Melodiya — Restaurant in Bukhara City

Non-Uzbek/Russian Speaker: Potential tourist overcharge/rip-off

I've never left my restaurant review before, but I wanted to share this in case anyone is planning to go to this restaurant today. This review is based on my experience as a solo traveler.

I ordered tomato and cucumber salad, 1.5 Litter of sparkling water, 1 bread, and 1 bbq rib skewer (one of previous reviews said it came with 4 skewers per order but I just received 1 skewer) . My order was UZS 55,000, which I didn't find it particularly cheap for Uzbek standard. The rib skewer was good, but 1 skewer wouldn't be enough for most people. I ate bread and salad to fill my stomach. From what I paid, you can get cheaper food at many of the tourist trap restaurants near the main area in Bukhara.

Looking at previous reviews, I have a feeling that I was way overcharged for my food. I love good food, but I hate dishonest business more than anything else.

I do want to emphasize my negative feedback was only about the overcharge. My experience with the waiter was very pleasant. He told me how to say each dish I order in Uzbek and I told him how to say those in English. I had to use my translation app along with hand gesture when ordering my food, but he was very patient, and I appreciated that a lot.

If you speak Uzbek or Russian, then you will most likely enjoy your meal. If you don't, you may take a risk of being ripped off and have an unpleasant dining experience.

It's unfortunate they decided to take an advantage of tourists when tourists can bring more tourists as they like to recommend other tourists about the local spots they tried and had a good experience with. This brings more customers to the restaurant, which is consequently a good business for...

Very friendly atmosphere even they do not know english. I got my beer just across the street and sit in this restaurant almost 2 hours. Nobody bothered me even once. Lamb (qoy) and beef (inek) shashlik was great. Beef was 76K and lamb was 90K som. 4 huge sticks they bring which is good for 2 people (more than 500gr meat i guess). Tell them you want half (yarim) portion if you are bu yourself. 2 sticks will come with half price written in the menu. They did not charge any extras. And meat was spectacular. They are a little slow (it takes 20-30 minutes) but they do it in a slow cooking way for the goodness of costumers. I strongly recommend this local place if you don’t wanna get ripped of by the tourist trap restaurants. This place is half price compare to downtown places. Dont forget to bring your alcohol. You can enjoy while...

I’ve been backpacking in Central Asia now for almost two months.. seeking out local cafes and restaurants from Almaty to Osh, and all through Tajikistan and Samarkand. This was the BEST meal I’ve had all summer. The tandoor plate ranks up there as some of the best meat I’ve ever tasted in my life.. and the shashlyk ribs I had were outstanding (I ordered way too much food by accident).

I came upon this place when my taxi driver tried to drop me off at Karavan around the corner. There was nobody there except for the staff, so I looked around for somewhere else nearby, and Melodiya was very popular, so I figured it must be good. No English is spoken FYI. Prices are local/cheap. (1 kg of tandoor is 80,000 som, feeds 3-4.. I ordered 20,000 som worth for only me, and it...