Gastronomic Tour of Uzbekistan: What to Eat in Tashkent, Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand

Uzbek food is built around bread, rice, meat, vegetables and tea, but every region cooks it differently. On a food-focused trip you taste these differences city by city — and learn to cook some of the dishes yourself. This guide shows what to eat where, and how our 7-Day Gastronomic Tour of Uzbekistan brings the four classic cities together.

Key facts

• Route: Tashkent – Khiva – Bukhara – Samarkand – Tashkent, by train and road.
• Duration: 7 days, 6 nights, starting and ending in Tashkent.
• Cooking classes on the tour: tukhum barak in Khiva, plov in Bukhara, manti in Samarkand.
• Meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner are part of the programme, mostly in restaurants and family houses that serve regional dishes.
• Good for: food lovers, families, travellers who like to learn by doing.
• Diet: traditional cooking is meat-heavy; tell us about vegetarian, allergy or other needs when you book.
• Prices: depend on the number of travellers and the season — see the tour page or contact us.

Tashkent: plov at lunchtime, lagman and grilled meat

In Tashkent, plov is a lunch dish: it is cooked in huge kazans in the morning and served from midday, and popular places often run out by early afternoon. Our separate guide to Uzbek plov explains its history and the UNESCO-listed traditions around it.

The capital is also the place to try lagman — hand-pulled noodles with meat and vegetables, a dish of Uyghur origin — and shashlik, skewers of grilled meat. On the first day of the tour you combine a guided walk through the old town and the Khast-Imam complex with a barbecue lunch and a lagman dinner.

Khiva: dishes of the Khorezm region

Khiva belongs to Khorezm, a region with its own cooking. Two dishes to look for:

• Tukhum barak: dumplings filled with a raw egg mixture that sets as they cook. On the tour you make them yourself in a master class with a local family.
• Shivit oshi: bright green noodles made with dill, served with a meat and vegetable stew.

Other Khorezm dishes on local menus include gumma, katlama and Khorezm-style plov. Between the meals you explore the walled inner town, Ichan-Kala.

Bukhara: learn to cook plov

Bukhara is where the tour teaches the national dish. In a plov master class you follow the whole process: frying the meat, onions and carrots in the kazan, adding the rice and steaming it until every grain is separate. The cooking class is combined with a guided walk through Bukhara's UNESCO-listed old centre — the Poi-Kalyan ensemble, the Lyabi-Hauz pool and the trading domes.

Samarkand: bread, manti and dimlama

Samarkand non is known across Uzbekistan: a round bread baked on the walls of a tandir clay oven, thinner in the centre and with a soft crust. You will see it at every meal and in the bazaar next to Bibi-Khanym Mosque.

In Samarkand the tour includes a master class on manti — large steamed dumplings — and a dinner of dimlama, meat and vegetables slowly stewed in their own juices. If you want more time in a local kitchen, add our Samarkand cooking class with a local family.

Seasonal dishes: sumalak and summer fruit

Some dishes belong to a season. Sumalak, a sweet paste made from sprouted wheat, is cooked for Navruz, the spring holiday on 21 March: families and neighbours stir the kazan in turns through the night. In summer and autumn the bazaars are full of fresh fruit, melons and grapes, and dried fruit and nuts are sold all year.

Practical tips

• Eat plov at lunch, not in the evening, when it is freshest.
• Bread is treated with respect: it is broken by hand and never placed upside down.
• Green and black tea come with almost every meal; tea is poured in small amounts and topped up often.
• Tell your guide about allergies and dietary needs before the first day; many dishes are cooked in advance.
• Bring some cash in Uzbek som for bazaars and small cafés.
• A professional camera may need a photo permit at some monuments.

Plan it with TravelBliss

On the 7-Day Gastronomic Tour of Uzbekistan, we plan the route, the city tours, the meals in the programme and the three cooking master classes around your dates; ask us what the tour includes. Prices depend on the number of travellers and the season — see the tour page or contact us with your dates.