Revisiting the Uzbekistan restaurant in Daegu

In March, craving some European food I tried out the Samarkand, an Uzbekistan restaurant found in the downtown area of Daegu. At the time I thought the food was OK but nothing special but put some of the blame down to the food I chose as not particularly Russian/Uzbekistani - even though I know nothing about that cuisine. But I loved the beer, which was cheap, plentiful and strong. I don't know if the Daegu Samarkand is connected with the Samarkand in Seoul but I read some decent reviews of that recently.


I decided to check it out again a few weeks ago but was a bit disappointed. The portions were smaller than before, for example last time I got the dumplings and there were five, this time there were only three, but the price was the same. The food again was OK but not what I would call good but I did enjoy eating some lamb which is hard to get in Daegu. The service on the day was poor. My wife and I were were the only customers in the place but food arrived slowly and one of my orders arrived over an hour after I ordered. The sauces given as accompaniment were not what I expected, ketchup and spaghetti sauce - I watched the woman pour it from a bottle of Prego sauce.


On reflection I don't think I would go there to get food again. The items I chose were no better than first time round which suggests that it was not a bad choice before, but simply not so great food. However, it is worth a try if you are up for a change of scenery and want to try something different. I recommend getting a beer or two as it will make the wait for your order go by more quickly. Even more worthwhile are the entertainment programs shown on the big screen. The singers on the shows have to be seen to be believed.

How to get 5% free

Today I bought some triangle gimbap (small triangle shaped rice filled with assorted ingredients in the middle and wrapped in seaweed) at a local convenience store. After buying the food I was given two orange drinks as service. It started me thinking about how many free things I've got from stores in Korea


Service is very common in Korea when you buy things from a shop or a restaurant especially if you are a regular or a high spending customer. 'Service' means something else extra for free, like a gift. If you go to a supermarket here you can always find products taped to other things bundled as service. Such things don't seem to happen much in the UK. Promotions and sales happen a lot but I don't remember getting many free things.


On closer inspection, and taste, my free juice is only 5% juice and 95% water and flavouring. My co-worker said, 5% is better than 0%. Depends on what the 95% is I guess.