*********UPDATE NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS*********Cafe Chenar is a small restaurant in north Phoenix Arizona that serves Bukharian (also spelled Bukharean) Food. You might be wondering what is Bukharian Cuisine? Bukharian Cuisine is an a distant kosher cuisine of the former central Asian State E Mirate of Bukhara (now Uzbekistan).  Bukharian Cuisine is an offshoot of pan-central Asian Cooking. Cafe Chenar serves foods like grilled kababs, meat and potato stuffed pies , salads and  soups that have  Russian, Muslim, Uzbek and Korean influences.

The atmosphere is cozy but rich looking. My photos don’t show the rich detailed patterned tiled walls. The walls are really and much more detailed and colorful than my photo shows.

Our server makes suggestions for us so we order most of what she suggested.

She suggested the Belyash and the Piroshki. They were priced at only $3.00 each so I thought they’d be tiny but they weren’t so tiny.

They are tasty fried pastry like breads. One is filled with seasoned ground beef and the other is filled with seasoned mashed potatoes. The dough seems free of grease and it has a nice layered light texture. A tomato sort of salsa is served as a condiment.

We tried one of the salads….The Kimchi.

The kimchi is spicy…It’s fermented…….maybe it runs a little more ginger-ee.

We share some kabobs… The Highly recommended Chicken, Lulya (ground seasoned beef) and Seabass (not pictured…)

All three were seasoned nicely.   They serve the kababs with thinly sliced onions, scallions and a container of white vinegar. The seabass came with a thick wedge of lemon.

Our server told us that her favorite bread was the Fatir Bread so we ordered one. We had no idea it could feed a large family.

It also came with a tomato salsa like condiment. This bread is light with a nice texture. It seems a little rich in a focaccia kind of way and it’s onion-ee. Some pieces have much more onion slices that other pieces. It’s very tasty….

I brought home lots of goodies.

I couldn’t get dessert today but hope to next time.

An interesting different cuisine.

Our server was efficient and made suggestions for us. All the food was tasty. Prices were mostly very low and portions were large.

I would say my first visit to Cafe Chenar was Worth a Fork!

*******UPDATE NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS*******

I wasn’t able to find a website for Cafe Chenar but they are on Facebook.

Call for hours as they run different from other restaurants and close for holidays you might not know of.

EVERYTHING is subject to change and your experience may or may not differ.

reference – www.momentmag.com