We haven’t been going out to many restaurants lately and I miss it terribly. I was happy to finally make plans to eat out, but where? So many choices and it was my turn to pick! After much searching, I decided on Samarkand Restaurant in Plymouth, MN https://samarkand.restaurant/ . It is a Russian restaurant from the Uzbekistan area (southern Russia kind of in between Pakistan and Iran).
We started with an appetizer of meat stuffed dumplings- Mantu with Meat. They were delicious and definitely my favorite. They were served sitting in melted butter with sour cream on the side. The dumpling was a little chewy and the meat was tender. I could have easily eaten another order all by myself.
For dinner I ordered Stuffed Cabbage with basmati rice and a cup of Borsht soup. The stuffed cabbage was ok. The cabbage was overcooked and the texture was mushy. The meat filling was very good and seemed to be the same meat filling as the Mantu which was tender and delicious. The rice was very disappointing. It was bland and reminded me of boxed instant rice. I did have a choice of sides and I regret not getting the mashed potatoes.
The soup was excellent except the piece of meat on the bottom of the cup. The slice of meat was very tough and grisly, but the rest of the soup was almost sweet, but savory. I do not remember having borsht soup before and hopefully this will not be the last time.
My husband ordered Assorted Shish Kababs. It was three skewers- beef, lamb and chicken. The beef was the favorite because it was also the same as the meat that was in the dumplings. The chicken was flavored different from what either of us had tasted and we had a hard time picking out the flavor, but it was tender and good. The lamb was disappointing. Lamb is typically fatty and same with this kabab. It was very fatty.
Even though not all of the food was a hit, I still would like to go again and try other items on the menu, but just stay away from the rice. I give it a rating of 6 out of 10, but I definitely want to try it again.
Minnesota Food Lover 