One of the co-owners, Bughra Arkin, works throughout the day and is very friendly towards customers, as are the rest of the service staff. They have opened for not more than a week when word got out about them on Food Talk Central and on EaterLA. We my SGV LA & OC Chinese Foodies group and I dined there this past Saturday for lunch, they were packed.
Short staffed by one that day, Bughra and one other server move about back and forth, from table to table, taking care all of their customers’ needs until the lunch rush finally subsided around 2:30pm. Though our lunch ended up taking over 2 hours, we were able to enjoy an array of dishes, and they were all delicious. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we weren’t able to try the Boiled Mutton nor the Roasted Mutton Leg this time. Both dishes require almost 30 minutes to prepare.
We started off with a few of the appetizers, including a Pumpkin Manti, which many of us have never seen offered before by any of the other Uyghur restaurants in the Los Angeles area. Mantis were delicious, both pumpkin and meat-filled, and the dumpling wraps were thin and tender, making them quite delicate to handle. I enjoyed the Samsa, which reminds me of a samosa but made with puff pastry instead. It was light and delicious from both the puff pastry and the well seasoned minced lamb meat.
Boneless Big Plate Chicken is the way to go if you don’t want fuss around with any bones or bone chips, in particular. The dish is well seasoned and cooked with a good amount of dried red chilis that actually give a nice little spicy kick to the dish, much more so than the ones I had at Omar’s or Silk Road Garden. The noodles in both the Big Plate Chicken and Laghman have a nice chewiness to them.
Their Goshnaan is nice and crispy, and does not easily get soggy. The Laghman was good, but some people might find the beef used for this dish and for the Fried Naan dish to be a bit on the dry and chewier side. Uyghur Polo was a hit as well. The version we got was made with beef. However, you’re able to order the Polo with either lamb, chicken or even a vegan version of it as well.
Out of curiosity, we ordered a pot of the Uyghur Milk Tea made with black tea, milk, cream and salt. For some of us, it had a hint of smokiness and saltiness to the taste. However, it wasn’t as salty as the version I tried at Omar’s down the street in San Gabriel.
Below is their current menu. They have a huge selection of dishes, which we will want to come back to try. Hopefully in time, they will be able to eliminate the problems most new restaurants encounter during their first couple of months of operation.
Dolan’s Uyghur Cuisine, 742 West Valley Boulevard, Alhambra, California 91803. Telephone: 626-785-7555. Limited parking in the rear. Accepts Mastercard or Visa, and of course, cash.
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