Russian Restaurant Menu in an Uzbek Teahouse: Chayhana Oasis

Chayhana Oasis, at 250 Sunny Isles Boulevard in Sunny Isles Beach, is an Uzbek teahouse first, but it is also one of the few places in Miami-Dade where a Russian restaurant order still works: its own menu lists pelmeni as Russian beef dumplings for $16, Russian blintzes for $11 and borscht for $12. The dining room is open from noon to 11pm every day, and the kitchen takes its last orders at 10pm.

Chayhana is the Uzbek word for teahouse, and this one is run by the Fayziev family. In a 2016 interview with Miami New Times, Furkat Fayziev explained that the current location opened in 2012, after the landlord of a nearby hotel declined to renew the lease on an earlier Chayhana. His mother, Kamila Fayzieva, cooked many of the recipes before and after the family left Uzbekistan for America in 2003.

The same article explained why the menu reads like a map of the old Soviet Union. Modern Uzbekistan was once part of Persia, was later conquered by Genghis Khan and sat on the Silk Road, and then came the Russians and the Soviets, who left behind dumplings, soups and salads. That history is why a plate of plov and a bowl of borscht can sit side by side here without anyone at the table finding it strange.

The restaurant is easy to drive past. New Times described a mural of a desert under a floating pair of eyes as the only sign outside, with access from just one side of NE 163rd Street, the road that becomes Sunny Isles Boulevard. Inside is the opposite of the plain exterior: heavy carved wooden doors, sparkling archways, mosaic scenes of medieval life and tables dressed in gold cloth across a room of about 130 seats.

Start with what the menu itself labels Russian. Pelmeni, $16, are beef dumplings boiled and served with sour cream. Russian blintzes, $11, are crepes filled with a choice of meat, mushrooms and onions, or cottage cheese, and the mushroom version is the one to pick. Borscht is $12, solyanka with mixed meats, olives, capers and pickles is $13, and cold okroshka with cucumbers and potato is $11.

Olivier salad is here too, at $19, made with diced beef rather than bologna. It is good, but $19 is steep for potato salad, and a few miles north Kalinka Euro Deli sells Olivier from $5.99. Spend that money on the Uzbek dishes instead, which are what the kitchen does best and what you will not find at a Russian deli counter.

Pilaf, the Uzbek national dish of rice, carrots and lamb, is $19 and the plate to build a dinner around. Manty, large steamed dumplings with chopped lamb and onions, are $20, or $19 with pumpkin. Hanum, rolled dough layered with potato and carrot, is $18. Lagman, the hand-pulled noodle soup, is $14, while kovurma lagman, the same noodles stir-fried with beef and vegetables, is $19.

Some dishes take a while. In 2016 New Times reported that the manty took 45 minutes to prepare and advised ordering them as soon as you sit down. Do the same with the kazan kebab, lamb chops and potatoes roasted in a kazan for $38, which feeds two or three. While you wait, a $5 bread and a $7 lamb or beef samsa from the oven fill the gap. Cheburek, $8, is served at lunch only.

Two more plates show how far the menu travels. Mashkhurda, $14, is an Uzbek soup of beef, rice and tomato, which New Times found substantial enough to serve as a full meal once the tangy house yogurt sauce is stirred in. Sliced beef tongue, $18, is the Eastern European cold starter; in 2016 it came with grated horseradish tinted with red wine, the right sharp partner for the rich meat.

The shish kebab list is long and fairly priced. Lamb and lamb ribs are $23 each, lula of ground lamb is $21, chicken is $21 and liver is $20. Chicken tabaka, a whole Cornish hen pressed flat and grilled in a screw press pan, is $22, which makes it the best-value grilled main here. Branzino is $38, but the Gijduvan fish, deep-fried the way it is cooked in Bukhara, is $19.

A pot of black or green tea is $7 and is the drink to order in a teahouse. Kvas and compote are $4 a glass or $14 a pitcher, and tarkhun, the green tarragon soda, is $14. For dessert, honey cake is $10 and Napolean, spelled that way on the menu, is $12. Skip the chocolate fondant; it is the one dessert that has nothing to do with the rest of the menu.

Lunch on a weekday is the quietest time. If Chayhana is full, Baku Cafe on Collins Avenue serves borscht, vareniki and stroganoff in a chandelier-lit room nearby, and Kalinka Euro Deli is the quick option for dumplings to take away.

Sunny Isles Boulevard runs east from the Intracoastal Waterway to the ocean, so a short walk or drive after dinner brings you to the beach. To the west, across the bridge, Oleta River State Park offers mangrove paddling and shaded trails along Biscayne Bay. On a weekend, a morning at Oleta followed by a late plov lunch at Chayhana makes an easy day in northern Miami-Dade.

Chayhana Oasis, 250 Sunny Isles Blvd, Sunny Isles Beach, FL 33160. Hours: daily noon to 11pm, kitchen closes at 10pm. Reservations online or by phone; gift cards available. Prices: pelmeni $16, Russian blintzes $11, borscht $12, solyanka $13, pilaf $19, manty $20, chicken tabaka $22, honey cake $10, kvas $4 a glass. Ask Karpo in the Karpo APP to plan a plov dinner in Sunny Isles.