Cafe At Your Mother-in-Law

Delicious authentic food. It’s a small place with good food. The soups are greats. Definitely worth a try.

Awesome. If I lived locally, I’d be here frequently.
The service was impeccable. Our ticket didn’t tell us who was taking care of us and I’m afraid I forgot to ask, but the young man was attentive with a pleasant attitude, answered our questions very well, and brought everything to us quickly.
I came with a friend and my four-​year old after a long and fun but tiring day at Coney Island. Our server said lots of others come from Coney Island for the cold Korean soup, the Kuksu, one of their most popular summer items. Both my friend and I ordered this, and I am so glad I opted for the cold version (it comes either hot or cold). The cold version is not ice cold, but a little more cool than room temperature, and oh-​so refreshing. The flavors were spot on – delicious sweet and tangy pickles, lovely lightly pickled julienned carrots and cucumber and cabbage, a soft pile of egg noodles, and bite-​sized strips of beef, all atop thin, round noodles in a lightly sweet and lightly tangy broth. Soooo good. I could eat this all day, every day for months.
We also tried the Yug-​gadya soup, ordered in the shredded chicken version. The chicken broth was so warm and nourishing. I could have eaten that just as it was, but it came with a plate of sweet white onions and cilantro on the side, as well as a little condiment cup of a seasoned paprika paste, with which you can season the soup to taste. I dumped it all in and was not disappointed. It isn’t spicy-​hot, but it was still so good, and the fresh herbs were so inviting.
The kimchi was the spiciest item I tried, and it wasn’t too spicy, so if you’re a hot-​spicy fan, you’ll want to ask for something extra to kick it up a notch. But it was really cool, flavorful, and refreshing. The carrot salad was mildly spicy, as well, which balanced the sweetness of the carrots and the mild vinegar tang.
We tried a few appetizers, as well. The manti (I love manti) was tasty, with a simple onion and meat filling wrapped in a soft, dumpling-​style dough. The samsa appears to have the same filling, but with a more bread-​like, egg-​washed dough covering with tasty sesame seeds atop. The flat bread that came was just a bit tough – maybe because it was toward the end of the day? It seemed like it would be awesome super-​fresh. But all the appetizers came out quickly, and I would recommend them all for a tasty bite to nom on while waiting for your entrees.
The crazy, little desserts were awesome. Toss in some of those yummers – chah chahs – for a lightly sweet and honeyed end to your meal.

We went for lunch after going to the beach. We had a great kuksu soup and meat-​dumplings, the plov was tasty as well. Very friendly staff!
Super value for your money!

Oh, what a lovely café! The waiter was super nice! The food was delicious ! Fruit punch was too sweet for me, but my future mother in law loved it!!! They have lots of salads and soups! If you ever walking on Brighton beach– don’ waste your time in other places– get to the café at your mother in law!!! You would love it!

The food was okay. The salads are probably the best items. Overall there is better Uzbek food at nargis or 1001 nights but this is an okay place if you don’t have another choice.

A great local eatery. My boyfriend and I tend to explore and try different ethnic foods. Located in the bustling area of Brighton Beach, there are so many Uzbek and Russian restaurants. It’s difficult to really know what this restaurant is unless you know how to read their awning… It was quite busy on a lateSaturday afternoon (3pm). Customers were coming and going, seemed very popular. We ordered manti, hansu and braised cabbage.
This place could’ve gotten 5 stars but I was turned off because when the food arrived, it was warm (almost cold) and not hot. Our food seemed to take a really long time to come, compared to other customers who were seated and ordered after us. The manti’s look like xiaolongbaos, but were so different. The skin was more doughy and chewy and the filling was unlike asian dumplings. These were filling itself. The braised cabbage was fillied with meat and rice. This was so good. The sauce on top was tangy. Hansu is dough filled with shredded potato and also topped with the same sauce from the braised cabbage. Both these dishes were lacking excitement, like maybe some spice or pepper and salt.
It tasted very homecooked and was a hearty meal. I would come back again! I wish their menu was more descriptive so I know whats in each dish.

Ukrainian Borsh was good! it came with a big serving of bread. We also ordered the blini and folu.

The food tastes so good! I am going to put some effort to this review to show that I’m actually being honest, I found out about this place when my Asian friend wanted to eat korean food and stumbled upon this place, she was hesitant to come here and eat so I didn’t get to try it the first time I found out about this place. I decide to come back because their restaurant is friendly and the waitress is courteous, only I admit because of the Unilocal review too and the only korean food establishment around my block so I come back here and I order the lamb bread (i forgot what it call) and a Cold Kudzu Noodle during the summer dining in, it taste right, not too salty not too sweet either and the cold broth is just right for the summer. Anyway I think I’m horrible at writing a review, but anyone who’s a first time visitor should get the Kudzu Noodle cold. you won’t be disappointed.
p. s. I actually come back to other location and order the Kudzu noodle again as takeout.

interesting Uzbeck+ Korean food. loved the small dishes (price is by weight) that is reminisce of korean picked veggies — got the eggplant dish, noodle dish and definitely the carrot salad. The borscht was ok and the beef broth with noodles was tasty but we all hands down loved the pumpkin samsas– warm doughy pocket with pumpkin/​onion inside.

Small setting with very good food. We had the «make your own soup» and samsa. Best dish was spicy beef and rice… a revisit needed soon.

finally returned in summer and their cold salads so much better than ‘hot’ foods. we’d gotten manti and plov warm and the plov seemed fine but the manti had been microwaved (what is it about this post-​Soviet technology that makes the kitchen so enamored with microwaves?)…but the cold carrot salad and spicy eggplant salad (listed as hye or xe) were amazing. garlicky flavorful.
avoid the kompot… bright red icky and sticky. but must return for more cold salads.

For the microwave-​paranoids: relax. Dishes of the Uzbec kitchen are primarily slow cooked. It is an impossibility to serve this food cook-​to-​order. Besides, why would you want to? Flavors deepen with some standing time. Microwave is a tool; one needs to know proper usage.

Great little place! The food was good. Simply served but very tasty and very friendly staff!

It’s my first time here and I am baffled that this place doesn’t have 5 stars. The carrot and eggplant salads are SO fresh. Combined with their fluffy, flatbread, your tummy will be happy. YUM! The PLOV (fried rice with juicy marinated beef) was amazing melt in your mouth goodness.
I would leave Manhattan just to eat here and am bringing loved ones! Unwind at the beach then absolutely come here. The staff is super nice too, they are Korean family from Russia. :)

With a name like Elza Fancy Food, how can you go wrong?
Delicious and satisfying Eurasian cuisine — a tasty journey along the Silk Road with an unexpected detour to the Korean peninsula. I feel uncomfortable calling any food exotic, since it’s certainly no such thing for people from that part of the world. That being said, as a frequent eater and cook-​er of foods from around the world, this is the most exotic food I’ve eaten in recent memory — the flavors and combinations were really unexpected. Despite the unfamiliarity, the flavors were very approachable and homey. Most of the menu seems to me like casual food that someone’s grandma might whip up on Sunday afternoon, or maybe would appear at a streetside stall or night-​market. If you love Russian, Korean, Middle Eastern and Chinese foods, and thrill at the prospect of food incorporating elements from all those areas, you’re in luck.
We had lagman (like Uighur la mian) with veggies and mutton, kuksu which was a delicious, refreshing cold noodle soup with what seemed to be pickle juice in the broth (this was amazing and we could’ve ordered 2 gallons of it), and a few of the salads and a fresh crispy/​chewy flatbread. The salads were good representation of the cross cultural nature of this cuisine: some were like Korean banchan, some had Middle Eastern influences.
Note: the waitstaff we interacted with were courteous but seemed uncomfortable communicating in English, and the menu isn’t very descriptive (like, if you don’t know what kuksu or begodya is, the menu offers no additional explanation) so some advance research on their menu items is advisable if you want to make informed decisions. Otherwise, just point to whatever, and it will probably still be awesome.

The Korean eggplant salad ($ 5.59/ lb) and kuksu (cold noodle soup with thin egg omlette, cucumbers and beef strips) ($ 7.5) were the only recommendable dishes.
The pumpkin samsa ($ 3) was MOSTLY DICED ONION and hints of pumpkin and microwavable.
The korean beef soup w/​small white rice ($ 9.50!!) was such a rip off! Thin shreds of beef in a bowl of hot water and 6 – 8 cups of seasoning– salt, pepper, seasame seeds, brown powder for you to add. I don’t get why it is $ 9.50
Hanun, steamed sheets of dough with onions and potato, ($ 5.99) and 2 small meat loafs with small side order of instant potato mix ($ 5.99) were nothing amazing.
And kebabs were sold out… =(
I definitely had better food at my mother-in-law’s place!
Be aware– they charge a 10% service charge and tax, but they accept credit cards.

It is rare that I venture out to a restaurant while in Brighton Beach (since my grandma’s home cooking is THE BOMB), but when I do, I try to fly under the radar and choose a hole in the wall restaurant. Elza Fancy Food was everything we were looking for: a BYOB, tasty fusion food that incorporated flavors from the East, and reasonable prices. We really liked the pumpkin pastries, the korean eggplant salad, and the Manti dumplings. They let us get a little bit loud and rowdy, which I liked, and they didn’t rush us out of there at all, which I LOVED. This allowed us to have a great 2.5 hour meal, and set the tone for a great day.

Travel on the eastern fringes of the former Soviet Union, as I’ve had the fortune to do, you’ll come across some unusual signs written in the distinctive circle-​and-​lines of Korean.
Cities like Darkhan, Osh and Tashkent don’t have tons of international options, but there is Korean food. There are also Korean construction companies, Korean grocery stores and a smattering of Korean telecoms countries. You’ll also find surprising amounts of peninsular culture in Siberia and the Russian Far East, at far higher proportions than the population of the region should require.
Over years of conversations and sporadic research, it’s my understanding that there are two reasons. One are the strong cultural links between North Korea and the rest of the Soviet Union, including the presence of Koreans in what is now Northern China. Many studied in the Soviet Union and settled in what were once oblast or republic capitals. The other is the opportunities these countries — wedged in between the superpowers of China and Russia provide. Comparatively lawless and open, it’s easier for the Koreans to get rich in Astana than to penetrate the bureaucracy and family ties present in Beijing.
All of this helps to explain the story behind Café At Your Mother In Law, which has a name that at first glance seems as bizarre of the cuisine on offer. But both have a relatively straightforward explanation — the owners seek to serve the cuisine of their mother-​in-​law, a Korean woman who spent most of her life in Uzbekistan before heading to Brighton Beach.
The food reflects this journey. The Uzbek fare was excellent — squash samsa, manta with sour cream and fennel, and shashlik skewers. These are available elsewhere in the neighborhood but rarely prepare with such a steady hand and balance of flavor. Thankfully the grease that can muddle these dishes are absence here.
Unfortunately the couple of generations spent in the steppe seems to have dimmed the kitchen’s understand of what makes a good Korean dish. The spin on slices of meat is nothing close to proper bulgogi, while a soup is limp and lacking flavor.
The only place where there is true fusion are the salads, where the Koreans have had the most influence on Uzbek cuisine. Korean Carrot Salad is available all over the Steppe, so much so that it’s practically more Russian than Korean (). Here the Korean predilection for vinegar mixes with the Russian fondness for cold vegetables, and it seems that some day a true marriage between these two cuisines can be found.

WARNING: If you keep on hearing that beeping sound, it’s coming from the kitchen’s microwave!!!
Featured on SeriousEats (2013) and NY Times (2010), my friend and I came here for dinner to only be disappointed. We ordered their dumplings and pumpkin samsa as appetizers and their stuffed cabbage and spicy chicken wings as entrees. Thinking that the portion would suffice, we were nothing but wrong. Everything we ordered came in small portions including our entrée, which did not include any sides. For sides, they said there would be an extra charge.
For me, when a restaurant tries to cut every possible corner to save money or make money, it just drives me nuts especially when the food can not justify their price tag, quality or experience.
All the dishes we had were aweful. The worst criminal dish were their chicken wings which looks like pigeon size wings that tasted rubbery and old. Their wings look like it had been sitting in the freezer for months and is only then microwaved frozen to be resuscitated back to life.
Honestly I felt slides from this experience. Both my friend and I didn’t eat much of the food we ordered and had to fork over $ 35 for the bill while left completely unsatisfied and hungry!

I was skeptical at first when my friend suggested Korean and Uzbek fusion. But we all ended up loving the food! This is the perfect spot to grab a quick meal before or after the beach.
— Plov, a rice with beef dish. The rice was so flavorful!
— Kuksu, a cold noodle soup dish (hot available upon request). This is the perfect after-​beach dish. The broth and pickled cabbage is delicious!
— Lagam, a spicy beef noodle soup dish. The portion is small but the entire soup was bursting with flavor
— Manti, meat dumplings, I’m chinese so this wasn’t anything special
— Meat Samsa, beef bun, a little too much bread for me.
I can’t wait to come back the next time I visit Brighton Beach.

It was an ok experience. Was curious to see how a restaurant can be fusion of Uzbek food and korean. Ordered the kuksu which was korean styled cold noodles with assortment of pickled veggies and minced meat. And with a pitcher of fruit punch.
The fruit punch was very watery, not good at all was funny tasting. The cold bowl of noodles lacked flavor. Maybe I had to add some spicy top on it. It was not spicy at all. The noodles were a good amount. Def different then what I would have at a korean restaurant.