The best Uzbek restaurants Route de la soie

The interior is in the Uzbek style: small private rooms and another huge one for special occasions, but where groups will easily find their place whatever their number. If you are alone or in couple, you will certainly prefer the terrace, nicely arranged and protected from the street by a few green plants and curtains. In any case, you can eat excellent Central Asian specialities: soups, salads, shashlyks, plov... The products are fresh, well prepared and the choice is varied: an excellent address for local food.

It is not cheap, but it is worth it. The food is of a good level, but what will leave you the best memory is certainly the view on the old city of Khiva. The restaurant is actually installed on an open air roof, and the view is lost between the Islam Khodja minaret, the dome of the nearby Mausoleum or the Kalta Minor. The chef makes a great effort to make the traditional recipes more delicate and spicy, and the emphasis is also put on the presentation of the dishes. In short, this new address in town is faultless.

It is more a teahouse than a restaurant, but if you are cooking a tasty plov at lunch time, you might as well come and enjoy it. The interior of the restaurant is splendid: the traditional wooden architecture has been entirely decorated by local craftsmen, whose many products are displayed everywhere and for sale. Throughout the day: pastries, spiced tea and Turkish coffee. For lunch, traditional salads and plov (it is best to order in the morning to ensure a table). A good plan !

The many tourist coaches lined up in front of this great restaurant are both frightening and reassuring. We are a little afraid of the factory, but we quickly understand that if many groups come to have their meals here, it's worth it. We savour a large choice of Uzbek, Russian and European recipes, well concocted and generously served. The owner, Azamat, is adamant about the quality and freshness of his products, and the result is as beautiful to look at as it is good to eat. Live music some evenings, non-smoking room.

This restaurant will satisfy you, especially if you did not have time to visit Khiva during your tour. It is the gastronomy of Khorezm that this establishment effectively honors, reviewing all the great classics of the country and their regional variations: salads, plov and of course the most popular dish of Khorezm: the touroum Berek (an egg cooked in a paste with spices, whose yolk remains runny). The restaurant is nicely decorated with woodwork and stucco, in a traditional spirit and has a nice terrace.

The restaurant lives up to its name: you lunch or dine under a beautiful iwan supported by its wooden columns, with its niches and stucco carvings and its wooden ceiling. It is nicely restored, and the volume offers an appreciable freshness during the hot summer days. As for the rest, you can taste a home cooking of excellent quality, the plov being the star of course, but there are many other nuggets to discover. Save a little room for the desserts, which are rather well done and are not drowned in cream as too often.

The restaurant is located in an old house in the Jewish quarter, and to sit in the courtyard, under the iwan supported by its venerable wooden columns, or to let your gaze be lost in the stucco decorations of the walls and niches is a moment of happiness... We let ourselves be interrupted with pleasure by the waiters circulating with their hands full of dishes each as appetizing as the other: the Bukhari specialties are here declined to perfection. It's fresh, local and homemade. Book in advance, the courtyard is quickly full.

The entrance of the restaurant is cosy: lights and marble, and the room is just like it, a bit busy, but comfortable. Sit on the deep sofas or on the chairs according to your taste and let yourself be inspired by the menu with the good specialties of the country. Very good mantys with different fillings, spicy kebabs or Russian style salads with lots of filling. The specialties are rather cheap compared to the quality, even if some of the more elaborate dishes can make the bill rise quickly.

Above his cutlery, Ikromov opened this charming restaurant in 2019, which is a little higher up and has large windows offering beautiful views of the old stones of Bukhara. The setting is impeccable: well-arranged tables and neat traditional decoration, with a space that can accommodate a group but is more suited to individuals. Cooking is flawless: Bukhari and Uzbek specialties are very well made and served in generous portions, it's fast, tasty and cheap. Excellent address.

Two hundred meters east of the liab-i-khaouz, this three-storey tchaikhana, the last one offering beautiful views of the city, offers a simple and varied home cooking, including the main Uzbek specialties such as plov, chachlyks, mantys and raw vegetable salads, but also the specialty of Bukhara: the djiz in particular (on order) is very successful. In terms of atmosphere, tourists and locals mix in a good-natured atmosphere. It's a bit noisy but if you can find a place on the terrace it will be perfect.

This restaurant is an institutional address in Samarkand: a gigantic tchaikhana with a traditional menu that stretches over several floors, with crowded takhtans and balconies smoked by the cooking of the chachlyks. You will play there at double or nothing as you can either find the atmosphere very bland and touristy, or authentic, festive and warm. Everything will depend on the day's reservations: a tourist bus or an Uzbek wedding. In any case, always check your bill, because everything goes in a merry mess!