Eerkin's Uyghur Cuisine

Food was good but a bit spicy.

And decent halal restaurants are finally creeping into DC proper... This is a completely halal Uyghur restaurant serving kebabs, laghman (hand-pulled noodles), pulao (rice), and other dishes that sounds vaguely familiar yet foreign. There\'s plenty of seating in the bright, cheery upstairs seating area, and parties of probably up to 15 or so can probably be accomodated. It\'s genuinely a tea bar, this alcohol-free establishment should rock the nearby quasi-halal Uyghur restaurants poisoning the populace. Parking is tight in Georgetown so bring the beater and leave the 2015 Mercedes-Benz E63S AMG Wagon (POWERWAGONS!) at home. Try the star of the show laghman (~$13-15 -- chewy, thick, hand-pulled noodles) served with vegetables and whatever meat -- the noodles are distinctive as is the taste of star anise in the sauce. The shrimp, lamb, chicken, fish (one at a time) kababs ($3-$15) are juicy but may be a bit bland for some palates. The samsa ($6 for 2) are flaky buns with seasoned fried ground beef and are worth trying for those who like samosas. In case you weren\'t aware, the Muslim Uyghur people live on the periphery of the Muslim world in the Xinjiang region of western China bordering Pakistan. They are heavily persecuted by the government of China in its pursuit of erasing Islam and deserve support in their struggle.