When a man dressed in a costume or some traditional garb tries to hand me a restaurant menu in Midtown, I usually avert my eyes and try to make it past him without embarrassing either of us. Well, today I not only took the guy’s menu, I actually went up the stairs to try the food he was shamelessly hawking. Granted, one of his menu items was on my list otherwise I probably would have kept walking.
The list item was the Lagman (which I will get to a minute) and the restaurant was Taam-Tov, a glatt kosher restaurant specializing in Bukharan cuisine. Bukharan has influences from Russia, Persia, and the Middle East. This is not your grandfather’s Jewish restaurant (unless your grandfather was of Bukharan descent). This little spot is hidden on the third floor in a narrow building amidst the hubbub of the Diamond District.
Once upstairs, you feel like you’ve been transported to another country. But everybody (from the Hasidic Jews to the Russian diamond dealers) is here to enjoy the affordable and well-prepared (the cooking is overseen by a rabbi) food.
The easiest dish for us to decide on was the aforementioned lagman. This is a soup with Asian noodles, beef, and a slew of vegetables (I recognized celery, carrots, potatoes, and onions). So the Persian influence really comes out here. The flavors reminded me of mild Asian food. It was a savory, but slightly sour broth with hearty beef flavors and fragrant spices (cilantro, for sure). It was unique for kosher food (at least the kosher food I’ve had), but the flavors were all rather mild (which is my big complaint with most kosher food). The soup was definitely warming and filling, but nothing special.
The lepeshka bread on the other hand was really a stand out. Firstly, it was massive (I think they gave us an entire loaf) and was warm, soft, tender, and slightly sweet. It didn’t need butter or the tasty baba ganoush we used. It was perfect on its own. It’s so funny when I find a different dish at these places that I would put on my own list. Time Out was at least partly right.
We left pretty full and spent about 10 bucks each. And we got to try some unique and warming food without any Jewish guilt. If they’re all this good, I may start seeking out those silly guys in costumes to find me another cheap, delicious midtown lunch.
Would Taam-Tov’s Lagman make my Top 100 of the year? The soup was tasty and unique for what I expected (even though the flavors were rather muted) so it gets a 7out of 10.
