The Thousands

Next to the Promethean on Grote Street sits a small restaurant oozing plastic tablecloths and flourescent light. On the front window there are many pictures, most of which look pretty meaty and also pretty red and spicy. I have walked past this restaurant many a night on my way to the pub or the markets. (Usually the markets then the pub.) Last Saturday night we ventured in.

Tangritah Uyghur Shishkebab Restaurant is everything you could hope for in a family owned restaurant. On entering, we were shown to a table and left alone with some laminated menus, the kind found at most Grote and Gouger Street food houses. Not one of the eight of us had any idea of what to order or what we should be looking for as we could not work out what cuisine we were looking at, nor how to pronounce the name of any of the dishes, nor the name of the restaurant. I believe this helped us make a quick decision when it came time to order.

The highlight of the night was, besides eating what I can now safely say is delicious Chinese–Turkish, or Uyghur food, the trip to the bathroom. You get to walk through the kitchen while all the women in the family stare and smile and then into a room with many doors and no lights – kind of like a great smelling fun fair game. It took me a while to get out.

Tangritah Uyghur Shishkebab Restaurant is my new favourite eatery for summer 2011/12. Everything is right – the food, the price, the service, the décor, the atmosphere, and deceptively, even the vegetarian options. Try the milky stuff, ordered by the jug. You can’t go wrong.