Owner Azim Rahmatov brings the flavors of his native Uzbekistan to Los Angeles with Zira Uzbek Kitchen. Located in the Fairfax District, this restaurant has an engaging ambience complete with tile floors, pale stucco walls and wood furnishings decorated with ikat fabrics and pillows. Zira highlights the unique cuisine of this former Soviet republic that sits at the crossroads of China and Europe, and the name, which translates to cumin, harkens back to the spice trade of the Silk Road in the 15th century. Serving lunch and dinner daily, the menu spotlights traditional cooking with salads, savory pastries, breads, hearty soup (lagman with hand-pulled noodles), grilled skewered meats (shashlik) and dumplings (manti, pelmeni).