Jam — Restaurant in Bukhara City

Absolutely disappointed at our experience. We entered and noted two things immediately: high prices of the menu and not a single local dining there which signals a red flag (there were several loud tourist groups though).

The skewers came extremely slow. I’m not sure if it’s because of the tour groups but service was definitely not fast. The ambiance was also destroyed by tourist groups yelling loudly in their own native language.

The chicken wings were not very well seasoned and the lamb skewers were extremely salty. I’m usually not a picky person but the food just wasn’t up to par compared with anything we’ve had in Uzbekistan so far.

Usually I don’t like writing bad reviews as everyone is trying to make an honest living but the absolute worst thing was when we paid for the dinner, we expected to get 2,000 SOM back. When we asked for it, the person at the counter became extremely aggressive without hesitation and started yelling. What was most unreasonable was he started pointing to the camera immediately as if we committed a crime (the irony is he was the one trying to shortchange us).

Eventually a staff member came, counted the money and confirmed we should get 2,000 SOM back and so that was resolved.

The money value itself is not significant but it’s the principle of how things work. This restaurant tried to pull a fast one on us and made it look like we were in the wrong.

Avoid this place and leave them to deal with their tourist groups as that seems to be their concern. Ask your hotel or host for a truly authentic place because...

We got to this restaurant thinking it would be great, given the rave reviews. It was not. We kept waiting and waiting for someone to come take our orders, and once they came, they told us we had the old menus, so they brought us the new ones (which contained a lot less options). we waited for a long time AGAIN, and then someone came to take our orders: everything we ordered, they were out of (mind you, it was 9 PM, not the middle of the night), and the waiters were verifying if they still had what we wanted on the spot, many times telling us "yes we have it", and then changing their minds. then for several items, they told us we had to order "at least 2 or 3 pieces", which was not mentioned anywhere on the menu. we had to rework our orders again. as if the menu issues and language barrier (barely anyone spoke a word of English or even Russian) weren't enough, while we were trying to order our food (we had been there for an hour at this point) they kept enabling a group of drunk and loud Russian ladies by blasting loud music for them so they could dance in the middle of the dining hall, making it even harder for us to communicate or hear each other, and every time one of them drunkenly approached the waiter taking our order, he would interrupt what he was doing with us to attend to them.

once the food came in (what we managed to even order), it was barely okay, and definitely no better than most other restaurants we've been to, as the reviews would suggest.

terrible customer experience, never go to...

I really cannot get the good rating this place has after trying it out ourselves. Maybe something has changed and it used to be better in the past. I order the Lyulya kebab/lula kebab and it was two small completely tasteless kebabs of minced meat, not sure if they had even put any spices in there at all, served with some quite soggy and also tasteless french fries and even ketchup. For a children's menu this might work but... Nah, I was seriously disappointed with that. The manti my wife had were alright, but nothing special, and you can have the same for much cheaper elsewhere. The interior of the restaurant is good but the food was really not worth it. Maybe it was also bad choices from us and other foods, like the plov, might have been better. But we wanted to order the plov instead at first, and I asked the waiter what the size of the plov was and he answered that it is quite small and for one person, but then when we told him we want one he said they don't have it anymore today. Then why even answer to start with, just tell us right away you don't have it. The waiter felt a bit unserious too because of that. It is a short walk outside of the main tourist centre and it was recommended on a travel blog/article so I was really surprised it was such low quality, it feels like a tourist trap even though it's not right in the middle of the main...