New Hong Kong restaurant Yurt brings Kazakhstan’s horsemeat tradition to the city

From auspicious horse-themed phrases and couplets to whether your luck is in, check out our Year of the Horse 2026 series to discover all you need to know about the coming Lunar New Year. For Yurt’s Kazakh founder, Ali Nuraly, opening a Central Asian restaurant in Hong Kong without horsemeat was not an option. After all, the consumption of horsemeat holds a deep, practical heritage in Central Asia and is rooted in nomadic traditions. For millennia, horses were not merely transport but vital companions, and their use as food was a logical extension of a pastoral economy where no part of the animal was wasted. The consumption of horsemeat carries cultural weight, symbolising strength, honour and respect for the animal’s spirit. While modern diets have diversified, horsemeat remains a key element and is a tangible link to the nomadic past of the region. View this post on Instagram A post shared by YURT (@yurt.hk) Historically, horsemeat provided essential sustenance through harsh winters; rich in protein and fat, it was often preserved for consumption. This practice is most famous among the people of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, for whom beshbarmak (boiled horsemeat served with noodles) and kazy (seasoned horsemeat sausage) are beloved national dishes. With this in mind, Nuraly created Yurt out of a desire to introduce the flavours of his home country to Hong Kong. The kitchen is headed by a fellow Kazakh, executive chef Marat Zakaryayev. Nuraly, the owner of a family-run agricultural business in Kazakhstan that exports beef to Asia, fell in love with Hong Kong when he came on the advice of his father to explore trade lines further east. “After the borders opened up [after the Covid-19 pandemic] in 2024, I met up with suppliers in Hong Kong,” he says. “We sent samples to distributors who like our products, but the problem is that neither the population of Hong Kong nor the distributors know anything about Kazakhstan.” It was in this gap that Nuraly saw the opportunity to open a restaurant and develop his business in the city. There were some limitations, however, as importing raw horsemeat to Hong Kong would require getting past a lot of red tape. This is why Yurt’s beshbarmak is made with beef rib instead of horsemeat, although diners do have the option to upgrade the dish with kazy – a processed and supermarket-ready horsemeat product that can be imported with relative ease – for an additional HK$90 (US$12). “Having horsemeat is such a central part of our culture,” says Xeniya Tregubenko, Yurt’s head of marketing and communications. “We do not see it as exotic or something out of the ordinary. Back home, it is always on the table as either cold cuts or part of the main dish.” She stresses the importance of having it on the menu at Yurt. “If we do not serve it, we are diluting our own history, brand and culture. If we do not serve it on the menu, people from our culture will question whether we are ashamed of it. “Kazy is one of the most traditional ways of consuming the horse,” she adds. “You can buy it in the supermarket, and a lot of families make it themselves. Some restaurants might serve horsemeat as a tartare or a steak, but that is actually a contemporary way of eating it.” Given that the Kazakhs were traditionally nomadic, it makes sense that horsemeat would culturally be preserved in sausages or jerky for easier transport. According to Nuraly, the meat in kazy is usually taken from the rib, combined with offcuts and offal, then seasoned with salt, garlic, pepper and spices. The sausage is then boiled and smoked. During our hosted lunch, we tried Yurt’s take on beshbarmak with kazy. The dish was deceptively simple, with the beef and seasoned sausage on a bed of pasta in a light beef broth alongside grated potatoes and carrots. Given the current cooler weather, this was a very comforting dish, though the broth could have been punchier. The horsemeat sausage was tender with a subtle gaminess that reminded us of rabbit meat. When compared to the slices of beef rib, the kazy had a notably deeper flavour. Another dish we enjoyed was the baursak, a traditional fried dough served with a dip of sour cream and honey. It reminded us of boortsog, deep-fried dough balls in Mongolia. “It’s something we’re super proud of,” Tregubenko says. “At any table at any gathering in Central Asia, you will find baursak. Everybody makes it differently with regard to shapes, but this is a dish that starts any gathering.” For now, the menu at Yurt is quite short as the team explores what recipes they can translate for Hong Kong diners while figuring out which dishes work and which do not. “We are planning to expand the menu,” Tregubenko says. “We want to first introduce our culture, but we endeavour to give people a short journey across Central Asia with our menu.” Yurt, 32 Elgin Street, SoHo, Central. Tel: 5939 6413

New Hong Kong restaurant Yurt brings Kazakhstan’s horsemeat tradition to the city

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Horsemeat is a central part of Kazakh and Central Asian culture and, for the team at Yurt, there was no question of it not being on the menu

Horsemeat is a central part of Kazakh and Central Asian culture and, for the team at Yurt, there was no question of it not being on the menu