Beefeater Dostyk — Restaurant in Almaty

Beefeater has been on my list for a while because I wanted to try horse meat. They serve it steak-style, like in Western dishes, so I was really curious how it would taste. I ordered the horse steak tenderloin, cooked medium—between medium rare and medium well—and it was perfect. Still red and juicy. The meat was tender and clean, with no strong or weird smell. Honestly, I wouldn’t have known it was horse if no one told me.

The place is cozy, and the manager was super friendly. He explained how the steak would be cooked and helped me pick a glass of Argentinian wine, which was really good (and made me a bit tipsy!). I didn’t order any sides because I wanted to really focus on the flavor of the meat.

The price is decent, and overall it’s a great spot if you want to try something different and local. I’d...

It's supposedly one of the most well-known restaurants in Almaty but there are serious issues here, from the food to the service. I ordered an oxtail soup with a horse steak. I also wanted lemonade with my main course. The oxtail soup is not recommend at all. For 2990 tenge, you get a small bowl of vegetables in beef stock and a piece of oxtail, which was frozen. You have to wrestle with it to get the meat off, and there you realise that the core is super cold.

The horse steak was fine. I had the main course in about 10 minutes, and irrespective to my mentioning that I want the lemonade with my meal, no lemonade came. I eventually asked the waitress to cancel my order of...

Meat lover’s spot — Go if you are hungry for meat and committed to it. For instance, I ordered horse heart which was a dense, intensely flavored cut of meat, and oddly enough it was served on the same plate as a bunch of side vegetables. The horse heart ended up not to my liking, but it was only around $2-3 USD so an acceptable experiment. Padron peppers were fantastic, blackened but still tender inside and served with a thick lemon wedge. My main course was beef cheek which was fork-tender, served on a bed of creamy potatoes and odd but sort of enjoyable zig-zaggy coins of pickles. Service felt a bit distant, but perhaps that was due to the fact that they were closing for...