DINING OUT

DINING OUT

Mongolian hot pot and barbecue are misnomers as they are trade marks invented by enterprenerous Chinese cooks. Neither foreign-influenced cooking style remotely resembles traditional Mongolian food, which typically lacks spice, flavor and variety. One spot to fill up on local fare like buuz (mutton dumplings) and suutei tsai (milk tea) is at the 24-hour cafe located in an old MIAT airplane. To get there, follow Peace Avenue west about 2 km from Sukhbataar Square .

But when mutton gets a tad tiresome, the recent availability of lattes, crepes and sushi in Ulan Bator means that you can expand your culinary horizons.

Visitors to Ulaanbaatar can enjoy nowadays a variety of national dishes. In recent years large number of restaurants popped up catering for the needs of the ever growing expat community, steady stream of international consultants and tourists.

Chinese, Indian, Japanese, French, German and Russian?almost all continents are now represented and their listing alone will take much space.

Here are several restaurants offering fine service and great dishes:

European KhanBrau, just south from the Central Post OfficeBrauHaus, on Seoul Street
German Chingis Khaan Restaurant, west of the Old Children Palace
Mexican & Indian Los Bandidos, south of the Peace & Friendship Building
Coffee Shop Millie's Cafe, southwest from the Choijin Lama Museum
Modern Nomads, south from the Old Children Palace
Chinese Tang Long, the Youth Cultural Palace
Japanese Sekitei, at the Sansar Service Centre
North Indian Hazara, behind the Wrestling Palace
Korean Seoul Restaurant, south side of the Children's Park
Italian Pizza de la Casa, Time Center , eastside Ulaanbaatar Hotel
International Casablanca Restaurant, in the Bayangol Hotel