Caravan Uyghur Cuisine

This is a gem of a restaurant and a rare find. We really enjoyed our meal and the vibe at this spot. The freshness and succulence of the tannour roasted lamb, samsa, and polo were awesome. The mix salad went really well with both.

Hole in the wall, staff wasn't as welcoming, almost everything I tried to order was not available. The noodles I went with were pretty good though.

There are NO quick bites here. Around 1:50pm We paid the premium on GrubHub for pickup because no one picked up our call and we were determined to try this place after talking about it for so long. We were told to order ahead. So why the three stars? It 's actually a stretch. We went to the restaurant to pick up at the high end of the pickup window which was 40 minutes. They hadn 't even started yet! Small kitchen, mom and pop, but they told us they were busy and pointed to the 3 customers in the restaurant. I don 't know what the online orders were like, but when you end up waiting over an hour, i guess we should have expected the no can do response on trying to add on a cucumber salad. Anyway I thought the food smelled nice and tasted fine. I 've never had Uygher so I had no expectations or even know what it 's supposed to taste like, so i will just say it was fine.

The food was quite tasty and the portions were reasonable. But the service was very slow. The restaurant itself can be hard to find, and is on the back side of the 200 Water Street building, on Pearl Street. We ordered at the counter and it wasn't clear if we had a server. It's relatively new so maybe they need to work out the kinks. But I would come back for the food though.

Even though the Uyghur population is estimated to be over 12 million, it's surprising that there are few restaurants here in New York, the most global of all cities, that feature its cuisine. Located near the Seaport, Caravan is the first Uyghur restaurant to open in Manhattan, and it's a humble, family-operated affair. Lamb features prominently on the menu, and the braised lamb on naan proved to be a super-hearty entrée. The lamb was served bone-in, which made for a bit of a mess coming out of a takeout container, but when combined with veggies and the naan, made for a tender mix of textures and tastes. If you find bone-in meats messy too, then not to worry: they offer plenty of meats in kebab form, plus plenty of noodle dishes. Note: it's best to call ahead for a number of reasons: 1) to make sure they're open, as their hours can be inconsistent; 2) to see if there's a significant wait if you're in a rush for takeout or delivery; and 3) to ask if the dishes you want have bones in them, if that's a concern.