The food that Anvar Akhmedov cooks at Uzbegim, his restaurant at 5120 Geary Blvd. in the Richmond, reflects his personal journey through Central Asia, Europe, and the Mediterranean. These global influences pair well with Akhmedov’s other passion, soccer, which was featured on the restaurant’s two big-screen TVs as Bosnia-Herzegovina took on the US Men’s National Team (USMNT) in the knockout round of the World Cup on Wednesday.
At the outset of the match, Akhmedov predicted the USMNT had underestimated Bosnia-Herzegovina. Though the southeastern European country is tiny by comparison (pop. about 3.3 million), Akhmedov insisted that many of its players compete in the toughest European leagues.
Keeping one eye on the match, Akhmedov, 45, described growing up in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. He explained the influence of the city’s Silk Road history on his menu: small beef-filled dumplings from China; Russian borscht; Turkish and Persian kebabs. He described Uzbek lagman: spiced beef, onions, carrots, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes and onions cooked as a soup, and served over noodles.
Images of Samarkand were all around us. The ambiance was warm and surprisingly immune to the televisions and play-by-play. When the USMNT scored the first goal, Akhmedov waved it off, undisturbed. Before it was officially reviewed, he was sure that the US player was offside. As he predicted, the goal got called back.
Though Akhmedov was supporting Bosnia-Herzegovina, he reminded me that Uzbekistan had also qualified for the World Cup. Faced with stiff competition from Portugal and Columbia, the team was eliminated in the group round. Akhmedov told me that he left Uzbekistan for London due to economic hardship provoked by the country’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. There he attended culinary school, quickly moving from kitchen assistant to second chef at Camino, a Spanish restaurant.
“I did whatever was asked of me, I did everything exactly,” Akhmedov told me, adding that he learned how to prepare paella, croquetas, empanadas, and crema catelana. “You know, pulpo? Everything,” he said, referring to octopus.
In 2016, Akhmedov moved to New York City, then followed family members to the Bay Area a year later, landing a job cooking at The Battery, a private club, where he worked for six years.
After Covid hit, Akhmedov found himself out of work, then driving for Uber for two years. He convinced his sister, a nurse in New York, to loan him the money to start his own restaurant. “I know what the people want, and I know what the people eat,” he recalled telling her. “And I know how to organize a kitchen, you know, and work with teams.”
Uzbegim opened in October.
Akhmedov picked Uzbegim’s location at Geary Boulevard between 15th and 16th avenues to target San Francisco’s Russian community. Besides Russians, the restaurant attracts Bosnians, Albanians, Kosovars, Serbians and Czechs, many of them tourists, he told me. On Saturday and Sunday nights, he said, it’s hard to get a table.
“My idea was to bring here many countries, many, many different countries, and people,” he said.
Early on Wednesday night the restaurant was still quiet, with fewer customers than I expected there to watch the game.
Just before halftime, the USMNT scored its first goal. Akhmedov shrugged it off, explaining that the Americans were punching above their weight due to the home-crowd advantage. He noted that it was impossible to see a single Bosnian-Herzegovinan fan among the 70,000 people at Levi’s stadium.
Akhmedov invited me into his kitchen where he showed me his tandoor oven. Spotting a pan of noodles an assistant chef had placed on the stove, he instinctively stepped in to toss them.
Back at our table, he served a Greek salad, a plate of plov — a dish of rice pilaf, roasted beef, and carrots all cooked in special zig’ir oil — alongside non, a round, perfectly baked roll from Uzbekistan. As we ate, the match became an afterthought.
By the time we finished, the USMNT had won 2-0. Akhmedov poured a honey and mint tea, and credited the team’s coach, Mauricio Pochettino, an Argentine. The USMNT will have an easier time in the next round on Monday against Belgium, Akhmedov predicted. Bosnia-Herzegovina, he said, was a tougher opponent.
