OshPaz, London W1: ‘Who doesn’t love a dumpling?’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

OshPaz, London W1: ‘Who doesn’t love a dumpling?’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

Few people in the UK know much about Uzbek lag-man, flaky samsy pastries and cream-drenched manty

Just off Piccadilly Circus, on Regent Street, two very different restaurants now sit within a few metres of each other. One is a new-ish all-day Uzbek street food joint OshPaz, where manty and plov are served by ladies in cute, traditional embroidered hats. The other, close by, is a branch of Pizza Hut. One early afternoon in late July, when the world and its grandmother needed lunch after going to see Eros, guess which one had a queue snaking out of the door and which one did not? Yes, clearly the former was Pizza Hut, with its £13.99 a head unlimited “buffet” bundle, complete with access to the “ice-cream factory” with freeflowing Mr Whippy and bubblegum sauce. OshPaz, by comparison, was delightfully underpopulated: walk-ins welcome, solo diners treasured. Bliss.

That’s not by any means a dig at any one who chooses to “hit the Hut” – pizza has its place, after all, especially if you need to feed the kids – but it’s also a reminder that Uzbek cuisine is not at all mainstream. This landlocked Central Asian country has 35 million inhabitants and a worldwide diaspora, but few people in the UK know much about lag-man, samsy pastries and cream-drenched manty. The latter’s lack of wider popularity is especially bewildering, because, well, who doesn’t love a dumpling? OshPaz’s manty have thin, wobbly skins holding beef, chicken or pumpkin seasoned with cumin and coriander. They’re wrapped into delicate, pretty, plump packages and steamed for 40 or so minutes, until they’re ready to serve with carrot salad, soured cream and, if you like, chilli oil.

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