Duslar (Friends): "Lunch with the workers" Top 5 Page for this destination Tashkent Restaurant Tip by TheWanderingCamel

Between ourselves, we referred to this restaurant as "The Worker's Canteen". It's cafeteria -style, take a tray and join the queue setup certainly has all the appearance of a staff canteen. Come lunch-time and those queues are practically stretching out the door - this is one popular place! When you taste the food you've chosen from the extensive range of dishes on offer, and paid the ludicrously low bill to the cashier at the end of the counter, you can understand why. We were impressed enough to come back more than once and, had it been open on weekends, we'd have come again.

With plenty of staff on hand to clear tables and sweep the floor, the place stays neat and clean despite the constant flow of people. Lots of windows and open arches between the two levels, wooden tables and chairs, brick walls hung with bright paintings combined with a sense of folk really enjoying their meal all work together to create a lively scene. Lunching here really is joining in with the locals.

Favorite Dish: Given the rapid turnover through the lunch hour (and it really is not much more than an hour) the quality of the food here is tremendous. A big range of salads, the inevitable soups, and then a whole bank of hot dishes - stews, baked meats, lots of vegetables - you point and the portions are doled out by an army of servers behind the counter - this is what fast food should be like - genuinely good cooking, not a reconstituted potato or piece of "meat" in sight.

What did we eat? So many good things - the sweetest, most flavourful zucchini I have ever , ever tasted; ditto aubergine fritters; a creamy potato dish - so good on the lips, don't even think about the hips; a spicy bean and meat stew was lip-smackingly good; stuffed vegetables; tender meatballs in tomatoey sauce - the list could go on and on. And just in case you're still feeling peckish, when the rush settles down and most people have been served their main courses, a whole area of the counter is cleared and out come the cakes, pastries and fruit. And then it all happens again when the second wave of workers take their lunch hour.

Comparison: less expensive than average
Directions: Near the bus station behind TsUM. Look out for the big red cup hanging over the door.
Price: less than US$10
Rating: 4
Theme: Local