State of play: Located in a strip mall off U.S. 401 on the edge of Garner and Raleigh, the Uzbek restaurant Karavan can be hard to spot at first.
That's because the restaurant shares its space with a pizza place called 3 Olives. Enter the front door, and you'll be handed two menus: one for pizza and subs and the other a dispatch from the steppes of Central Asia.
Zoom in: Today we're choosing the central Asian experience and a menu both dominated by traditional Uzbek meals — heavy on grilled meats and dumplings — and a confluence of dishes from the former Soviet Union, like khachapuri from Georgia and the Ukrainian soup borscht.
What we got: I leaned heavily on the menu's encouragement to order plov — Uzbekistan's national dish — which combines a bounty of rice strewn withsweet carrots, tender lamb, chickpeas and raisins.
The dish is an excellent harmony of sweet and savory.
On the side we got manti, a delicious central Asian take on dumplings that can be fried and steamed.
And for dessert: we went with medovic, a Russian honey cake made of stacked layers of sponge cake, honey and condensed milk or sour cream. It has the texture of tiramisu but with a caramel sweetness.
📍 Location: 1493 Garner Station Blvd.
🗣️ Let us know which hidden gem we should go to next.
On the left, Karvan's plov. On the right, the manti dumplings. Photo: Zachery Eanes/Axios