Oasis Cafe — Restaurant in New York

We had a fascinating meal with friends who are Ukrainian and Russian. They did all the ordering by text in Russian with instructions to show the text to the waiter, before they arrived so we didn't have much of idea of what we were getting.

We did put the text into Google translate, but that only provided a vague idea of what we were getting. I added cheese dumplings to their order because I was curious about them. They order two delicious soups for us to taste. One was a clear broth with lamb and veggies that was more tart.

The other was tomato base with noodles. I think that's the lagman.

They got they ordered steamed manti: four large lamb filled dumplings. Nice tender dough and tasty filling with lots of onions. Also a couple of baked meat pie in a laminated dough similar to an empanada. We had so much food that we took these home.

They ordered a pilaf with beef and a typical Uzbek bread that is cooked in a tandoor oven.

They ordered 3 kinds of shish-kabob: chicken, beef, and lamb. They were all good but my favorite was the seasoned ground lamb skinless sausage looking ones.

The restaurant doesn't serve alcohol. We had compote which is a drink that is made by boiling fruits with a bit of sugar and water. It was nice not too sweet.

The cottage cheese were sweet. They were the size of pelmeni but with a smooth cheese filling similar to a blintz. I also took these home and enjoyed them immensely with sour cream and poached cherries.

The staff was very hospitable and efficient. And they were very patient with us since we didn't speak Russian. It seemed that most of the other...

I ordered food on July 5th, fully aware that this is typically a slower week for restaurants — meaning less pressure, fewer orders, and more time to get things right. Unfortunately, that was not the case here.

I spent $124, and honestly, I regret every dollar. • Plov ($13.50): Complete garbage. It smelled off — like it was already spoiled. Absolutely inedible. • Samsa ($4.00): Tasted like it had been sitting around for at least three days. Dry, stale, and unappetizing. Another one straight to the trash. • Cheburek ($5.00): Extremely old, soaked in oil, and just plain gross. No crispiness, no flavor, just a greasy mess. • Salad Tashkent ($14.35): this is the most tasteless salad I have ever tasted. Straight to garbage. • Manti ($11.95) the same old crap. • Shish kebab was okay or at least not from a week ago.

You used to be so much better. The food was fresh, flavorful, and worth recommending. I don’t know what changed, but this was beyond disappointing — it felt like I was scammed.

This wasn’t just disappointing — it felt careless and borderline unsafe. Serving spoiled or days-old food is not just unprofessional, it’s...

Unfortunately, our experience at this restaurant was disappointing. The first waiter’s attitude was arrogant and dismissive. Simply asking if the meat could be rinsed due to a food allergy was treated as an absurd request, which is both unprofessional and insensitive to customers with dietary restrictions.

Eventually, they sent over a different waiter, which helped, but the damage was already done. We spent nearly $200 and ordered at least five salads — none of which had enough lime. When we politely asked for extra lime, we were charged each time.

I have never seen that in any other restaurant — charging multiple times for something as basic as lime, especially when it’s for salads we already ordered, is unreasonable. It sends a message that the focus is on squeezing extra money from customers rather than providing good service.

Overall, we left feeling disappointed and disrespected. It’s a shame, because the place has potential, but experiences like this make customers not...