Sports and games

Shopping in Tashkent

To combine shopping and entertainment, visit the Samarkand Darvaza, Mega Planet, Next, Parus, and Compass shopping and entertainment centres. These offer modern facilities including food courts, cinemas, children’s play areas, and many shops selling international brands.
The charm of shopping oriental style—with friendly sellers and stalls laden with fresh vegetables and fruits, fragrant spices, hot lepeshka (non) bread, and all kinds of goods—lives in Tashkent’s vibrant bazaars. Chorsu and Alay Bazaars are the most popular among tourists.

Food in Tashkent

Tashkent’s numerous cafes and restaurants offer a wide range of cuisines including European, Russian, Asian (such as Korean, Chinese, and Indian), Middle Eastern, Caucasian, and, of course, Uzbek.

Uzbek Cuisine

On almost every street there are teahouses and cafes (“Milliy Taomlar”, which means “national dishes” in Uzbek) serving traditional dishes like shashlik, shawarma, samsa, plov, naryn, manti, lagman, and shurpa. These venues offer high-quality, delicious, local foods at reasonable prices.



At the Chorsu Bazaar are another gastronomic highlight on the map of Tashkent: many food stalls serving all the famous Uzbek dishes at very low prices.
The most delicious plov (pilaf) in Tashkent is served at the Central Asian Plov Centre (Osh Markazi). People from all over the city come here to eat, and in just a couple of hours the huge cauldrons become empty.

Vegetarian Restaurants

Tashkent does not have any dedicated vegetarian restaurants, but several restaurants serve vegetarian dishes such as delicious salads, vegetable dumplings, samsa, pizza, and pasta.

Coffee Houses, Bakeries, and Patisseries

Recently, Tashkent has become a very comfortable city for coffee lovers: there are now many western-style coffee shops in the capital. Café-bakeries where customers can buy freshly-baked bread, baguettes, croissants, cakes, and pastries, are also flourishing.