Twenty one local rice cultivars of Sylhet, Eastern part of Bangladesh were evaluated for proximate physicochemical properties and cooking qualities. Rice cultivars were grown under field condition during the period from June to December, 2014 at the experimental field of the Department of Agronomy and Haor Agriculture, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet while grain quality characteristics were studied in the laboratory of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Gazipur. Thousand paddy weights ranged between 10.4 to 26 g. Milling outturn of the tested cultivars varied from 37.5- 69.8%. The length and breadth of the milled rice ranged from 4.5 to 7.2 mm and 2.0 to 2.9 mm, respectively. Length-breadth (L-b) ratio ranges 1.8 and 3.1. In grain size and shape, three cultivars were long and slender type grain, four cultivars were short and bold, thirteen cultivars were medium and bold types and only one cultivar found short and round. All cultivars had good appearance, among the cultivars ten translucent type, three opaque type and eight white belly type grain chalkiness were found. All cultivars contained low to high amylose ranges from 8.2 to 26.5% which indicate both sticky and non-sticky cultivars were present. Protein percent of the varieties ranged from 7.4 to 11.1%. Alkali Spreading Value ranged from 4.9 to 7% which indicate intermediate to low gelatinized temperature. Cooking time of the local cultivars was more or less similar and ranged from 14 to 19.3 minutes. Elongation ratio and volume expansion of the cultivars ranged from 1.1 to 1.6 and 2.4 to 3.5, respectively.