12 Best Restaurants in Brighton Beach, New York City

Try Uyghur cuisine, from the autonomous region of Xinjiang in northwestern China, at this relaxed café. Decorated with tchotchkes and paintings of the Uyghur people—residents along the Great Silk Road that once linked the East with the West—Kashkar serves dishes reflective of the crossroads of Chinese and Arab influences, including manty (spiced lamb dumplings), and Uyghur lagman (noodles with meat and vegetables). The few Uzbek dishes from the historic Central Asian thoroughfare are on the menu as well, including assorted halal shish kebabs. Alcohol isn't on the menu, but you're welcome to bring your own wine or beer.

This little shop on a side street has some pretty fascinating grocery products—pickles, dried persimmons, walnut-based satsivi sauce, and frozen khinkali (Georgian handheld dumplings)—but the real draw is the prepared food counter. Go for the khachapuri, the beloved Georgian cheese-filled bread that varies by region, or the Georgian-style chicken shawarma. There's no seating here, so be prepared to take your hot snack to the beach, or more likely, to eat it while walking, since you won't be able to resist digging in.

There are two prime times at Tatiana's: day and night, in two venues. Sitting at a boardwalk table on a summer afternoon at Tatiana Grill, enjoying ocean breezes while eating lunch alfresco, is a quintessential Brighton Beach experience. Nighttime is a more exuberant affair, especially when nearby Tatiana Restaurant and Night Club hosts an extravagant old school Vegas-like floor show, with dancing, costumes, and acrobatics. The menu has a bit of everything, spanning the regions of the former Soviet Union, including the sweet and savory vareniki, a pierogi-like dumpling from Ukraine, and pelmeni, small dumplings of pork and veal, hailing from Siberia. There's also staples like herring, and of course, caviar. Vodka can be ordered by the bottle.