Top Rated Pizza Joints in Bukhara That Locals Swear By

Bukhara is a city most travelers associate with turquoise domes, ancient madrasahs, and the smell of freshly baked non wafting from roadside tandyrs. But spend a few weeks here, and you will start craving something completely different. The top rated pizza joints in Bukhara have quietly multiplied over the past decade, driven by a young Uzbek population that grew up watching Italian food videos online and a small but steady stream of international visitors who want a break from plov. I have lived in this city for most of my life, and I have eaten at every place on this list more than once. Some of them are run by Italians who moved here years ago, others by local cooks who trained in Tashkent and came back home. What they all share is a genuine commitment to the craft, not just slapping cheese on dough and calling it a day.

Pizza Bella on Bakhauddin Naqshband Street

Pizza Bella sits right on Bakhauddin Naqshband Street, just a short walk from the famous mausoleum of the same name. You will not miss it because the owner, Marco, an Italian man from Naples who married a Bukhara woman, painted the shutters a bright Mediterranean blue that stands out against the earth-toned walls of the old neighborhood. The oven is wood-fired, and Marco imports his San Marzano tomatoes directly from Campania. I have watched him reject shipments of local tomatoes that did not meet his acidity standards, which tells you everything about his priorities.

What to Order: The Margherita with buffalo mozzarella, which Marco sources through a cold-chain supplier in Tashkent. The crust gets that leopard-spotted char you only get from a properly hot wood fire.

Best Time: Weekday evenings between 6:00 and 7:30 PM. Marco closes early, often by 9:00 PM, and weekends get packed with families from the old city who reserve tables days in advance.

The Vibe: Tiny, maybe eight tables, with Italian pop music playing softly and a chalkboard menu that changes based on what arrived from Tashkent that week. The drawback is that the space gets uncomfortably warm in peak summer because the wood oven has no proper ventilation channel to the outside.

Local Tip: Ask Marco to make you the "Naqshband" special, which is not on the menu. It is a white pizza with local Uzbek cream cheese, walnuts, and a drizzle of honey from the Samarkand region. He only makes it for people he recognizes or who come with a recommendation.

Casa Pizza in the Lyab-i Hauz Neighborhood

Casa Pizza occupies a converted courtyard house about forty meters from the Lyab-i Hauz pool, tucked between a carpet shop and a small bookbinding workshop. The owner, a Bukhara native named Jasur, spent two years working at a pizzeria in Moscow before returning home and opening this place in 2018. The building itself is over a hundred years old, with original carved wooden columns supporting the ceiling of the main dining room. Eating here feels like having dinner in someone's grandmother's house, if that grandmother happened to own a stone pizza oven.

What to Order: The "Bukhara Special," which layers spiced lamb, pickled onions, and a yogurt-based sauce over a thin crust. It is the closest thing to a fusion between Uzbek flavors and Italian technique that I have found in this city.

Best Time: Late afternoon, around 4:00 PM, when the light comes through the courtyard windows and hits the pool of the nearby hauz. Tourists are usually still out sightseeing, so you get the place mostly to yourself.

The Vibe: Relaxed and unhurried, with mismatched ceramic plates and a small herb garden growing in the corner of the courtyard. The Wi-Fi drops out near the back tables, which can be frustrating if you are trying to work but is actually a blessing if you want to disconnect.

Local Tip: Jasur keeps a second oven in the back that he uses for a rectangular Sicilian-style pizza. It is not listed on the menu, but if you ask for "pizza al taglio," he will slice it by weight and charge you roughly 35,000 to 45,000 Uzbek som per piece depending on the toppings.

Best Casual Pizza Bukhara: The Old City Spots

The old city of Bukhara has a handful of small pizza counters that do not try to be restaurants. They are takeaway windows, standing-room-only counters, and tiny rooms with three tables shoved against the wall. These are the places where local pizza spots Bukhara residents actually go on a Tuesday night when they do not feel like cooking. The best casual pizza Bukhara has to offer comes from these unpretentious holes-in-the-wall, where the focus is entirely on speed, price, and flavor.

Pizza House Bukhara on Makhdumi Azam Street

Pizza House Bukhara is a narrow storefront on Makhdumi Azam Street, roughly halfway between the Kalyan Minaret and the Ark Citadel. There is no seating inside, just a counter where you order and a pickup window where your pizza arrives. The owner, a young man named Sardor, runs the place with his two brothers, and they have been operating since 2016. Their dough is made fresh each morning and left to rise for eight hours, which gives it a tangy, almost sourdough-like quality that you do not expect from a takeaway counter.

What to Order: The pepperoni, which uses a locally made beef salami from a butcher in the Kolkhozabad market. It is spicier than anything you would get in Italy, with a paprika-heat that lingers.

Best Time: Lunch, between 12:00 and 1:30 PM, when the bread from the nearby tandyr ovens is still warm and Sardor's mother sometimes brings fresh non for customers waiting in line.

The Vibe: Pure function. You order, you wait, you eat standing up or walk home with a box. The line can stretch to fifteen or twenty people on Friday afternoons, so plan accordingly.

Local Tip: Sardor offers a "student discount" of about 15% if you show a university ID. He started this during the pandemic to keep sales flowing, and he never stopped. Most tourists do not know about it because it is only advertised in Uzbek on a small sign near the register.

Dodo Pizza on Amir Temur Street

Dodo Pizza is a Russian chain that opened its Bukhara branch on Amir Temur Street in 2021, and I will be honest, I was skeptical at first. But the local franchisee, a woman named Gulchehra, has adapted the menu in ways the corporate office in Moscow probably never intended. She added a lachati pizza with Uzbek flatbread as the base, a chicken tikka option with cumin yogurt, and a seasonal pumpkin pizza in autumn that uses roasted local pumpkins. The delivery radius covers most of the central city, and I have ordered from her enough times that she recognizes my voice on the phone.

What to Order: The "Bukhara Mix," which combines beef, lamb, bell peppers, and olives on a standard Dodo crust. It is the best-selling item in the branch, and Gulchehra told me it outsells the classic pepperoni three to one.

Best Time: Evenings after 7:00 PM, when the delivery drivers are less busy and your pizza arrives with the cheese still bubbling. Daytime deliveries during lunch rush can take up to 50 minutes.

The Vibe: A small dine-in area with maybe six seats, decorated with the standard Dodo branding but with a few local touches, including a framed photo of the Kalyan Minaret that Gulchehra hung herself. The dine-in area gets uncomfortably warm in peak summer because the air conditioning unit is undersized for the kitchen heat output.

Local Tip: If you order for pickup instead of delivery, Gulchehra sometimes throws in a free order of garlic bread. She does this on slow nights, usually Mondays and Tuesdays, when foot traffic on Amir Temur Street drops significantly.

Cheap Pizza Bukhara: Where Students and Workers Eat

Finding cheap pizza Bukhara residents can rely on for a regular meal is not hard, but finding cheap pizza that is actually good requires some local knowledge. The places in this section charge between 25,000 and 50,000 Uzbek som for a full pizza, which is roughly two to four US dollars at current exchange rates. These are the spots where university students, taxi drivers, and shop workers go when they want something hot and filling without spending a full day's wages.

Pizza Land on Bakhautdin Nakshband Street (New Location)

There are two Pizza Land locations in Bukhara now. The original is near the bazaar district, and the newer one opened in 2022 on Bakhautdin Nakshband Street, closer to the university area. The newer location has a larger dining room and a visible kitchen where you can watch the cook stretch dough by hand. The owner, Alisher, told me he keeps prices low by making his own mozzarella from milk purchased at the wholesale market near the train station. It is not the stretchy, rubbery mozzarella you get from industrial suppliers. It melts into pools with a slightly sweet, fresh-milk flavor.

What To Order: The four-cheese pizza, which uses Alisher's homemade mozzarella, a local aged hard cheese, cream cheese, and a small amount of blue cheese that he imports from a dairy in Kashkadarya province.

Best Time: Early dinner, around 5:30 PM, before the university crowd floods in after classes end at 6:00 PM. After 7:00 PM on weeknights, you may wait thirty minutes for a table.

The Vibe: Bright, loud, and social. The walls are covered with handwritten notes from customers, a tradition Alisher started during the pandemic when he let people write messages on paper plates and pin them up. The music is always Uzbek pop, played at a volume that makes conversation difficult in the back corner.

Local Tip: Alisher runs a "pizza of the week" special that he announces on his personal Instagram page. It is always priced at exactly 30,000 som, regardless of toppings, and it is usually something creative, like a pizza with smoked fish and capers or one with roasted eggplant and garlic sauce.

Fast Pizza on Navoi Street

Fast Pizza on Navoi Street is not trying to win any ambiance awards. It is a fluorescent-lit room with plastic chairs, a single ceiling fan, and a menu board written in marker on a whiteboard. But the pizza is genuinely good, and the price is the lowest I have found for a full-sized pie in central Bukhara. The cook, a quiet man named Rustam, previously worked at a bakery in the industrial district and brings a bread-maker's understanding of fermentation to his dough. Every pizza here is thin-crusted, slightly crispy on the bottom, and cut into squares rather than triangles.

What to Order: The mushroom pizza, which uses a mix of locally foraged chanterelles in autumn and button mushrooms the rest of the year. Rustam sautés the mushrooms in butter before they go on the pizza, which keeps the crust from getting soggy.

Best Time: Anytime. This place does not have peak hours because it does not have enough customers to create a rush. That is part of its appeal. You walk in, you order, you eat in fifteen minutes, and you leave.

The Vibe: Utilitarian and honest. The fluorescent lighting is harsh, and the plastic chairs are not comfortable for long stays, but nobody comes here to linger. You come here because you want a good pizza for under 30,000 som and you do not care about anything else.

Local Tip: Rustam closes every day from 2:00 to 3:00 PM for his afternoon prayer and rest. If you show up during that window, the door will be locked. Plan around it.

Local Pizza Spots Bukhara: The Neighborhood Favorites

Beyond the old city and the main commercial streets, Bukhara has residential neighborhoods where small pizza places serve a loyal local crowd. These local pizza spots Bukhara families visit on weekends are rarely mentioned in travel guides, but they often have the most character and the most affordable prices.

Pizza Time Bukhara in the Baitakor District

Pizza Time Bukhara operates out of a converted garage in the Baitakor district, a residential area about three kilometers north of the old city center. The owner, a retired engineer named Murad, built the brick oven himself using a design he found in an Italian cooking magazine at the city library. He opened the place in 2019 as a hobby, and it has since become a neighborhood institution. There are only five tables, and Murad's wife handles the front of house, taking orders in a mix of Uzbek and Russian while their teenage son runs the oven.

What to Order: The "Baitakor," which is a thick-crust pizza with braised beef, pickled cucumbers, and a garlic-cream sauce. Murad slow-cooks the beef for four hours before it goes on the pizza, and the result is tender enough to cut with a fork.

Best Time: Weekend evenings, Friday through Sunday, when Murad makes his full menu. During the week, he sometimes closes if he does not feel like cooking, which is the honest truth of running a one-family operation.

The Vibe: Like eating in someone's home. Murad's wife brings tea after every meal, and Murad himself sometimes comes out to chat with guests about the history of the neighborhood. The garage door stays open in warm weather, and the smell of baking dough drifts into the street, drawing in passersby.

Local Tip: Murad makes a dessert pizza with sweetened cottage cheese, raisins, and a dusting of cinnamon. It costs 20,000 som and is only available on Fridays. He learned the recipe from his mother, who used to make a similar dish in a tandyr oven when he was a child.

Il Forno on Shamsi Street

Il Forno is a small Italian-Uzbek fusion restaurant on Shamsi Street, in a neighborhood known for its Soviet-era apartment blocks and a large produce market. The head chef, Davron, trained at a culinary school in Tashkent and then spent a year staging at a restaurant in Milan. He returned to Bukhara in 2020 and opened Il Forno with money borrowed from his family. The restaurant seats maybe twenty people, and the open kitchen takes up half the room, so you can watch Davron work the oven while you eat.

What to Order: The "Navruz" pizza, which changes seasonally. In spring, it features fresh herbs, peas, and a soft cheese. In winter, it uses preserved meats, roasted root vegetables, and a pomegranate molasses drizzle. Whatever version you get, the crust is always excellent, with a chewy interior and a blistered exterior.

Best Time: Dinner on Thursdays and Fridays, when Davron prepares his most elaborate specials. The restaurant is closed on Mondays, and Tuesday through Thursday the menu is limited to about six standard options.

The Vibe: Intimate and slightly chaotic. The open kitchen means the room fills with smoke if Davron is turning pizzas quickly, and the ventilation system struggles to keep up. But the food is worth the occasional cough, and the smell of wood smoke on your clothes afterward is honestly not a bad souvenir.

Local Tip: Davron offers a cooking class on Saturday mornings for groups of three to six people. It costs about 150,000 som per person and includes making your own pizza from scratch, baking it, and eating it with a glass of local wine from the Khovrenko winery in Samarkand. You need to book at least three days in advance.

The Italian Connection: Expats and Returnees Shaping Bukhara's Pizza Scene

Bukhara's pizza culture would not exist in its current form without the influence of Italians who settled here and Uzbeks who brought Italian techniques back from abroad. The top rated pizza joints in Bukhara owe their quality to this cross-cultural exchange, and understanding it makes every bite more interesting.

Marco's Workshop at Pizza Bella

Beyond running Pizza Bella, Marco holds monthly pizza-making workshops in his restaurant kitchen. These are informal gatherings, usually on Sunday afternoons, where up to ten people learn to stretch dough, manage a wood-fired oven, and balance toppings. Marco teaches in Italian, and his wife translates into Uzbek. I attended one in the spring of 2023, and the group included a retired schoolteacher, two university students, and a taxi driver who said he wanted to open his own pizza place someday.

What to Do: Arrive by 2:00 PM on the last Sunday of the month. Marco provides all ingredients and tools. You take home whatever you cannot eat, which is usually at least one full pizza.

Best Time: Spring and autumn, when the courtyard temperature is comfortable enough to stand near a wood oven for two hours. Summer workshops are technically available but brutally hot.

The Vibe: Educational and social. Marco is a patient teacher who genuinely cares about spreading pizza knowledge in Bukhara. The drawback is that the workshop schedule is irregular, and Marco sometimes cancels if he has a family obligation or a supply issue.

Local Tip: Marco sources his flour from a mill in the Fergana Valley that grinds a high-protein wheat ideal for pizza dough. If you ask him about it, he will likely give you the mill's contact information and encourage you to buy directly, though the minimum order is usually 50 kilograms.

When to Go and What to Know

Bukhara's pizza places operate on schedules that reflect local life, not tourist convenience. Most open between 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM and close between 9:00 PM and 11:00 PM. Friday afternoons are the busiest time across the board, because families treat eating out as a weekend ritual. If you want a quiet experience, aim for Tuesday or Wednesday evenings. Cash is still king at most local spots, though the larger and newer places accept Uzbek bank cards through the Humo and Uzcard systems. International credit cards rarely work at smaller venues, so carry enough som to cover your meal. Tipping is not expected but appreciated, and rounding up the bill by 5% to 10% is a generous gesture that servers remember.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Bukhara expensive to visit? Give a realistic daily budget breakdown for mid-tier travelers.

A mid-tier daily budget in Bukhara runs between 350,000 and 600,000 Uzbek som, which is roughly 28 to 48 US dollars at current exchange rates. A mid-range hotel or guesthouse costs 150,000 to 250,000 som per night, a meal at a decent restaurant runs 40,000 to 80,000 som, and a taxi within the city rarely exceeds 15,000 to 20,000 som. Entry to most historical sites costs between 10,000 and 30,000 som, with the Kalyan Minaret and Ark Citadel being among the priciest.

Is the tap water in Bukhara safe to drink, or should travelers strictly rely on filtered water options?

Tap water in Bukhara is not safe to drink directly. The municipal supply is treated but the aging pipe infrastructure introduces contamination, and most locals boil or filter their water at home. Bottled water costs around 5,000 to 10,000 som for a 1.5-liter bottle at any corner shop, and most restaurants use filtered or bottled water for cooking and drinking. Stick to bottled or boiled water to avoid stomach issues.

What is the one must-try local specialty food or drink that Bukhara is famous for?

Bukhara is famous for its plov, specifically the wedding-style Bukhara plov prepared with rice, yellow carrots, chickpeas, and either lamb or beef, all cooked in a single massive kazan over an open fire. The best version is traditionally served at noon and is considered a midday meal rather than a dinner dish. You can find it at the Plov Center near the bazaar, where a full portion costs around 35,000 to 50,000 som.

How easy is it to find pure vegetarian, vegan, or plant-based dining options in Bukhara?

Finding strictly vegan options is difficult because most Uzbek cuisine relies on meat, dairy, and animal fats. However, several pizza places in Bukhara offer vegetarian pizzas with cheese and vegetables, and you can request no cheese at places like Pizza Bella or Il Forno to get a vegan-friendly pie. Salads and vegetable soups are available at most local restaurants, but you should clarify that no meat broth or animal fat is used in preparation.

Are there any specific dress codes or cultural etiquettes to keep in mind when visiting local spots in Bukhara?

Bukhara is a conservative city, and visitors should dress modestly, covering shoulders and knees, especially when visiting mosques, madrasahs, and the Lyab-i Hauz area. Inside casual restaurants and pizza places, the dress code is relaxed, but locals tend to dress neatly even for informal meals. Remove your shoes if you see a shoe rack at the entrance of any home or traditional-style establishment. Public displays of affection are frowned upon, and speaking loudly in religious or historical spaces is considered disrespectful.