Omar’s Kitchen 新疆美食, 11740 Artesia Boulevard, Artesia, CA 90701, Telephone: (562) 809-3887, Hours: 11:00am-3:00pm and 5:00pm-9:00pm Daily, Website: https://omars-restaurant.business.site/
Munire Omar (originally from Urumqi, Xinjiang, China) opened Omar’s Restaurant in San Gabriel back in 2010, and her brother, Urkesh, soon joined her at Omar’s, which received positive reviews from both the LA Times and the LA Weekly for the food, especially the house made hand-pulled noodles.
Fast forward 5 years later, Urkesh stepped out on his own to open up Omar’s Kitchen in Artesia, CA, providing a similar menu as his sister’s location. However, the locals in this part of LA County were not familiar with Uyghur cuisine, so there have been requests for the more popular Chinese dishes, such as Sweet & Sour Pork and Kung Pao Chicken. As such, the dishes that didn’t sell well were removed from the menu.
Last year, through help from investors, Omar’s Kitchen closed for a few months for renovations. The restaurant reopen in late 2018, with a menu that featured a couple of more Uyghur dishes, such as the Goshnaan (aka Meat Pie). During our lunch there last Saturday, Urkesh mentioned that they will be introducing a new menu soon, hopefully offering up more Uyghur dishes.
In the meantime, we will just have to enjoy the basics until that new menu comes out. And the basic Uyghur (or should I say “popular”) included delicious preparations of the Lamb Pan-Fried Dumpling, Uyghur Goshnaan, Big Plate Chicken (ordered with extra hand-pulled noodles), Laghman and Ding Ding Chow Mein.
While the Lamb Skewers were good, it would be better if they would rub the cumin and dry chili flakes onto the kebabs after they have been removed from the grill, rather than serving the skewers with the cumin and dry red chili flakes served on the side.
And while the new menu is being printed, Urkesh as been offering new dishes as specials for customers to try, and hopefully, will tweak the recipes, if necessary. Below are 2 of the specials. The last dish is in development, a Uyghur version of the Turkish kofta dish.