Samarqand

Samarqand venue is downstairs and opens into a clean trendy dining area. There is also a section which looks to be a little less formal with softer seating but with an enormous TV with sport showing (although no sound).

Service was quick and polite with the waitress offering a menu with pictures on to help with our selection. At first thought this was a little strange but, was useful :D

My starter of the meat dumplins was off a good size. I had the poussin for main which you need to order your side of carbs but, again, good size meals.

The atmosphere was nice. Comfortably sat with noise levels low so you can talk. We were not rushed through our meal so could sit and take our time. We ordered the Russian wine, when in ....Russian!.... which was actually fairly nice.

The drink prices did seem more on the pricey side. No good desserts :(

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Samarqand serves food from several Central Asian and Eastern cuisines, such as Uzbek, Kazakh, and even Russian, Ukranian (borscht) and Georgian (hachapuri).

If you're a Russian speaker, you'll feel at home in Samarqand- as it is not only the food that makes it so authentic- the restaurant holds regular events (celebrating Russian Christmas and New Year), Russian film screenings and karaoke nights. There are also differently themed (semi)private rooms named after different cities in the region- Moscow, St Petersburg, Baku, Almaty etc. Each room is differently decorated according to its city, and some have TVs, which you can use to play Playstation, watch games, or sing karaoke. These rooms can be hired for big groups.

Samarqand also offers electric shisha- an interesting experience, although nowhere near as good as the real thing. Another segregated room is the Russian Standard Bar, recently opened.

Overall, if you're from Russia, the Caucauses or Central Asia, you'll feel at home in Samarqand. And if you're not, you'll still enjoy experiencing a different culture, and eating some delicious food.

Last week a group of us went to Samarqand to try out this food. We had heard much but only one of us knew something about it.

The rest of the group was really hungry and wanted wine so they all shared starters, had mains and wine or vodka to drink. In those cases, it can get quite expensive though everyone really enjoyed their food. However, at around 30 pounds per person, this does not come cheap.

I had had something to eat before so I only took a starter. It was prawns with some salad and chili. I also only had a coke as I had a very important meeting early Friday morning. My food was delicious. Seven king prawns. Good quality and made freshly. Overall I only paid 10 pounds plus service charge.

So, my advice is to come here with only a medium appetite. The share some starters and mains or go for lunch to enjoy the set menu.

We'd read about this place in Time Out and decided to give it a go today. The restaurant is next to Cocorino, an italian gelato store. The interior was quite modern and creative with a lot of patterns, but done in neutral colors and enough lighting that you didn't feel like you were sitting in a lower level restaurant with no windows.

We ordered bloody mary's and as a former bartender of 7 years, they might have been the best bloody I've ever had. They had quite a bite but not too spicy, were made with fresh ingredients, and served with a pickle! Who doesn't love pickles!?

My other half ordered the Vegetarian Manty, which was a dish of pumpkin dumplings served with a yoghurt sauce. I was able to steal a bite and they were delicious, though for a main were not a whole lot of food. It was about 6 dumplings in total. I still had food envy though.

I opted for the Lagman which was thick noodles and beef in a broth. It wasn't the most amazing meal I'd ever had, but being that I've had a severe craving for Pho lately, it hit the spot. The flavors were all balanced nicely, the broth had a great flavor, and the noodles were as advertised, fresh. Definitely a great thing to have when its freezing outside.

It was a nice place to stop in for lunch, but if going for dinner I would suggest getting a side or having the pumpkin dumplings as a starter. The bloody mary's definitely left me with a great impression as well.

The service was polite and overall a very comfortable place, except for the uzbehki pop music that was a touch too loud. Value for money, good service, tasty food, amazing bloody mary's, and a creative interior makes this a 4 star place for me!

Samarqand is an Uzbekistan restaurant. While I've had quite a bit of experience with various Eastern European foods, Uzbek cuisine was a new one for me. Luckily, I went with my co workers who are Russian, Ukrainian, and even one Uzbek. Naturally, I followed in his footsteps and ordered whatever food he did. I don't regret it...much.

First, the drinks. These guys make a mean cocktail and I would recommend the Sazerac wannabe (those who have read my other reviews know I'm a fan of the Sazerac) whose name I forget (maybe a side effect of the drink). It's a potent brew but sweet with a honeyed finish that neatly hides any burn from the whiskey. The espresso martini was also a great after dinner drink in place of my usual espresso and had the added fine touch of roasted coffee beans as a garnish. We had the house red during the meal which was a juicy fruity French wine for around £20/bottle. Not too bad for a snazzy place.

The starters came in the form of various types of dumplings, and disappeared as fast as they were laid out. Each piece is small, but served in large quantities so it was a testament to the taste (and perhaps our hunger) that they were finished with such speed. My main (again the name is lost to me) was a rice dish similar to biryiani with spiced meat served on a plate of rice that had soaked up its juices. I prefer a bit more heat to my food but it was flavourful and the meat was tender and juicy. It definitely hit the spot and helped soak up some of the wine too.

Overall, it was a great new experience and I would recommend it for a shot of Uzbek food when you are feeling a change to your usual spots out. It's also got quite cool décor so may be worth a drink or two before going out.

Ooh ... I'm the first to review Samarqand. Well, allow me to say that I absolutely loved my experience there, that I wholeheartedly recommend it and consider this new Central Asian restaurant and bar to be a very welcome addition to the London dining scene!


Samarqand offers a range of traditional dishes that are both reasonably priced and perfectly portioned. I found the nourishing starter of ugro (chicken soup with home made egg noodles and herbs) and the plov (traditional Central Asian rice dish cooked with succulent lamb, spices, onion and carrot and served with Asian tomato salad) to be especially flavourful. I'd be keen to have them both again but am equally intrigued by other items on the menu. Rooted in the cuisines of countries such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, Samarqand is a bit of a carnivore's dream, particularly if you like lamb. However, vegetarians are catered to and we were told more veggie options are to be made available.


I hope to go back soon. I really, really do. The blend of traditional and contemporary décor is as subtly inviting as the seasoning from the restaurant's open kitchen is delicious. Service is as helpful and sincere as it gets.


Great food at great value in a lovely setting.

Highly recommend. I'm told to get there early or "enjoy" the loud, drunken, ethnic karaoke.

The ex-Soviet Central Asia in general, and Uzbekistan in particular, have always held a fascination for me, particularly the magnificent scenery and the long history ... which makes me want to visit the region soon. Prior to trying this restaurant, my experience with Soviet food had been pretty limited ... confined to a few Russian and Georgian restaurants that i had visited on my two trips to Russia till date. I had to try this restaurant out.
It was a saturday evening, and i had gone on alone. I should have anticipated a crowd. I was told that they would not have a free table for half an hour at least. Disappointed, i left for my second choice that evening, a steakhouse nearby. As luck would have had it, even that was crowded. I called Samarqand and this time i was told that the wait would be almost an hour long, but i was invited in anyway, just in case a table opened up. I reached the basement reception in 5 mins. I was at one end of a long and not so wide dining area, with a bar at the other end. There were a few other private rooms around. The place didn't seem overflowing with patrons, at least not enough to warrant an hour long wait. Surprisingly, i was immediately offered the option of eating at the bar which i gladly accepted.
The menu consisted of a variety of Uzbek, Kazakh, Russian and Georgian dishes (as far as i could ascertain from their names and descriptions). I hadn't seen or heard of most of them before, and so i asked for help.
I went for the lamb cheburek as a starter. It was pasty filled with fried meat and served with chilli sauce. The taste was good. But the amount of meat inside was quite small relative to the size of the item. It literally was full of hot air.
I was recommended the Plov for the main course. But it seemed very similar to the Indian biryani (also confirmed by the bartender) and so i asked for some Astana manty instead. What i got was a plate full of five oversized lamb dumplings. Except for the fact that the exterior of the manty was not fried, it was not very dissimilar to the starter that i had just had. It did not seem very filling by itself, and i regretted not having ordered the Plov. Having said that, the manty was a new and undoubtedly tasty dish.
I washed the food down with a glass of fine Georgian wine.
All of this was not cheap ... the dinner cost me about £35. But, shockingly, their card machine was not operational and they could accept only cash that evening. This information had been mentioned on a tiny piece of paper stuck to their doorway which i had missed. Given that Samarqand is not a cheap place, it would have been courteous of them to remind patrons of this constraint at the beginning of the meal. In spite of the otherwise excellent service, this episode left a bad taste in the mouth. I fortunately had the cash that day ... otherwise it would have been somewhat inconvenient.
Samarqand is my access to food from one of the least populated and most inaccessible regions of the planet. I shall surely go back to taste more of it.

Delicious food from Uzbekistan (Bukhara).

I found this place really poor. Just another over priced central london restaurant with very average food. Service was ok and the place looks nice on the inside but it's just not for me. There were 4 of us and we all had various foods from the different regions they cover. We all felt the same. The food was bland and lacked appropriate sauces etc. if you've got a healthy appetite you'll need at least 3 courses as potion sizes were very small so this is going to cost you. Our bill for 4 which included a starter and main each plus 4 beers, 1 cocktail and 1 bottle of wine was £200. Way over the top for what we had. I won't be going again.