glass of wine and he apologized profusely, and then gave our table a free bottle of French red wine! He also gave my friend complimentary dessert for her birthday. It was truly a great meal and a fun time! I definitely will come back again!

    a bun with sesame seeds on top

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    11 months ago

    Very good food but way too expensive and their ambiance is just ok. Nothing special for the prices they charge

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    6 months ago

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    2 years ago

    Love this place!!!! Amazing, food and service. You will not leave hungry. Soup and chicken shish always my go to.

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    2 years ago

    Delicious food for a date night and BYOB. Everything tasted so fresh and authentic. Will definitely be back!!

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    2 years ago

    Amazing food! Authentic home made, everything is very delicious. Great service and ambiance. We love this place.

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    3 years ago

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    15 years ago

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    7 years ago

    I have been here a few times to date. Yummy, home-style food. Everything is very tasty. Try their signature salad. Two thumbs up!

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    8 years ago

    Delicious Uzbek food. Good service. Everything is made fresh. Everything I had was good from Samsa to plov. The soups are really good too.

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    Plov House

    Plov House

    3.8(10 reviews)
    40.8 miSomerton

    Wife and I decided to check out Plov House after hearing many good things about it. Plov House is a…read moresmall 9-table 24-hour place but was brightly lit and appeared clean with white tablecloths and plastic covers. Single page menus on the table, and customers were constantly in and out. Surprisingly, every customer coming in was a young male, some singles but most in groups. There's a couple of large refrigerators full of food in containers ready to go. After some language barrier ordering, we ended up pointing to what we wanted on the menu. I tell you EVERYONE who came in ordered Plov and bread. We did, too. Along with the assorted kebabs, lagman soup, and two Samsas. The soup was tomato based with homemade long noodles, beef, celery, peppers, onions, carrots, and celery. Had to alternate between a fork and spoon to eat it. The bread was extra tasty and was great to dip in the soup. The kebabs were fresh, very tender, and came with onion and some pickled hot peppers. My wife liked her samsa but I was getting full and took mine home. But the star of the night was the Plov with the most tender and flavor filled slow cooked rice with lamb, beef, carrots, and onions. I could see why most come in and just order it for however many were in their party. It's that good. Best I've had so maybe as others mentioned it was a fresher batch made. With two bottle Cokes and a wonderful pot of black tea, our meal came to $77 including tax and a small upcharge for credit card payment. Tip was left in cash. I will say that the prices on the bill were slightly higher than what was listed on the menu so be mindful of this. For instance, menu Plov is $14.99 but bill Plov is $16.19. Menu tea is $1.99 but bill tea is $2.15. You have to know that when most of the customers are holding court in their language enjoying their food in a constant stream, that Plov House is doing something right. The service was quite friendly. Highly recommended.

    Plov House serves old, microwaved, ridiculously overpriced leftovers that masquerade as fresh…read morerestaurant food. Notice the 503 five-star reviews on Google Reviews but just four of them on Yelp, where it is much harder (but not impossible) to post fake reviews, LMAO! And notice that almost all of the five-star reviews posted all over the Internet heap the same suspicious praise, commit the same grammatical errors, and were posted from accounts that have few if any other reviews, which suggests that they were written by the same person, perhaps the owner (again, LMAO!). As for my family's experiences with the food, it is days-old and microwaved, never fresh despite being extremely expensive compared to the competition. The beef and so-called lamb were rancid tasting, dry, and tough. The vegetables were generally wilted and old. The bread is greasy and hard (stale?). The $10 to $19 soups taste worse than a $1 can of Campbell's! No joke! The $5 salads have about 30 cents worth of mostly expired veggies. The only decent tasting product was the lemonade but it is very hard to mess that up as Chef Gordon Ramsay likes to say. But for $5 a pop? The restaurant itself is filthy, old, and dated. Lots of disgusting safety violations were cited by the city in their latest health inspection (click the attached screenshot or visit the site for the Philadelphia Office of Food Protection to read the inspection report). We peaked at the inside of the kitchen when the door was open behind the restaurant, and it was gross and disgusting! You would never eat here if you saw what we saw! The staff was friendly and welcoming but the food is what counts and it sucks on steroids. The $5 value meal at the fast food chain across the street tastes infinitely better than the $17 to $26 meals that my family ate here. Literally. And the $5 meals were more filling. Maybe Plov House should change their cooks and start selling fresh food instead of microwaved leftovers? There are several far superior nearby restaurants, even a few within the same shopping center. Anyone who has posted a good review must be a relative or foreigner who believes that boiled rate is a delicacy.

    Photos
    Plov House
    Plov House - Assorted kebab

    Assorted kebab

    Plov House - Menu

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    Menu

    Old Bukhara

    Old Bukhara

    3.9(44 reviews)
    45.1 mi

    Great food. Reasonable Prices. Service needs a little bit of improvement…read more Came here to celebrate a friend's birthday. Happened to be on Wednesday night. Place wasn't packed but there were some customers there. So the restaurant is not much for decor IMHO but has excellent food. Even on Wednesday night. Chuchvara, Lagman, Shurpa, Achik-Chuchuk, Various Kebabs, Beef Tongue, and most importantly Cheburek. The only dish that can go wrong like a puffer fish. Underdo it and it's inedible, overdo it the same, wrong oil or too much oil and your customers will run screaming for the hills. This was actually done so well we went for seconds, light and crispy on the outside and nice and juicy inside. I'm drooling just writing about it.... A great place to visit, service on the slow night could've been a little better but I can't really complain.

    We had an incredible time celebrating a friends birthday recently and it turns out we will be going…read moreagain soon and I can't wait. The food was so authentic and flavorful- we had lamb, beef and chicken mixed with all the dishes you might expect from potatoes eggs and vegetables. While the restaurant is located in a strip mall, you'd never know it. The ceiling is covered in cloth coverings that you know are authentic. The dance floor is so inviting-we spent the night between dancing and eating. The servers were fantastic. We look forward to our next visit

    Photos
    Old Bukhara - Wall art

    Wall art

    Old Bukhara - Uzbek Style Lamb Short Ribs

    Uzbek Style Lamb Short Ribs

    Old Bukhara

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    Shirin Cafe - russian - Updated May 2026

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