Kazakhstani Food Tour

Almaty is the most diverse city in the most diverse country in Central Asia, which means that its food scene is an unexpected mix of Kazakh, Caucasian, Korean, Slavic and Uighur cuisines — with a hearty addition of Soviet cafeteria fare! That makes it a lot of fun to sample the local menus, but it can also be intimidating (so much to choose from!) and confusing (what foods can we only try in Almaty?). 

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Luckily, we're here to introduce you to the local cuisine and order you some dishes you might not otherwise know to try. For Kazakh food, many will sample the horse meat pasta beshbarmak, but what about nauryz közhe, a yoghurt and barley soup? Korean restaurants are full of South Korean specialties these days, but we'll single out kuksi, a noodle dish that is beloved by the local Korean diaspora. Almaty is the Kazakhstani capital of laghman, or hand-pulled noodles, but laghman menus can offer twenty different kinds - we'll guide you to the tastiest options. 

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Best of all, this is a true food crawl so we'll be walking off all that food as we stroll from joint to joint. The Arbat neighborhood is famous for its Zhibek Zholy walking street, the center of street life and youth culture in Almaty, and all those crowds means a healthy concentration of edible goodness. Let's eat as much as we can - and take the leftovers to go!