With such a large Chinese population in Los Angeles centered in the San Gabriel Valley, you can usually count on the trends happening in Beijing and Shanghai to reach their way across the Pacific Ocean in short order. It is not always the people that are native to the regions of the food they offer that are creating new restaurants, but what is hot is always a quick route to good business. Whether it be dry hot pot from Sichuan or rice noodle soups from Yunnan and Guangxi, there will be chefs and proprietors that learn the trade and offer a worthy version in big Chinese cities and here in Los Angeles.
Dolan's Uyghur Cuisine is not that type of place, with owners putting their Turkic Central Asian ethnicity front and center. It could be assumed that if posed the question, they would say that this food is not possible without the proper people cooking. While technically part of China, Xinjiang province and its original peoples are much more like their neighbors to the east such as Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the root of all of what is going on there today. The name of the restaurant itself is the transliteration of the Uyghur word for the people and place, used proudly rather than the Chinese word Xinjiang.
Over a pot of Dolan's special tea ($7.95, above), typically served at the beginning of a meal in the beautiful set seen above, you will see the staff's shirts with "GOOGLE UYGHURS" written large on the front and "#closethecamps" on the back. This is a subtly unsubtle way to get people to see their side of the story without getting too standoff-ish in a neighborhood that could have other ideas. If you were not aware of what is going on and moved by the strong black tea infused with cardamom, you may heed the advice of their shirts while waiting for those first dishes to arrive and start Googling on your phone.
The physical menu itself is terrific, with big beautiful photos of everything the restaurant offers. Exactly one page of appetizers is in the front before about a dozen more that dive into large, mostly meaty plates of classic Uyghur dishes. As people from modern-day Xinjiang are almost exclusively Muslim, the restaurant is of course halal so expect a meal that focuses on lamb and beef and cuts out pork.
One of the (mostly cold) appetizers to try is the aptly named
cold noodle ($8.95, above), a big plate that could be a meal on its own. These are the thinnest noodles you will eat during a meal that will have many, chewy long strands swimming in chili oil and topped with shredded cucumber. Somewhere down in that oil is the hint of a numbing agent, and the dish slowly builds up heat as you eat more.
In a similar but not exact oily bath is the unique dish lighirdaq ($8.95, below), long rectangular sections of jelly made from bean starch. This also gets a fortification from chickpeas sprinkled generously over the plate, so even before taking a bite of meat you can relieve any starvation you came in with. Similar to a dish found throughout China known as liangfen and in the countries to the east as ashlan fu, start with the pieces of jelly at the bottom as to best use the soy-infused sauce.
If you have ever eaten at any Uzbek or other Central Asian spots, the most ubiquitous dish that people have familiarity with is probably laghman ($12.95, below), named for the thick chewy noodles that serve as the focal point. Often in other restaurants an order of laghman will bring a bowl of hearty soup, but Uyghurs typically enjoy laghman as a plate like served here at Dolan's.
The hand-pulled noodles are all of different thicknesses, a clear indication that they have been made here in the kitchen. Stir-fried onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, and mushrooms are placed on top along with delicious cuts of beef. Vegan diners should note that this dish is available meatless and the addition of extra noodles under their vegetables and special sauce.
Taking a break from noodles momentarily, find out the wonders that are coming from Dolan's ovens with an order of samsa ($11.95, above), beef-filled triangular pastries. The crumbs of these flaky delights will all need picked up and eaten as the bread might be even better than the savory meat and spices within, which is really saying something.
Make sure to come to the restaurant with at least a group of four so you can also try the Uyghur goshnaan ($16.75, below), an absolute beauty of a pie stuffed with beef and a bit of lamb. The spices inside have black pepper and plenty of onion, and eaten fresh from the oven the top and bottom layers are still crispy.
Big plate chicken ($18.95 small order bone-in, above) has been co-opted by the entire spectrum of Chinese restaurants serving many types of regional foods, but the origins of the dish are in Xinjiang province, if not specifically Uyghur. It is actually surprising that Dolan's chooses to use the Chinese translation of the dish rather than its Uyghur name of qong, although it is so beloved all the way to the Pacific coast that they probably wanted to make sure people would come in for it here.
You can get the dish boneless as well, but either way the chunks of chicken, potatoes, and peppers are loaded into the shape of a small hill and placed on top of wide homemade noodles. The whole plate has a shallow layer of gravy that consists of the drippings of everything after it has been stir-fried. The chicken is juicy and tender and needs no extra moisture, but that gravy is still delicious enough to spoon up and not let go to waste.
Another dish that has radiated out much further than Central Asia is plov and all its various forms throughout the former Soviet republics and South Asian countries. Each spot of course has its own way of making the dish, so it is worth trying the take here with an order of Uyghur polo ($13.95, above). You can get this made with chicken or beef, but most traditional is the version seen here served with lamb.
While just a few thin slices of the meat adorn the top, the rice itself is braised in the drippings of lamb along with carrots and onions. The whole thing is like an ode to how tasty lamb can be, with small sweet and tasty raisins mixed in for fun.
With a dusting of cumin, the fried naan with beef ($14.75, above) is one of the only "dry" dishes you can find on the menu. The naan itself seems baked for days and is as crunchy as a kettle chip, while the beef is still miraculously moist. You may also find onions and even a few crinkle cut fries in there, it all is a really satisfying dish.
If you can, do not pass up the opportunity for a plate of qordaq ($18.95, below) a dish of braised lamb that is a Uyghur representation of something found throughout Central Asia. It may be most prominent in Kyrgyzstan, where it is known as kuurdak, but it is also enjoyed in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan, where it usually includes the liver, kidney, heart, and lungs.
The tender lamb chunks and soft carrots are placed once again on wide handmade noodles and bathing in the gravy made from cooking. You can taste all the fats and oils from the meat as well as a touch of sweetness from the onions.
Dolan's has now been around for almost four years in Alhambra, but seems to be getting better and better as time passes. The San Gabriel Valley and everyone nearby is so fortunate that the relatively new restaurant survived the pandemic and has come out on the other side even stronger. The foods of Central Asia are not something that Los Angeles and nearby counties are blessed with much of, so Dolan's endurance in the future is something to be tended very carefully.
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