Tashkent Tourist Entertainment Guide

Of all the places in Uzbekistan dining out is at its most sophisticated in Tashkent and there too it is still a rough & ready scene. It is where Russian expats and newly rich Uzbek businessmen chow down and drink up, where waitresses linger over shoulders for that slightly bigger tip; all in all the worst of Uzbek city culture pops out with the shampanski cork at restaurants across the city. Dining out has not caught the fancy of many with local cuisine being the most widely available. There is a token presence of cuisine other than Uzbek in Tashkent in the few Chinese, Korean and Russian restaurants. The Tashkent TV tower, for example, has two revolving restaurants, one for Uzbek cuisine and the other for continental or European cuisine. Otherwise restaurants serve the traditional plov and shashlik, and a variety of soups and breads. Plov, the staple dish of rice cooked with chunks of mutton, carrots and turnips, is common to all five Central Asian republics. Shashlik kebabs are skewered and roasted in coal fire, and served with generous portions of sliced raw onions. Shorpa is a meat and vegetable broth, wanton like manti are thick noodles with meat filling, and samsa, widely available at roadside stalls, is a small fried meat pie. Meat in Uzbekistan is lamb, beef or chicken. Chicken curry is usually eaten with soft bread called non. Noodles served with many soups are thick and flat and called laghman.

The most widely available alcoholic drink is vodka. That and tea are the beverages of choice here, and shots of either are on hand at every nook and corner and along the highways at chaikhanas or choyhonas, literally, tea houses. There’s also shampanski, a light sparkling wine, beer, local and Russian, and kefir, which is thick cooling drink made of yoghurt that can be either sweet or salty. Check out the cafes on Sayelgokh Street locally referred to as Tashkent Broadway, which essentially are glorified choykhanas.

In most of Uzbekistan, life on the streets comes to a standstill by 8:30 at night. Tashkent has few discos and bars but the Navoi Theatre on most evenings has a programme of opera or ballet. Many restaurants have night shows where dancers and singers entertain the diners with locally popular songs. Some restaurants also feature ‘cultural’ nights when the music and dance is not a shady representation of MTV pop, but an authentic traditional Uzbek performance.