Encino Russian Restaurant for $18 Pelmeni and Plov: EuroAsia

EuroAsia Restaurant, at 17209 Ventura Boulevard in Encino, is a Russian restaurant with a second identity: half the menu is Russian and Ukrainian, the other half comes from Uzbekistan, and the bread is baked in a clay tandoor on the premises. A bowl of borsch is $9, beef or chicken pelmeni are $18, and Uzbek plov is $20. The dining room serves from noon Tuesday through Sunday and stays dark on Mondays.

The restaurant spells out its own name on its website. Europe stands for the Russian and Ukrainian cooking, Asia for the Central Asian side, and the kitchen treats both as equals. The chef comes from Uzbekistan, and the staff speak Russian, Uzbek, Azerbaijani, Ukrainian and Tatar between them. The team says it has worked together since 2011, which explains the easy rhythm between the floor and the kitchen.

EuroAsia sits in Plaza De Oro, a low shopping center on the busy Encino stretch of Ventura Boulevard. From the street it looks like any Valley strip-mall restaurant. Behind it there is a parking lot, which is the entrance most regulars use, and a patio with a small fountain where Russian songs play quietly through the speakers. On a warm evening the patio is the table to ask for.

Every order arrives with Tashkent non, the round, stamped Uzbek flatbread, baked in the restaurant's own tandoor oven. It comes to the table warm, and extra rounds cost $4. Tear it into the soup rather than ordering a side, because it is the best thing on the table that you do not pay for. Somsa, the triangular tandoor pastries filled with beef and lamb, are $5 each and make a sensible starter for one.

The Russian starters are classic party-table food. Lightly salted herring with boiled or fried potatoes is $14, kholodets, the beef in aspic that every Soviet New Year table carried, is $18, and the Olivie potato salad is $14. The Tashkent salad, $17, is the Uzbek answer to Olivie, made with daikon radish, beef tongue and fried onions. Order one Russian and one Uzbek starter and compare.

This is the place to taste the difference between Russian and Central Asian dumplings in a single meal. Pelmeni, the small Russian kind served with sour cream, are $18 with beef or chicken. Manti, the large steamed Uzbek dumplings stuffed with lamb and beef, are $20. Khanum, a rolled sheet of thin dough layered with potato and meat and served with vegetable sauce, is also $20 and feeds two as a starter.

The honest call: if you only order one dumpling dish, make it the manti. Pelmeni are easy to find across Los Angeles, but steamed Uzbek manti made by a chef from Uzbekistan are not. The vareniki with potato, $18 with fried onions, are good comfort food but can be skipped when the table is small. Chebureki, three fried meat turnovers for $15, are better as a takeaway snack.

Ukrainian borsch, made with beef or as a vegetarian version, is the cheapest bowl on the menu at $9. Georgian kharcho, a lamb and rice soup, and uha, the clear Russian fish soup, are $12 each. Among the mains, plov is the dish the kitchen is proudest of: rice cooked in a seasoned zirvak broth with beef and carrots, $20. Beef stroganoff is $23, a fair price for the Valley.

For something grilled, the sturgeon kebab with pomegranate sauce is $27 and is the plate to share at a bigger table. Chicken tabaka, a whole pan-fried Cornish hen brushed with garlic, is $25. The braised rabbit in sour cream sauce, $25, is the old-fashioned Russian dish that few restaurants still cook. Skip the ahi tuna salad and grilled salmon; they are fine, but they are not why people drive here.

The drinks list is short. Kvass comes by the can for $5, and mors or kompot is $6 a glass or $15 for a 60-ounce pitcher, the better buy for four. A shot of the house pepper vodka, Pertsovka, costs $7. Note that an 18 percent service charge is added to every bill, so leave the tip line alone unless the service went beyond the usual.

Recent Google reviewers read like repeat guests who know exactly what to order. One wrote a month ago about pairing a dark rye-bread kvass with fruit punch at lunch. Another, two months ago, described the food as hit and miss, which matches the menu: stick to the Uzbek dishes and Russian staples. EuroAsia takes reservations, offers pickup and caters events, with separate banquet and brunch menus.

Weekday lunches between noon and 2pm are the quietest time, with easy parking at the back. Friday and Saturday evenings are busiest, when the kitchen runs until 10pm and family groups take the long tables. On a Monday, when EuroAsia is closed, Kalinka in Glendale serves pelmeni and borscht every day of the week.

Traktir's Valley branch is a short drive west on Ventura Boulevard in Tarzana and has a bigger patio and a longer vodka list, though it opens only in the late afternoon midweek. After dinner, Los Encinos State Historic Park is a few minutes away, with its spring-fed pond and nineteenth-century adobe. The Japanese Garden in the Sepulveda Basin is the other easy stop for a slow walk before the freeway.

EuroAsia Restaurant, 17209 Ventura Blvd, Encino, CA 91316, in Plaza De Oro with parking at the rear. Hours: Tuesday to Thursday noon to 9pm, Friday and Saturday noon to 10pm, Sunday noon to 9pm, closed Monday. Prices: borsch $9, pelmeni $18, manti $20, plov $20, beef stroganoff $23, chicken tabaka $25, extra bread $4. An 18 percent service charge is added. Ask Karpo in the Karpo APP to plan a Valley dinner nearby.