Mojitos in Moscow

The new Moscow is all about style, so it is hardly surprising that the city should now have numerous restaurants designed to transport the diner into ever more extravagant realms. These restaurants, largely the brainchilds of entrepreneurs Arkady Novikov and Andrei Dellos, are much more about the staging than the food. They are sites of performance, both literally, in the concerts and films they host, and figuratively, in the performances that take place among the diners, who are there to be on display (along with the Bentleys or Rolls Royces or Hummers they have parked outside). 

Nearly all the “in” places share certain features: they aspire to serve food that is lighter than traditional Russian fare; they have sushi on the menu, even in avowedly French or Russian kitchens (a phenomenon Russians call sushimania); and they offer hookahs with flavored blends after the meal.

What follows is a small sampling of some of Moscow’s trendiest restaurants. Be sure to arrive with an appetite, as the portions are large. It also helps to have a deep pocket, since meals at most of these restaurants will set you back a pretty penny.

Недальный восток (Tverskoi bulvar, 15/2). Near East, one of Arkady Novikov’s latest ventures, specializes in seafood and sushi. Of all the restaurants I visited, this one offered the freshest and most sophisticated food. I enjoyed exceptional stroganina, a traditional Siberian preparation of shaved frozen fish, accompanied here by lime, pickled red onion, orange and ginger relish, and soy sauce. Salmon tartare with cilantro and Kamchatka crab sushi rounded out my piscatory meal. 

Галерея (Petrovka, 27).  Not surprisingly, Gallery Art Café hosts changing exhibitions of contemporary art. Billing itself as a marriage of capital and art, a place where smart, beautiful people can find others equally beautiful and smart, the café engages in “face control” – though they assured me that it is enforced only on weekends. The kitchen sends out Japanese, European, Asian, Italian, French, and Russian food, in addition to the chef’s signature dishes. For foreigners craving a taste of Russia, Gallery offers a “Russian Nostalgia Menu,” featuring artfully prepared cakes like Tort ptiche moloko, named after the cake and candies so popular in Soviet times, with their ethereally light filling. 

Vogue Café (Kuznetsky Most, 7/9) was conceived as a place where Condé Nast editors could enjoy a New York-style business lunch (biznes lanch) at a reasonable price. Every two weeks the menu changes. I was lucky enough to sample Olivier salad with smoked salmon and two kinds of peas (fresh and canned), a fabulous fresh sorrel soup, and chicken cutlets – a nostalgic menu presented in a sophisticated guise. For dessert I splurged on the signature wild strawberry soup available at many of Novikov’s restaurants, prepared from strawberries cultivated in his own greenhouses on the outskirts of Moscow. 

Бар Denis Simachev (Stoleshnikov pereulok, 12). The fashion designer Denis Simachev has opened a restaurant on the ground floor of the central Moscow boutique that sells his over-the-top creations. In warm weather it is lovely to sit outside on the terrace and drink a fresh berry mojito while watching the fashionistas parade by.

Турандот (Turandot, Tverskoi bulvar, 26/5). This Andrei Dellos fantasy is a recreation of an eighteenth-century French palace, all marble and rococo. Diners are greeted by staff in period costume, complete with powdered wigs. During dinner, a chamber orchestra plays in the center of the balconied dining room. In a nod to the legendary princess made famous by Puccini’s opera, the menu is – somewhat jarringly for the surroundings – both Asian and European. 

Ресторан Fresh (Petrovka, 21). With its spa menu, Fresh epitomizes the current trend toward simple, healthy foods. The presentations are gorgeous – most food comes in dramatic glass vessels – but the kitchen has not fully mastered every culinary technique. Nevertheless, this restaurant is worth a detour for its freshly squeezed juices, which are listed in terms of their functionality: detox, antioxidant, energy, relaxation. I chose the lime, orange and mango “Center of Happiness” and admittedly left the restaurant in a cheerful mood.

A.V.E.N.U.E (Barvikha Luxury Village, d. 114). This elegant restaurant is situated among the new dealerships for Bentley, Maserati, and Lamborghini that have opened in Barvikha Luxury Village just outside the Moscow city limits, not far from Putin’s dacha. It caters to the ultra-rich, like those who participated in the Bentley Party for Bentley owners from around the world. Even so, the rest of us plebes can still stop in for gorgeous desserts from the hand of talented French pastry chef David Dessaux.