Restaurants, Cafes and Bars

A tour to St Petersburg or Moscow will provide a large selection of the highest quality food in the city. During the soviet era, eating out was a rare luxury that only several people could afford. A few years following the reconstruction of Russia (after the Soviet era) restaurants have had a booming experience with many openings across the country. New restaurants open and close every week with some charge affordable prices while others are for the more wealthy customers.

New opening restaurants range from cheap student cafes to highly exclusive sushi restaurants. Aside from these all of the major cuisine restaurants are available. These include Russian, modern European, Indian and Chinese as well as ones offering dishes from the soviet era such as Georgian, Armenian and Uzbek.

If a tourist should have any hunger there will be no problem in finding the right dish to satisfy their stomach. The best location to eat is in the heart of Moscow where the largest range, both food type and budget, of cuisine can be found. Most of these are easy to reach with the metro or by the Trans-Siberian railway if you are going a bit further. The Tverskaya ulitsa has the highest variety of restaurants from Russian and Georgian to Italian and Japanese. Recently a more mainstream McDonald’s restaurant has been introduced. Other locations such as the Ulitsa Arbat and the Triumfalnaya ploshchad have plenty of cuisine to choose from too.

Restaurants that serve international cuisine usually have menus that are both in Russian and English, or the added option of only English. These restaurants contain English speaking waiting staff specifically geared towards foreigners. For more local and smaller restaurants some knowledge of Cyrillic will greatly help in understanding the menu.

Despite Moscow being in Russia there are few Russian specific restaurants found there. This is partly due to Russians not being people that frequently dine out. Much of the best Russian food is either homemade dishes or soups which are passed down in recipes from past generations. Other Russian iconic food includes salted and cured fish and caviar. More information www.tourtorussia.com.au

Payment in certain Moscow restaurants, especially the smaller local ones, can be problematic due to them only accepting cash, although this is slowly changing. Restaurants offering Western or Asian cuisine normally accept credits cards but either way it is still better to call and check with the store if they accept payment by credit card. Much of the cuisine in Moscow contains meat therefore it will be difficult for vegetarians. Even some of the salads contain meat; therefore the best options for vegetarians are the beetroot and tomato platter.