Baku food : What did I eat in Azerbaijan?

Azerbaijani food has a lot of Middle Eastern influence, and a lot of dishes are variations of those you get in the Middle East.
There were a few good local restaurants I visited, and a few others too. I'm going to talk about all of these in this post. 
The name of the dishes may be a bit different in Azeri (language), and some might just be a translation / description of the dish. You can click on the name of the restaurant to get the exact location.

•  Burc Qala [well known for Azeri cuisine]:-

This is located in the heart of the city - Icheri Shehr (which means Old City). While walking through the old forts in this area, we came across this restaurant. The interiors feel really traditional. Also, a lot of shades of red are used. Here, I had the qutab, which is a very famous local dish; more of a snack. It is made from thinly rolled dough, and has filling inside. It usually has two variants - minced meat, and mixed greens. I had both and they were delicious. Both felt really light; the one with the greens also felt healthy. It is somewhat similar to the paratha that you get in India, but the dough is even thinner.
Azerbaijan has a strong tea culture, and I also had some tea here. It was brought in an artistic tea-pot, and contained about 5-6 cups of tea. 

• Zeytun [well known for Azeri cuisine]:-

This restaurant is located in the Park Bulvar Mall, and has one of the best views of the Baku Boulevard. You get a lovely panoramic view and is a good spot to take pictures. I went here on the last day of my visit, and I have fond memories of this place. 
I had seen this dish called "Chicken on Saj" at many different places in the country, and was really curious by now, so I ordered it. This dish was pricey compared to the other dishes. I wondered why...until the waiter got it. It was huge; 2-3 people could have it. I was with a few of my local friends, and they didn't tell me this, assuming I was just very hungry. Also, staying in the UAE, I know that Saj is a type of flatbread, but a little research tell me that Saj is basically the pan on which the bread is made, and hence the bread is so called. So basically this dish that I ordered was "chicken on a pan" and that's why the quantity was huge. 
The dish looked really tempting, and the best part is that the waiter prepared it for me at the table. He first took the Saj (this time it is the bread), put some chicken on it, then put the grilled vegetables, and served it on a plate. This tasted really good. The chicken as well as the vegetables were flavorful.

A post shared by Famished Explorer [ UDIT ] (@uditss) on Nov 18, 2017 at 7:53am PST

We also had another dish which was chicken with rice. It was a tangy, tomato-flavored chicken along with rice. I really liked this one too. It tasted a bit Spanish. 

I also had Laban here, which is the word for buttermilk.

• 360 bar [known for the views]:

This is located on the 25th floor of Hilton Baku, and offers panoramic views of the whole city. The best part? It is a revolving restaurant. If you're just looking to relax over a drink or two and enjoy the views, this is a very good place. The place is dimly lit, and feels very calm. I had a beer and some burgers which were okay. The beer is about 50% expensive than compared to a regular restaurant, but is worth for the views. Sadly, the viewing glass of this bar isn't that clean, and so clicking some good photos was difficult. 

• Fisincan restaurant [cuisine: Azeri]:

This one was located in a pathway and I saw it while I was coming from the Fountain square to my hotel; I hadn't planned to go there as such. It has some seating inside, and some outside too. It was mainly the seating that caught my attention. It has got a lot of plants and flower pots and give you the feel of nature. You can also see the people walk by. I had a lamhacun there. Lamhacun is another word for manae'esh. It was with meat, and it had a lot of Parsley on top, which I really love. I also had a beer there - the Xirdalan, which is one of the famous beer in the region. 

A post shared by Famished Explorer [ UDIT ] (@uditss) on Oct 8, 2017 at 5:59am PDT

• Tea Place:

I don't remember the name of this restaurant but it was near Sadaf and it only served tea. We were walking here in the afternoon and were famished so decided to step in. The waiter bought us some Tea and a lot of accompaniments. Azerbaijan has a strong tea culture as I've mentioned previously. So when they got the tea, they also got some lemon slices, dry fruits, a chocolate bar, and this delicious sweet popular in this region. This sweet is know as the pakhlava. It is made from filo dough and has nuts inside. It is similar to the ones you get in the UAE, but a bit more dense, and has some more sugar syrup in it.  
We were done with the tea, and were looking for something substantial. They only served tea, and nothing else (this is when we went to Sadaf). The full tea set cost us around AZN 10 which is a bit pricey by Azeri standards. 

A post shared by Famished Explorer [ UDIT ] (@uditss) on Oct 10, 2017 at 7:09am PDT

• Sadaf [well known for Azeri cuisine]:

I had read about this restaurant before visiting Azerbaijan. This restaurant is located in Mini Venice itself, and after you see the surroundings, you can't help but want to go and have a meal there. They have seating on the ground floor as well as the first floor. We sat on the first floor form where we could get lovely views of Mini Venice and see the gondolas from time to time. We started with a lentil soup which was good. I tried a local lamb dish. If I remember correctly, it was called the "Choban style roasted lamb". It had pieces of lamb along with different vegetables. It tasted alright.  We also had the potato luleh which are kebabs made from potato. It was something interesting, though it tasted just okay. 
Later we had Efes - another beer famous in this region. Once you sit here on the first floor, the views of Mini Venice will make you feel relaxed and want to sit for a long time. 

A post shared by Famished Explorer [ UDIT ] (@uditss) on Oct 11, 2017 at 5:37am PDT

• Firuze [well know for Azeri cuisine]:

I had heard about this a lot, and a friend had also recommended this restaurant to me. It is located near the Fountain Square itself, in the basement level. The ambiance gave a very traditional feel to it, and so did the uniforms of the waiters. 

I started with the Dushbara. It is a traditional soup, which has mini meat dumplings. It tasted good; I especially liked the dumplings.

Then I had the lamb chops. These were wrapped in a bread and then roasted. It had a nice aroma to it. The taste wasn't too bad. I also had the Firuze special salad. This was made from potato. It tasted good, but not something that you couldn't get elsewhere. 

The overall experience wasn't bad, but given the fact that I had high expectations from this place, perhaps I didn't enjoy it all that much. 

• Bulud Lounge [multi-cuisine]:

If you've read my previous post about the places to visit in Azerbaijan, you know that we really loved the Heydar Aliyev Center and just wanted to sit there for a long time...
We found a cafe here and we could get a view of the Center from here. 
I had a shah plov here. It is a traditional rice based dish. The rice contains some dry-fruits and nuts along with meat of your choice. It is wrapped inside a pastry. This was really delicious, and something which I could have never thought of otherwise. 

I also had an Irish coffee here which I loved while watching the lovely views of the Heyder Aliyev Centre. 

A post shared by Famished Explorer [ UDIT ] (@uditss) on Oct 9, 2017 at 6:17am PDT

I think Azerbaijan has a lot of dishes to offer, and every time I went to a different restaurant, there was something to try out there.