The khachapuri was piping hot when I brought the tray to my table at Post HTX. Though Foreign Grill is dressed in the industrial trappings of concrete and steel, its food carries the weight of homestyle cooking. It feels even heavier as the country of Uzbekistan arrives in Houston to battle Portugal during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Uzbekistan faces Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal on Tuesday in a Group K matchup at Houston Stadium. A throng of Uzbek fans, numbering possibly in the thousands, undertook a hot march to the venue also known as NRG Stadium for the action. It’s Uzbekistan’s first-ever World Cup appearance, and, coincidentally, it’s perhaps the first time that many in Houston have ever seen an Uzbek. Leaders of the Uzbek American Society of Houston told the Houston Chronicle that the local Uzbek population was roughly 200 to 300 people.
Places like Foreign Grill are just one of the few windows into Uzbekistan, a Central Asian country about 7,400 miles away from Houston.
I visited Foreign Grill in April, right around the same time Pink Pantheress was playing at the conjoining 713 Music Hall. The food court was busy with visiting concert goers, but the restaurant sat disturbingly empty in its little corner. The only activity inside was the kitchen where its staff, all women, busied themselves with the oven and pastries they were stuffing. I ordered a trio of khachapuri—Georgian bread bowls filled with melted cheese and egg, potatoes and mushroom, and potatoes and chicken.
Bread really is the star of Foreign Grill, which specializes in the cuisine that crosses multiple present nations that were formerly part of the Soviet Union, including Georgia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Each of my breads had that unmistakable stain of flour beneath it, a signal of scratch made cooking, along with a slightly crisp outer layer and a warm, pillowy first bited. It’s one of those rare instances where I feel that the restaurant could just get away with serving its bread as is, versus all the other embellishments.
Beck and Irina Mamataliyev opened Foreign Grill in 2023.
“I am Uzbek from Uzbekistan, and my wife is from Ukraine. Over the years, our family went through six immigrations and lived in many different countries and cultures. Through that journey, food became a very important part of our life and identity,” Beck told Chron in May.
Foreign Grill came about after Beck said he lost stable work during COVID. The life change inspired the family to open a restaurant using their life experiences as the foundation. Today, it exists as apparently the only Uzbek-owned restaurant in the city. Besides bread, the restaurant also serves a number of items from the post-Soviet diaspora, including plov, khinkali and somsa.
Kickoff for the Uzbekistan and Portugal match may have already happened by the time you’re reading this. Its next match will be June 27 in Atlanta against the Democratic Republic of Congo. But long after the team’s historic debut, Foreign Grill will still be at Post HTX, making their delicious bread.