Khiva Moon — Restaurant in Khiva

I along with some friends ate at Khiva Moon about 3 weeks ago (August 2023) and I think I have finally recovered from the trauma to write this review.

TLDR; I don’t know why the reviews are good, went with friends it was truly terrible maybe an off night or worse.

For start, we were really looking forward to a good dinner after a long journey to the Aral Sea and Khiva Moon came highly recommended. It turned out to be one of the most disappointing experiences of m my life.

It’s hard to know where to start so: Every dish that arrived was cold (ok + for salad but not so good for everything else). The food was clearly prepared earlier in the day and microwaved. At this stage I had been in Uzbekistan for 2 weeks and had a fair idea of what each dish we ordered should taste like. At Khiva Moon we were treated to at best a bland and tepid interpretation of Uzbekistan’s most famous and excellent cuisine. The food was generally inedible and the meat could have come from a can.

Overall, we did not finish more than 15% of the food we ordered, one bite was sufficient to understand the disaster that was presented. I thought, with all these good reviews could the problem be me? Is it a reality TV show? Where is the hidden camera? But no, after another try it all became real, it was awful. Forcing someone to eat the food we received would be at least borderline a human rights offense. At least, the bottle of beer we each ordered and water was cold.

We dutifully paid and left to try again...

A little weird about the categorization of Khiva Moon it seems to be more on the hotel than the restaurant, which I wasn't aware that they had accommodation. Heard about this restaurant, one of the recommended restaurants in Khiva and just a short walk from the old city. Arrived slightly around 8pm and the outdoors was packed already. I wanted to sit outside but seemed like the tables were occupied and it was a bit chilly so I decided to take indoor seats. Quite a fair bit of dishes to choose from but I already decided that I wanted to try the green noodles Shivit oshi which is a specialty in Khiva. I also came across this dumpling like dish which is called the Gumma and also ordered it to try. First had the Shivit oshi which I thought was quite nice. The potatoes, meat and a little spicy sauce went well together. What surprised me what the Gumma which I loved it! What made me loved it was the thin pastry which tasted so good with a slight sweetness made the dumplings so delicious and tasty. Definitely recommend these 2 local dishes in this restaurant and its definitely worth a visit. Probably bring something thick if you want to sit outside. Meal was also very...

We came here for a “Plov Cooking Masterclass” which was recommended to us by the tourism office. Clearly this is not very advertised but we LOVED it. We pre-booked the day before, arrived around 6pm. We were given hair nets, knives to chop the carrots and onions and off we went. We had a lady translating the instructions from the chef into English and showing us how to chop/cook. We were also able to ask whatever questions we had which was great as the lady spoke great English. Overall we did more assisting than actual cooking as the chef still did most of it. For future classes I’d really suggest Khiva Moon to allow customers to do everything from start to finish with just the chef helping here and there rather than the opposite. The good news in the way it was done is that we had an amazing and super delicious plov after 45min which we were able to enjoy on their terrace tables. We also received complimentary salad and water. All this for 150,000 UZS (10 EUR) per person!

We enjoyed this a lot given Plov is the national dish in Uzbekistan. However, I think improvements can be made to the...