Plov Festival 2026 — The Uzbek Food Event Travel Influencers Won't Shut Up About

2026-04-27 · 6 min read · Food

One kitchen, ten cauldrons, 7,000 plates of plov a day. The Central Asian Plov Center in Tashkent has become the single most-filmed restaurant in Uzbekistan — and the 2026 World Plov Festival is making it bigger.

Plov (palov, osh) is the national dish of Uzbekistan — rice cooked with lamb, carrots and cumin in a single giant cauldron called a qozon. In 2026 it's also the country's biggest viral food export, thanks to one institution: the Central Asian Plov Center in Tashkent.

The Plov Center 101

• Address: Iftikhor St 1, Tashkent (next to TV Tower).
• Hours: 11:00–15:00 daily. They sell out — usually gone by 14:00.
• Price: 45,000–65,000 UZS ($3.50–5) per portion.
• Specialty: Tashkent-style plov with kazy (horse sausage), quail eggs and chickpeas.
• Capacity: 7,000+ portions a day across 10 cauldrons, the biggest weighing nearly a ton.

World Plov Festival 2026

The annual festival runs September 8–13, 2026 in Tashkent. Cauldrons from every region of Uzbekistan compete — Samarkand wedding plov, Fergana cumin-heavy plov, Khorezm shavla, Bukharian Jewish bakhsh. Free entry, paid tastings (~$2–4 per plate), and live shashlik grilling. Best day to attend: the Saturday for the cook-off finals.

How to skip the line at the Plov Center

• Arrive at 11:00 sharp when doors open — no line yet.
• Skip the dining hall on the right; the takeout window on the left is 5x faster.
• Order in Uzbek: 'bir porsiya osh, iltimos' (one portion of plov, please).
• Don't pre-pay through guides who charge $20 'tour' fees. Pay cash at the counter for $4.

Beyond the Plov Center

• Besh Qozon — the original sister restaurant, smaller, equally good.
• Yusuf Plov (Samarkand) — wedding-style plov with raisins and dried apricots, lighter than Tashkent's.
• Manas (Fergana) — countryside plov with hand-pulled noodles on the side.

Etiquette

Eat with a spoon (most foreigners do) or with your right hand from the communal plate (locals at home). Bread is sacred — don't put non upside down. Tea before food, not water. Say 'rahmat' (thank you) when you finish, and expect a refill before you can object.