Restaurants and Food in Zhez

So how did we find the food, and what did we eat?
In general, I would say we struggled a bit for a while trying to figure out what we liked, what worked for us. Food here struck us as more oily or heavier in fat. We never really got sick (never used the immodium AD or the stronger stuff we brought), though have to admit for a few weeks we were both a bit out of sorts. We did give up on the semolina (like cream of wheat hot cereal) finally, and stuck with pancakes (crepes), toast, yogurt and that seemed to help us; we thought perhaps the hot cereal was made with milk. Coffee was not a problem – there was always coffee available at breakfast; we like coffee, but have no issue with drinking Nescafe so we were just fine. For lunch and dinner, again the same comment about items being more oily than what we are used to would hold true. Lettuce salads were not available, and it took a few tries at different restaurants to determine what salads and sides we liked and had less or no oil. We ate quite a few ‘greek salads’, which typically was cucumber, tomatoes, cheese and sometimes green pepper; many salads had meat in them, though there were always some without so it was fine. Most places entrée orders were ‘ala carte’ style, in that you would order a meat dish, potato or rice and vegetable (hard to find actually) separately. Pelmeni was available most places, as was “shishlick” (these are meat kabobs, awesome. It was spring/summer when we traveled.)

While tomatoes and cucumbers – and other vegetables – were quite available, they were expensive in the markets. Also got the sense that vegetables were just not that popular; most of the menus we saw appeared, to our understanding, to be heavily Russian influenced. We did not see much of what we thought of as Kazakh food on the menu; there were a few places where one could order ahead on a few more ‘specialty’ type dishes, though we never did.

Wine was pretty expensive (had trouble finding something we liked for a reasonable price) but we found a very nice selection of beers available. Tien Shan, Karaganda, Baltica (this was interesting – available in different strengths, 0 being w/o alcohol and up through 9 or 10, 3 appeared to be the most commonly available) were what we had much of the time.

Dining in restaurants is not typically what local people do here. I think many people here have the impression that Americans only eat out – that we don’t cook. (I had told several people that I miss cooking/being in the kitchen, and they were somewhat surprised.)

Vegetarians would have a problem here, I would think. In fact, people always ask whether we eat meat (another generalization about Americans?) They are proud of the fact that they eat meat.


777 (indoor) and Green Café (outdoor) - English menu available
Same menu at both indoor and outdoor, with the addition of getting Shishlick when the outdoor was open. We definitely enjoyed the food here; wait staff was very pleasant, there was always someone who could speak some English. Very friendly, comfortable place! Inside, was very nice and they really put some time in to making it a ‘dining experience’ – it started with candle light at the table, music and low lights. Pleasant, friendly and well trained staff. Outdoor is nice atmosphere as well, with ivy’s growing up the walls, sturdy wood tables and seating, etc.

Robinzons- English menu available
This place has two inside dining areas – the upstairs is ‘island’ themed, the lower level is more pub like and has a shipboard feel. During the summer they also open their outdoor and have a tent with an Oktoberfest feel to it. Enjoyable place, food was consistently good; shisklick available in the outdoor location, very good (and nice ‘Shisklick chef’, would always shake our hand when we came in).

(this is a picture of their outdoor place, open during the summer)

A “Korean restaurant” (sorry, we don’t know the name)
We were only here once; food was nicely prepared. DH had something that sounded like ‘cooksie’ and it was very good. I wasn’t fond of what I ordered, but I don’t fault the restaurant for that. No English menu, so we only were here with our translator; intended to go back on our own and try to order ‘cooksie’ but never got the chance.

Renaissance- English menu available
A medieval theme to the interior; we always ordered pizza here, which we thought was pretty good!

“Shishlick places” – two additional places to recommend(it was very good at Green Café and Robinzons), don’t know their names, no English menus, a bit more of an adventure J
- place right down the street from the ‘Dana Market’, across from where the open markets are located. A “street side” seating area was where you would walk in, there were blue awnings and striped awnings, as I recall. Struck us as a pretty local place; not much atmosphere, not fancy (ok, I was cautious about using the bathroom here) but great shisklick. Our translator took us here our first full day in town.
- Also tried a place on the corner of the street the markets were on and the road you’d take out to the Samsung (al shahana street, I think). Nice inside, comfortable, sometimes looked like they served outside as well.

Hotel restaurants
- All the hotels we stayed at had a restaurant, so this is typically where we ate breakfast – as I think about it now, I don’t think other restaurants were open for breakfast. Food was generally fine/decent, though selection was typically somewhat limited. Toast, yogurt, pancakes (crepes) and coffee is what we usually had.