AZE: Nergiz Restaurant
Fancy a bowl of local soup with tiny meat dumplings?
Happy New Year, everyone! I shall continue putting up posts on eateries that I went to in Azerbaijan last year. Established in 1987, Nergiz Restaurant prides itself in being one of the most well-known restaurants in the capital city of Azerbaijan. Offering a charming underground dining environment, akin to that of Barbarestan in Tbilisi, Georgia that I went to a few years ago, the restaurant offers an impressively wide range of dishes.
Mushroom Salad AZN 6.00 (~S$4.70)
Taste: 7/10
As my BFF and I weren't hungry to begin with, we decided to go for a simple starter of mushroom salad. Mixed together with the sliced button mushrooms were tomatoes, cucumbers, corn kernels and herbs. Although the salad wasn't unique in any way, it was refreshing enough, whetting our appetite for the next few dishes to come.
Dushbere AZN 6.00 (~S$4.70)
Taste: 7/10
Dushbere is a popular Azerbaijani dumpling soup. Filled with ground beef and lamb, each of the meat-filled dumplings is tiny, pretty much the same size as its Turkish counterpart called manti. While I enjoyed the chewy texture of the dumplings, I felt that the broth could be more robust with more herbs and dried mint leaves.
Parcha Bozbash AZN 8.90 (~S$6.95)
Taste: 7.5/10
One of the national dishes of Azerbaijan, parcha bozbash is a soup dish that's traditionally made with lamb shank, potatoes, chickpeas and onions. The soup had bolder flavours compared to the dushbere described earlier. I also appreciated that the lamb was tender, and the chickpeas were cooked until soft, but not to the point of disintegrating completely.
Beef on Saj AZN 25.80 (~S$20.20)
Taste: 8/10
Saj is a traditional pan that gives rise to the name of the dish cooked over hot coals and served on it. Good for two people as indicated on the menu, the beef dish served with sliced potatoes, eggplants and flatbread was moreish. The succulent red meat was stir-fried with mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and bell peppers.
Baklava Baku AZN 6.00 (~S$4.70)
Taste: 6.5/10
Rather different from those commonly found in Turkey, the sweet delicacy has some variations in different regions of Azerbaijan depending on the baking techniques and ingredients used. Instead of crispy pastry layers that I'm used to, I was presented with thicker buttery crust with a walnut placed on top of it. As expected, the chopped nuts were sweet, but not prohibitively so that I could still eat them without a cup of tea.
Melon's Rating
Taste: 7/10
Ambience: 8.5/10
Service: 8.5/10
Overall: 8/10
'Twas probably the latest dinner I had in life, which only started after 10.20pm. Pika's advice: If you're dining in a big group, you may want to go for the Khan Pilaf that weighs 3 kg. It's priced at AZN 95.00 (~S$74.50).
Nergiz Restaurant
9 Tarlan Aliyarbeyov Street
Baku
Azerbaijan
(Daily: 12 noon - 12 midnight)
*Prices quoted are nett prices.
Have a nice meal,
Cliff(y)
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