NYCReview
Nargis Bar & Grill
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When you make the effort to leave your apartment for a meal, it can be tempting to choose a restaurant for more than just food. You ditched the Snuggie for real-people clothes and hit pause on your Black Mirror marathon. After going to such great lengths, you may want to go to a spot where getting a reservation requires more preparation than a cross-country bike trip, or a place with artfully presented avocado-stuffed avocados.
Or maybe you don’t care if getting a reservation is more difficult than getting into a good New York preschool, regardless of the fact that preschool is just sandboxes and nap time. If you replaced your slippers with shoes and watched the screensaver appear on your AppleTV because you simply want some good food, then check out Nargis. This Uzbek restaurant in Park Slope serves excellent food in a very casual setting.
The food, which has influences from Eastern Europe, the Middle-East, and East Asia, ranges from hummus to pumpkin-filled puff-pastries to spicy noodle soups with lamb. It’s all hearty, affordable, and the portions are large, so this is not the kind of place where you’ll need to search Google Maps for nearby pizza places while paying the check. Most of the dishes are worth ordering, and the lamb, beef, and chicken kebabs that’re cooked over a wood fire are excellent. If you’re a fan of high quality meat on a stick, which we sincerely hope that you are, these are some of the best you can find in the city.
Despite its prime Park Slope real estate, you’ll feel comfortable showing up at Nargis in gym clothes, or if you happen to leave your apartment still wearing those slippers. The food comes out extremely quickly, the paper placemats are decorated with maps of Russia, and the speakers play a heavy dose of Natasha Bedingfield. But, Nargis serves good food that will make you happy you ate here, and that’s the reason (we think) this place has been packed every time we’ve visited. People also probably realize that Black Mirror marathons cannot be good for the heart.