Baku, Azerbaijan (read my post about it here). I almost skipped a food tour. I was late planning, and I only found one option online. I booked it a few days in advance. Very unlike me. This turned out to be a fantastic idea, and took us on an Azeri culinary journey through Baku, trying all sorts of traditional Azerbaijani foods that we would never have discovered on our own. This post describes our food tour, and the delicious Azerbaijani foods we sampled.
Baku, Azerbaijan.
STOP ONE: A TRADITIONAL AZERBAIJANI DINNER
After meeting our guide in front of a KFC (yes, the US fried chicken chain) near Nizami Park, we jumped right into dinner at an approachable restaurant serving traditional Azerbaijani foods. Fisincan Restoran was our destination. The exterior reminded me a bit of a 1990s Parisian restaurant, with the interior featuring traditional tablecloths, but the ceiling full of plastic flowers popular with the Instagram crowd.
The exterior of Fisincan Restoran on Nizami Street in Baku.
The interior of Fisincan Restoran looked much different.
The food, which consisted of an entire dinner, was selected and ordered by our tour guide, who was born and raised in Azerbaijan and currently lives in Baku. The food kept coming, one dish after another, and it was all quite delicious.
Our guide selected Fisincan Restoran, because it serves Azeri food in the traditional way, which he claims is difficult to find. The first dish presented was a seasonal tomato salad in a cherry sauce (AKA a dressing made from seasonal cherries). This salad was incredible. The cherries paired oddly well with the tomatoes, and the cherries made a very nice dressing. This tomato and cherry salad became one of our favorite dishes of the trip (we ordered a similar salad the next evening). If you are in Baku in the summer, similar salads are not difficult to find.
A tomato salad in a cherry dressing.
We also sampled a dish quite similar to Baba Ghanoush. This dish is also common in Baku and easy to find. Like Baba Ghanoush, the dish is primarily roasted eggplant, mixed with other seasonal vegetables. We sampled it with a spoon, but you can also eat it with local bread.
A roasted eggplant sauce.
We next tried qutab, which we had been, unknowingly, eating at breakfast. Qutab is incredibly common in Baku – you would be hard pressed not to see one when visiting Baku. Qutab is a dish made from thin bread topped with cheese, meat, or vegetables and then folded over and cut into a triangle, very similar to a quesadilla honestly. Qutab is often topped with various spices, including the pretty purple sumac below. I really enjoyed qutab, especially the beef ones topped with sumac. Know that these are much more filling than they look.
Qutab – both meat qutab and vegetable qutab.
Next on the menu was one of my least favorite dishes – dolma. Dolma are just like the famous Greek or Turkish dolma, except here they are circle shaped instead of cigar-shaped. Azeri dolma are also, at times, filled with lamb (instead of just rice), one of Azerbaijan’s favorite meats. The Azeri dolma taste about the same as the Greek and Turkish ones (in my opinion), and still not my favorite. I did appreciate the white dipping sauce that accompanied them.
Azerbaijani dolma!
After these four courses, as well as local bread that I did not photograph, the main course was presented – plov. Plov is Azerbaijani pilaf – like the rice dish “pilaf.” Plov is served many ways, with various types of meat or vegetables, and importantly, perfectly cooked rice (emphasis on the perfectly cooked rice!). Ours was lamb prepared in a simple sauce and served with truly perfectly cooked rice. The plov was very good. We also ordered another type of plov the following evening.
Azerbaijani plov – this one was lamb with perfectly cooked rice.
Our meal ended with the plov. We were quite stuffed at this point. Luckily, our next stop was to try Azeri wine!
STOP TWO: A CHIC AZERBAIJANI WINE BAR
We drink a decent amount of wine and are quite familiar with wine, but we didn’t even know that Azerbaijan made wine until we arrived the day before. I was both skeptical and excited to try Azeri wine. Our destination was Boho Wine & Tea Bar. Boho Wine & Tea Bar is a chic cafe serving wine and tea to patrons. And while you may not see “wine & tea” often paired together as an establishment, tea is very popular in Azerbaijan and wine is not. Alcohol is legal and freely available, but it’s not that common amongst the locals.
The adorably decorated Boho Wine & Tea Bar.
At Boho, we sampled three very tall pours of a dry rose, a dry white, and a dry red, all from the Chabiant winery. Located in the Ismayilli District, about 3 hours from Baku by car, Chabiant is a well-known Azerbaijani producer. We saw it in several restaurants. We found all three of the wines to be well prepared, although we preferred the dry rose and the red (more to our preference). If you visit Azerbaijan, be sure to try the local wine, just ensure it’s dry if you prefer dry wine; locals prefer sweet wine.
Madrasa from Chabiant. A dry rose.
The Dry White Wine.
A very tall glass of dry red wine.
Our wine tasting was paired with a beautiful cheese, meat, and fruit plate. Everything was very tasty and paired well with the wines. My personal favorites were the sausage links and banana (not from Azerbaijan).
A very pretty fruit plate.
STOP THREE: BAKU LATE NIGHT STREET FOOD
Our next stop, fitting after drinking three large glasses of wine, was at a popular street food stand called Köz Halil Usta Tantuni & Doner. Our tour guide told us that this was his favorite snack after a night out in university. Köz Halil Usta Tantuni & Doner is a stand serving sandwiches and wraps made from the most delicious beef mixture. That is all – sandwiches and wraps. We opted to try each, and these sandwiches were incredibly delicious. The meat was topped with tomatoes and lettuce, and it’s encouraged to squeeze lemon on the sandwich (the lemon comes in a little plastic bag) prior to eating. I really loved this sandwich. Top experience of the tour. Our sandwiches with the common Ayran yogurt drink (which we tried on our Kadikoy, Istanbul food tour!).
The store front!
The sandwich bread soaks in the beef before being served.
The wrap. The same sandwich just on a wrap in lieu of bread.
The full sandwich!
A look inside the wrap, along with the lemons. This was just so good!
I really wanted to stay for another sandwich. I stopped myself. Now I need to return to Baku for another.
STOP FOUR: TEA & PAKHLAVA
Following the most tasty sandwich, we strolled down the street to a small dessert shop called Köz Künefe. This shop specializes in tea and dessert, and, per our guide, is the type of place one may go out with friends or on a date. Here, we observed all the tasty desserts before sitting down with a glass of black tea served in traditional glassware, which is super common in Azerbaijan. It reminded me a lot of the Turkish Tea culture (not surprising, as they are neighbors).
An assortment of desserts at Köz Künefe.
Traditional Azeri black tea.
Our black tea was paired with a “pakhlava” – a dessert quite similar to baklava in name and taste. Azeri “pakhlava” is a dessert made with numerous layers of pastry layered with ground hazelnuts or walnuts (both grown widely in Azerbaijan) and mixed with honey and spices. This dessert was traditionally prepared for Novruz, the Zoroastrian spring festival (fire worship – it is the Land of Fire), but you can easily find them all over Baku. Another must try! Our pakhlava was cut in a diamond shape and topped with a single, whole walnut. The dessert was delicious and quite filling!
Azerbaijani pakhlava!
STOP FIVE: ANOTHER TRADITIONAL AZERI TREAT!
The final tasting was at a cute Azeri bakery called Almond, which is a small chain. We came to Almond to try shekerbura. Like pakhlava, shekerbura is an Azeri pastry/cookie filled with sweet ground hazelnuts and fragrant cardamom. It is also beautifully decorated. The cookie is thick and decadent – definitely leaving one full. We each sampled a shekerbura at Almond and also took some other sweets for later. Almond has various locations around Baku, and this is a good spot to purchase some gifts to take home or to pick up a snack. Prices are reasonable.
The Azeri shekerbura.
A drawer of shekerbura at Almond.
The cutest sweet treats at Almond.
One more – big fan of Almond.
Our tour ended after Almond, and we ordered a Bolt back to our hotel. We thoroughly enjoyed our culinary journey through Baku trying all sorts of traditional Azerbaijani foods. This post is not sponsored, but I do highly recommend this tour for foodies in Baku. If you can’t make the tour, you should at least try out some of these delicious, local spots.
STEAL OUR TRIP – FAQ
Baku Food Tours: We took the Eat Like a Local: Baku Dining & Wine Tasting Experience, which cost $150 USD per person. The tour included all referenced food and drink.
Fisincan Restoran: 63 Nizami St, Baku. Open daily 9:00 AM – 2:00 AM. Reservations likely not required.
Boho Wine & Tea Bar: Hazi Aslanov St, Baku. Open 12:00 PM – 1:00 AM. Reservations likely not required.
Köz Halil Usta Tantuni & Doner: 5 locations in Baku. Open late. We visited the “28 May” location.
Köz Künefe: Rashid Behbudov Street, Baku. Open 24 hours. Reservations not required. No website.
Almond: There are numerous Almond bakeries around Baku. The bakeries appear to be open from 7:00 AM – 11:00 PM. Reservations not required.