Where to Eat in Tashkent: Plov, Bazaars and Restaurants
Where to eat in Tashkent by district: named plov halls and restaurants with 2026 prices, bazaar lunches, late kitchens, vegetarian picks and delivery apps.
Besh Qozon, the plov hall behind the Tashkent TV tower, has more than 35,000 ratings on Yandex Maps, far more than most restaurants in the city, and that number explains both why you should go and why you shouldn't stop there. Where to eat in Tashkent is mostly a question of timing and district, and this guide is organised that way: what to eat at which hour, then named places by area, with prices checked against sources dated 2026.
A caveat before the names. Tashkent restaurants close and move often, and a vegan cafe that still tops several popular lists now shows as permanently closed on its map listing. Everything named below appears as open on at least two current sources, but check the Yandex Maps or 2GIS listing on the day.
If you're new to the food itself: Uzbek cooking is built on mutton, rice, noodles and bread, with plov as the national dish and samsa, lagman and shashlik close behind. Our Uzbek food guide goes dish by dish, so this page sticks to where and when.
Lunch or dinner? The clock decides the menu
Plov is cooked in the morning and eaten at midday. The neighbourhood osh markazi (plov centre) fires its cauldrons early and serves until the rice runs out, which in a busy district means early afternoon. Order plov at 20:00 in a restaurant and there's a fair chance you're getting the lunchtime batch warmed through. Megan Starr's plov survey (May 2026, updated September) makes the same point: plov is a lunch-hours dish, whatever the opening times say.
The rest of the day runs like this:
- Early morning: nahor osh, the dawn plov served at weddings and in some markazi, and halim porridge, both gone by mid-morning.
- 11:00 to 14:00: plov, lagman, soups, samsa hot from the tandoor. This is the best-value meal of the day.
- Evening: shashlik, salads, manti and the sit-down restaurant menus.
- 23:00: most kitchens close. Afsona and Anjir both list 23:00 on Yandex Maps.
So plan the bazaar and plov for lunch, and the restaurant for dinner.
Yunusobod and the TV tower: Besh Qozon
The Central Asian Plov Centre, now signed as Besh Qozon ("five cauldrons"), is at Iftixor ko'chasi 1 in Yunusobod district, according to its Yandex Maps listing. In practice that means north of the TV tower, about a ten-minute walk from Shahriston metro. Besh Qozon is a small chain (its site lists four branches); the TV-tower flagship is at Iftixor 1.
What it does best is spectacle and choice: huge cauldrons in an open kitchen, several regional styles served side by side, and wedding-style plov, often with horse-meat sausage (qazi). A plate costs about 50,000 to 59,000 som on the venue's menu (September 2026) depending on the style, in line with Megan Starr's plov survey (May 2026, updated September), and Yandex puts the average bill at 70,000 to 100,000 som once you add salad, bread and tea (last checked: September 2026). It takes cards. It's busy with tour groups, and the service is brisk rather than warm.
Go between 11:30 and 13:00. The listing now shows longer hours than the old lunch-only routine, but the cauldrons are at their best at midday. The plov guide explains the regional styles you'll see on the board.
Ordering at Besh Qozon, and when the plov runs out
First-timers expect a canteen line. In the flagship it's table service. You walk past the cauldrons, find a seat, and a waiter takes the order from a picture menu on the table. When you've finished, ask for the bill and pay at the cashier, marked kassa, by the door downstairs. That's how both Megan Starr and food blogger Valeriya Goffe describe it, and Goffe notes the kassa takes cash and cards. One 2026 operator guide describes ordering at the cauldron counter instead, so if staff wave you towards a queue there, join it and pay where staff point you.
What to order: one plate per person of the style you want, bread, a salad and tea. The chain's online menu (October 2026, in Russian and Uzbek) shows the styles and the extras side by side (last checked: October 2026):
| Item | What it is | Price |
|---|---|---|
| To'y oshi | Wedding plov, the classic | 52,000 som |
| Choyxona oshi | Teahouse-style plov (a 0.7 portion is 50,000) | 52,000 som |
| Zig'ir oshi | Samarkand style, made with flax (zig'ir) | 54,000 som |
| Devzira oshi | Fergana style, with devzira rice | 59,000 som |
| Tovuqli osh | Chicken plov | 40,000 som |
| Qazi | Horse-meat sausage, added to the plate | 10,000 som |
| Bedana tuxum | Quail egg | 2,000 som |
| Achchiq-chuchuk | Tomato and onion salad | 13,000 som |
These are the ordering-site prices, which can differ from the hall, but they sit in the same 50,000 to 59,000 som range that Megan Starr recorded for the main styles. A 0.7 portion barely saves money; order it if you want room for samsa (14,000 som with meat).
Does it sell out? The chain's site lists every day from 09:00 to 03:00, and Megan Starr gives the same hours. The plov that matters is the morning cook, though. A June 2026 guide from Tashkent operator Uz-Safar says to arrive at 11:00 or queue for about 40 minutes, go on a weekday rather than a weekend, and expect the lunchtime cauldrons to be finished by early afternoon; Goffe puts the busiest moment at around 13:00. Sources don't agree on the exact hour, so aim for late morning and don't count on fresh plov much after 13:00.
The centre, around Amir Temur and Broadway
This is where most hotels are and where English menus cluster. It's convenient and, with a little care, good.
Afsona, on Taras Shevchenko Street (Yandex gives number 30, some guides 28), is the restaurant we'd send a first-timer to for a proper sit-down Uzbek dinner. Yandex lists an average bill of about 80,000 som and closing at 23:00, and Megan Starr priced its plov at 50,000 to 90,000 som in September 2026. Its real distinction is the vegetarian and fruit plov, a rarity that Tour Central Asia also highlights. It has other branches around the city.
Uzbekona, at Matbuotchilar Street 1/2, is the easy option for a group that wants an English menu and English-speaking staff; Megan Starr's survey priced its plov at 64,000 som.
Khiva, inside the Hyatt Regency on Navoi Street, is the hotel version of Uzbek food. It serves lunch and dinner; check Hyatt's own restaurant page for times. You'll pay hotel prices, and it's the most reliable choice if someone in your group is nervous about hygiene.
Mirabad and Yakkasaroy: the locals' mid-range
Anjir ("fig"), at Shota Rustaveli Street 12, is the cheapest good plov in the centre that we could document. Megan Starr found it at 46,000 som a plate in September 2026, with hours of 9:00 to 23:00 and a pay-at-the-kassa system. Yandex Maps shows more than 9,000 ratings, an average bill of 70,000 to 100,000 som, and a location about 800 metres from Oybek metro. The menu leans Uzbek-language, so pointing works.
Caravan, at Abdulla Qahhor Street 22, is the long-running showpiece: a four-storey building hung with suzani embroidery, Uzbek and Asian dishes, and live music at dinner in the reviews. 2GIS lists it at 11:00 to 02:00 daily, which makes it one of the few serious kitchens still open after 23:00, and Yandex puts the average bill at 100,000 to 200,000 som. Book at weekends.
Caravan's late kitchen also makes it an easy first stop before a drink; Tashkent after dark names the bars, including a pub a short taxi ride away in Mirabad.
The old city and the bazaars
Chorsu Bazaar, under the green-blue dome by Chorsu metro, is where to eat cheaply at lunch. The food is around the dome and on the upper gallery: samsa from wall-mounted tandoors, lagman, naryn, shashlik and soups at shared tables. Street food prices are tracked in a separate guide, and a hot bazaar lunch there rarely comes to more than a few dollars.
One opinion to weigh: Megan Starr's survey puts Chorsu on its "avoid" list for plov specifically, arguing there are better things to eat at Chorsu, and that a restaurant's set price is cheaper for plov. That fits what we'd suggest: go to Chorsu for samsa, bread and the Korean salad counters, and eat your plov at Anjir or Besh Qozon.
Alay Bazaar, on Amir Temur Street near the centre, is smaller and tidier, with a food court and dried fruit stalls. It's also generally pricier than Chorsu.
Chaikhanas without a map pin
Many of the best-value meals in Tashkent come from teahouses that barely register online: a courtyard with raised tapchan platforms, a cauldron of plov at lunch, shashlik in the evening, no English menu. You won't find them by searching in English. Look for tables of Uzbek men and families at 13:00, a smoking grill and a stack of bread by the door, and point at what the next table ordered. Expect cash only and prices well below the restaurants above. What happens in a chaikhana explains the etiquette.
Vegetarian in Tashkent
Tashkent is the easiest place in Uzbekistan to eat without meat, but the options are more specific than guides suggest. Three that work:
- Afsona's vegetarian and fruit plov, one of the few meat-free plovs on a current menu (the Hyatt's Khiva restaurant also lists a vegetarian plov).
- The Korean salad counters at Chorsu and other bazaars: marinated carrot, aubergine, cabbage and seaweed sold by weight, a legacy of the Koryo-saram community deported here from the Soviet Far East in 1937.
- Indian restaurants, which Yandex Maps lets you filter for; they cater to a large student population and reliably cook dal and vegetable curries.
Skip Eco Cafe, the vegan basement cafe near the Eco Art hotel that still tops several vegetarian lists: its Yandex listing says permanently closed. Eating vegetarian in Uzbekistan has the phrases for explaining "no meat stock" too.
Delivery apps, paying and getting there
For a night in, Yandex Eats and Uzum Tezkor are the two apps worth installing; Afsona's Yandex listing, for example, names Yandex Eats as its delivery channel. Don't plan to add a beer to the order: the 2023 alcohol law bans delivering alcohol, with an exception, there since the original text, only for sparkling and natural wine.
Besh Qozon, Afsona, Anjir and Caravan all accept cards according to their listings. Alcohol was card-only from 1 April 2026; since 1 June 2026 a decree lets restaurants and cafes take cash for drinks again. Shops aren't named in that exemption, and their tills may need a local Uzcard or Humo card or a payment app, since foreign cards aren't always accepted. Bazaars and chaikhanas are cash, so carry som in small notes. Check restaurant bills for a service charge before tipping on top.
The metro links Chorsu, the centre, Oybek (for Anjir) and Shahriston (for Besh Qozon), and from 1 October 2026 a ride costs 2,500 som by card or app (3,000 som in cash), as Gazeta.uz reported. At 18:00 on a weekday that's faster than any taxi.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the best plov in Tashkent?
Besh Qozon near the TV tower is the famous choice for its cauldrons and range of styles, at about 50,000 to 59,000 som a plate on its menu in September 2026. For a cheaper, more local plate in the centre, Anjir on Shota Rustaveli Street charged 46,000 som. Eat either one between 11:30 and 13:00.
How much does a meal cost in Tashkent?
A bazaar lunch or a chaikhana plate costs a few dollars. Yandex Maps lists average bills of about 70,000 to 100,000 som at Anjir and Besh Qozon, about 80,000 som at Afsona, and 100,000 to 200,000 som at Caravan. At 11,825 som to the dollar (26 September 2026), that's roughly $6 to $17 a head.
Can I get food late at night in Tashkent?
Yes, but choose deliberately. Most restaurant kitchens close at 23:00. Caravan on Abdulla Qahhor Street serves until 02:00, several branches of the EVOS fast-food chain stay open until 03:00, and some Besh Qozon branches list 03:00 closing; check the branch. Plov after dark is usually a reheated lunch batch.