Fortuna Bukharian Restaurant a fortuitous find in Rego Park

A modest picture for a  great restaurant and it’s kosher if you ever need to take some friends who like that.

The New York times insisted we visit Shalom Restaurant in an article that had not been updated since 2006 and the place was nowhere to be found.  So we drove down to 108th Street and miraculously arrived at Fortuna, a fancy -looking white tablecloth  place with extremely reasonable prices and fantastic food. My friends were not really hungry and one does not eat red meat so that limited our choices but what we had was spectacular.

First came the best beef stock-based borscht I’d ever eaten. Pieces of beets and beat greens, chunks of chuck meat in a rick beef stock. Heavenly on a cold, windy night.

The Babaganoush may be called something else there was okay but the bread was spectacular. It had a nice, satisfying thick crust and a seductive aroma.  I’d go back to F ortuna again just for the bread.  Time Out recommends it highly.

But their manti big and full of  gelatinous beef was the star.  I had tiny, delicate Turkish manti and loved them but I must say that these were even more wonderful  mmm!

Other sites recommend Cheburechnaya but it looks like a cafeteria with bright lights and bad service but  supposedly has great food.  I’ll try it for lunch some time and if any one can tell me where Shalom is, I’d like to try that too.