Café Kashkar

The small mountain of fresh hand-pulled noodles called lagman visible on a kitchen countertop at this Uzbeki-Uyghur restaurant is exhibit A that diners have come to exactly the right place. Stretchy and yielding, the noodles are central to both of these overlapping Silk Road cuisines. And at Kashkar they show up often — in brothy, cumin- and coriander-scented soups, and under piles of glistening lamb, red pepper, and granola-cluster-size pieces of sautéed garlic. Lamb is also abundant across the menu, filling flaky samsas, folded inside dumplings, and skewered onto succulent kebabs. Moments before you slip into a meat-and-starch-induced coma, a bright and fiery plate of wafer-thin tomatoes, onions, and green chilies (called achichuk) lands on the table, offering delicious revival. The walls are adorned with technicolor skullcaps, gold-threaded tapestries, and painted tambourines, along with a sign reminding patrons that alcohol isn’t allowed on the halal-friendly premises. But with lamb like that, who needs Lambrusco?