Alay Bazaar Tashkent: Smaller, Pricier, Easier Than Chorsu
Alay Bazaar on Amir Temur: how it compares with Chorsu on price and crowds, the dried fruit and nut rows, Korean salads, hours, and the nearest metro.
On 28 April 2026 the business paper Kursiv sent a reporter round Tashkent's markets to price strawberries. At Chorsu a kilo was going for about 30,000 som. At Alay Bazaar the same fruit ran from 35,000 to 60,000 som, depending on how it looked and which variety it was (Kursiv, April 2026). That's roughly $2.50 against $2.90 to $5.00 at September 2026 exchange rates.
That gap is Alay Bazaar in one line. It's Tashkent's central, tidy, slightly expensive market, the one you can reach in ten minutes from most mid-range hotels, and it charges for the convenience. For a visitor buying a bag of almonds, the premium is a few thousand som. For a family shopping for the week, it's a reason to go elsewhere.
Where Alay Bazaar is, and the metro stop
Alay (Oloy bozori in Uzbek, Alaysky bazar in Russian) fills a block just off Amir Temur avenue, north of Amir Timur Square. Listings give its address either as Amir Temur street 40 or as Yahyo G'ulomov street 7, because the market has frontage on both sides.
The nearest metro station is Abdulla Qodiriy on the Yunusobod line, a couple of minutes' walk away. If you're coming from the Amir Timur Square area, ride one stop north from Yunus Rajabiy. The Tashkent metro walk-through covers cards and QR tickets and transfers. One thing to know: the city fare rises from 1,700 to 2,500 som (3,000 in cash) on 1 October 2026, as Gazeta.uz reported (last checked: September 2026).
Opening hours: the honest version
We couldn't find a published timetable from the market company itself, and the secondary sources don't agree. Travel listings put it at 8:00 to 19:00 daily; a 2023 Tashkent market roundup gives 9:00 to 18:00. Treat it as a morning-to-early-evening market (last checked: September 2026). In practice the fresh produce is at its best before noon, and by late afternoon some dried-fruit stalls are already covering their piles with cloth.
Alay vs Chorsu: what actually differs
Chorsu is the one on the postcards: the big dome, the old-city setting and crowds to match. It's also where much of Tashkent buys meat and vegetables, so it's loud, busy and cheaper. If you only have time for one bazaar and you want the spectacle, go to Chorsu under its dome.
Alay is a different animal. It's smaller, cleaner, easier to walk end to end, and the stallholders are used to buyers who want 200 grams rather than a sack. It sits among Soviet-era avenues, not in a mahalla.
The price difference isn't new. A Tashkent market roundup from March 2023 compared staples and found Alay consistently above the others (Repost.uz, 23 March 2023):
| Item (per kg) | Alay | Other bazaars | Source, date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strawberries | 35,000–60,000 som | ~30,000 som (Chorsu) | Kursiv, Apr 2026 |
| Potatoes | from 6,000 som | 3,500–4,000 som | Repost.uz, Mar 2023 |
| Carrots | 7,000 som | 4,000–6,000 som | Repost.uz, Mar 2023 |
| Onions | 6,000 som | 3,000–5,000 som (Chorsu) | Repost.uz, Mar 2023 |
| "Laser" plov rice | 25,000 som | 17,000–20,000 som | Repost.uz, Mar 2023 |
The 2023 figures are old, and prices have moved since, so read them as a ratio rather than a price list. In that snapshot Alay ran anywhere from about a fifth to double the cheaper markets' prices on everyday produce. Our take: pay it if Alay saves you a taxi across town, and don't bother haggling hard over a difference of 5,000 som.
The dried fruit and nut rows
This is why most visitors come, and it's worth the detour even after Chorsu. The counters are built up into sloped displays: orange and brown dried apricots, dark and golden raisins, pale almonds, walnut halves, pistachios, salted apricot kernels and dried figs.
The tasting ritual goes like this. You slow down at a counter, and the seller holds out one apricot, a raisin or two, a kernel on the flat of the hand. Take it. Tasting doesn't commit you to buying, and nobody expects you to buy at every stall. If you've eaten your way through six samples at the same counter, though, it's good manners to buy something, even 100 grams.
A few things that help:
- Ask the price per kilo first ("kilosi qancha?") and then say how much you want. Sellers weigh to the gram, so 250 or 300 grams is a normal order.
- The paler, brighter apricots are often sulphured; the brown, wrinkled ones usually aren't. Taste both. The brown ones are sweeter and chewier.
- Salted apricot kernels are a Central Asian snack, not the sweet almonds they resemble. They're a little bitter, which is the point.
- If you're flying home with them, ask whether the stall can seal the bag; some can, and it keeps kernels from going soft.
What does a kilo cost? We couldn't find a dated, published price for dried fruit or nuts at Alay in 2026, and we won't guess at one. Ask at two counters before you buy; the spread between neighbouring stalls tells you more than any figure we could print. Supply is seasonal, and the fruit calendar by month explains why September and October counters look fuller than May's.
Spices, pickles and the Korean salad counters
Spice sellers work the same aisles: cumin (the black zira that goes in plov), coriander seed, dried barberries, red pepper flakes, and saffron of wildly varying honesty. Cheap "saffron" in a big heap is usually safflower.
Alay has had its own rows of pickles and Korean salads since the 1970s expansion, according to the history compiled from architectural historian Abdumannop Ziyaev's book on Tashkent's bazaars (Yep.uz, April 2021). Look for the tubs of shredded carrot, aubergine and cabbage sold by weight. They're the cooking of the Koryo-saram, deported here in 1937, and the story behind Uzbekistan's Korean salads is worth reading before you buy. Three salads and a round of non make a vegetarian lunch.
A short history, with a caveat
The market's own website says Alay was first mentioned in the 12th century, when caravans passed through. The researchers disagree. Ziyaev traced it to the late 19th century, when Russian Tashkent spread north from the square; by 1905 there was an informal market in the soldiers' settlement, and it had counters and a proper entrance by the 1930s. We find the 19th-century account stronger, because it comes with dates and places.
The name is disputed too. One version links it to the Oloy (Alay) mountains; another says "alay" meant a military unit in local Turkic usage, which fits the soldiers' settlement. The 1960s brought a two-storey pavilion for meat, dairy and honey, the 1990s the arched entrance and green dome, and a 2016 rebuild cut the trading area and added parking.
Do locals actually shop here?
Yes, but selectively. People who live or work in the centre use it for quick top-ups, flowers, good meat and a gift box of nuts before visiting relatives. For the big weekly shop, plenty of Tashkent households head to Chorsu, Kuylyuk or Yangi Qo'yliq (sold now as "Food City") instead, and price is the reason. The 2021 Yep.uz piece put it bluntly: tourists, like the locals, are shocked at the prices.
That split is useful. Alay is the gentler introduction: fewer elbows and sellers used to foreigners. The ideal sequence is Alay first to learn what things are called and what they taste like, then Chorsu to see the same goods in bulk at lower prices. Our Tashkent city guide shows where both fit in a two- or three-day stay.
Bring small notes. A 200-gram bag of kernels costs far less than a 200,000 som note, and the counters with the best dried apricots aren't always the ones with change.