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When sisters Almira and Kalbi Tursungjan opened Mrs Khan in downtown Menlo Park in 2022, they established the only Uyghur restaurant along the Peninsula and quickly became a destination for chewy laghman and vibrant polo.
But last month, the restaurant silently shuttered – a decision Kalbi said she was forced to make after she couldn’t find a chef who could cook authentic Uyghur dishes. Her sister, Almira, had already left the business, saying that “working at the restaurant is stressful and tiring,” Kalbi said. “She left me alone and gave me all this stress 100%.”
So she shifted concepts, bringing on Minjun Li as a new chef-owner and reopening the restaurant Oct. 14 as Dragon General. The new restaurant no longer serves Uyghur cuisine and instead offers a large menu showcasing a diverse selection of Chinese cuisine, including dishes from Li’s home region of Dongbei, as well as from Beijing, Shanghai, Hunan and Sichuan. Kusan Bazaar in Mountain View is now the only Uyghur restaurant along the Peninsula.
Another major change is that Dragon General will offer beer and wine, something Mrs Khan couldn’t offer as Uyghurs don’t consume alcohol. The ability to procure a beer and wine license was another factor for switching concepts, chef-partner Li said in Mandarin through an employee who acted as a translator.
Li has about 25 years of chef experience. He began his career in China at 16 years old and has worked at popular Chinese franchises including Ziguangyuan and Daiyali. Li moved to the Bay Area about six years ago and has worked at restaurants such as Nutrition House and Beijing Chef in Milpitas, both of which have since shuttered.
While most of Li’s culinary career was in Beijing, he hails from Northeast China and offers specialities from that region at Dragon General. Dongbei dishes include the signature crispy sweet and sour pork, crispy eggplant with garlic and chili, and sweet and sour pork ribs ($18-$24).
Besides the signature crispy sweet and sour pork, Li said another must-order menu item is the Peking duck, available whole or half and served with shredded ginger, sauce and cucumber, plus your choice of salt and pepper duck carcass or duck soup ($48-$88).
The menu offers a large selection of housemade dim sum, including various soup dumplings, siu mai and potstickers; Sichuan dishes like snakehead fish and yellow croaker; Hunan offerings that include stir-fried pork with peppers and dry pot pork intestines; and a Chinese American section with familiar favorites such as walnut shrimp and Kung Pao chicken.
Transitioning from Mrs Khan to Dragon General also involved some minor aesthetic changes, including transitioning the formerly purple exterior wall to a more natural wood color, removing the flower wall at the front, adding decorative covers to the lamp fixtures and gray covers to the tabletops and replacing the artwork. The goal was to create a “more zen, relaxed feeling,” Li said in Mandarin.
Li said he has been receiving requests to bring back some Uyghur dishes, something he’s open to doing in the future after he scales back the size of the menu.
Dragon General is currently offering 12% off during its soft opening phase, and no grand opening date has been set yet.
Dragon General, 712 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park. Open Wednesday to Monday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5-9 p.m.
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