Districts-quarters: how to choose a good restaurant not in the center of Moscow
Recently, the trend of opening new restaurants away from the historical center has been gaining momentum in Moscow. At the same time, the gastronomic level of such establishments is quite comparable to those offered in popular locations in the heart of the metropolis. Izvestia found out where you can have a delicious meal now without leaving your neighborhood.
Lark Cafe
Lark cafe on Nevelskogo Street has been successfully operating since 2022. This is a full-fledged restaurant with modern, bright and stylish food performed by chef Yuri Goloperov. He would not get lost within the Garden Ring, but he is quite comfortable among the skyscrapers of the Lefortovo residential complex.
Olivier of baked vegetables and salmon with Caesar sauce
Here you can taste, for example, salmon cheesecake, beef tartare with potato gratin and bearnaise sauce, dauphinois potatoes with octopus julienne, morels and porcini mushroom cream with cauliflower, or lamb shank confit with raspberry demiglas and cedar porridge.
Lamb drumstick confit with cedar porridge and pumpkin
However, the restaurant's menu is quite spacious and, on the whole, quite understandable, not overloaded with the notorious "meanings", not appealing to the mysterious "cultural DNA" and not overly complicated by advanced culinary techniques, which Goloperov is fluent in.
Therefore, everyone will find something for themselves here. For example, vitello tonnato with artichoke, olivier of baked vegetables with salmon, excellent borscht with stewed sour cream and homemade bacon, cacho e pepe, grilled steak, beef stroganoff with porcini mushrooms and truffle sour cream, cutlets with mashed potatoes and even a burger (although the chef prepares it from marbled beef, and complements jalapeno and honey cucumbers, bringing ordinary fast food to the restaurant level).
"Alma"
The elegant and spacious Alma restaurant opened in the summer of 2024 in the cluster of Moscow State University on Ramenskoye Boulevard and has already come to the attention of fans of delicious food. Moreover, the chef Evgeny Daldin is responsible for the cuisine here with a long track record, including high-profile St. Petersburg projects Harvest, Regions and Futurist.
Guacamole and zajiki
A fairly large menu combines Mediterranean classics and Asian notes. Spread and meze are placed in a separate section, of which there are quite a lot here — you should take bread or flatbread with them, especially since they are baked on the spot.
Veal Cheek Pie
Italian specialties deserve special attention in appetizers, such as juicy giant olives and artichokes in the Roman style, as well as broken radishes, which are gaining popularity in the Moscow gastroscene: the natural sharpness in it perfectly harmonizes with seasonings.
Hangover soup with oxtails and homemade noodles
During the winter holidays, the restaurant also has a special New Year's menu: if you want a holiday, you can take, for example, brioche with red caviar and smoked butter (the latter is not spared, so lovers of diets and healthy food should be careful) or ox tail jelly, which will be served with fragrant "earth" from Borodino bread and spicy sour cream sauce. But the hangover soup with oxtails is offered in a compromise version, so it's suitable not only after a hot party, but also just if you want to keep warm.
A delicate pie with beef cheeks and mushrooms, although it is listed as an appetizer, may well act as a hot one. If you are ready for heavy artillery, try veal cheeks in orange sauce with mashed potatoes — this Moscow classic is immaculately prepared here. And seafood lovers will enjoy a delicate octopus with Romesco cream with spinach, tomatoes and creamy garlic mousse.
Octopus with romesco cream with spinach, tomatoes and creamy garlic mousse
If you still have the strength for dessert after all this, the menu has all the necessary items for Moscow, but special attention should be paid to the apple tart — the unexpected bright sourness in the filling perfectly harmonizes with the accompanying lime sherbet and brings the taste buds back to life after a hearty meal.
"Turks"
Its own noticeable point of attraction has already appeared in the north-west of the capital. At the end of autumn, the Turki family restaurant opened in the Alía residential complex near the Spartak metro station from the Folk Team group, well-known to gourmets (it, in particular, owns Folk, Anchovy's Club, Padron). The creators of the project proposed a rather unusual concept, combining the stylized aesthetics of an American diner in the 1960s with Turkic cuisine.
The menu features traditional Turkish, Azerbaijani and Uzbek dishes in a version adapted to the taste of the capital, with moderate piquancy. Perhaps this will confuse those who are waiting and looking for complete authenticity, but for guests who are not too sophisticated in the subtleties of the listed culinary traditions, this approach will be more understandable and interesting.
Suzma with baked pepper
In the meze section, for example, creamy babaganush with smoke and the Turkic fermented milk product suzma with baked pepper and paprika are presented. You should definitely order crispy tandoor tortillas, which are prepared right there in the kitchen. Choban salad is made from selected sweet tomatoes and cucumbers, which perfectly play with aged but not too sharp sheep's cheese with olive oil and balsamic dressing. In the taste of baked beetroot served on a pillow of goat cheese with chard leaves and spinach, you can feel the interesting sweetness of the dressing of dates and mint.
Adana kebab made from the thigh of a young lamb
A tender and low-fat chicken kebab and a Turkish version of the same dish, adana (with spicy chopped lamb), are served with cole slow coleslaw and a mix of greens. The meat is spread on a very thin lavash, in which, if desired, you can wrap this kebab along with other ingredients. Juicy and soft Azerbaijani lamb dolma is prepared according to all the rules — small (so that it easily fits into the mouth as a whole) — and accompanied by a suzy sauce with a slight taste of garlic and dill.
Baku baklava with walnut in the shape of a diamond
The special pride of the establishment is the assorted Turkish and Baku baklava. The first one is prepared according to the canons, from 20 layers of filo dough (it is rolled out both on a machine imported from Turkey and manually). And the second one is made with walnuts and cashews. Both options impress not only with their exquisite taste, but also with their moderate sweetness. The dessert showcase as a whole is sure to be an additional good reason to come back here again and again.
"Meeting culture"
The restaurant "Culture of Meeting" on Michurinsky Prospekt opened at the very end of December. His concept is based on the idea that the food in a premium residential complex should be well-recognized, comfortable and as understandable as possible. Just such that the guests have the feeling of a home-cooked meal, even if not quite at home, but definitely nearby.
Beef borscht
The menu includes herring on Borodino toast, rich borscht with sour cream, fried potatoes with mushrooms, dumplings, stuffed peppers, cabbage rolls, cutlet with mashed potatoes, buckwheat with onions, honey cake and much more from the familiar Soviet heritage.
Pork and beef dumplings in strong broth
Vladimir Chistyakov and Timofey Sulima are responsible for the kitchen, the chefs are experienced and have a long track record. Therefore, their food only pretends to be simple — each dish has some important nuance that distinguishes the restaurant's position from ordinary homemade cooking. So dumplings with two types of meat are served in strong and spicy beef broth (it is prepared separately and for quite a long time), salad with chicken and vegetables is seasoned with anchovy sauce, and dumplings with pumpkin are served with foie gras sauce. Of course, the service here is restaurant—style and modern.
There are also more complex positions like trout gravlax with beetroot and horseradish mousse, rieta with soaked radishes, cheese gougers with smoked trout, stewed beef cheek in wine sauce or foie gras steak with spicy pear. In a word, delicious food at home, but still not at all homemade, but only seemingly so.
"Gastrodacha of the Universe"
The Vselug Gastrodacha is located in Kholodny Lane, in the heart of the Tula business cluster. The location is not the most convenient, however, this does not bother either the owners or the guests, many of whom have become regulars since opening in 2024.
Duck leg with gnocchi and plum
This is a restaurant with its own farm on the shores of Lake Vselug. There, in an ecologically clean area of the Tver region, vegetables, herbs and berries are grown on an area of 70 hectares, cattle and poultry are raised, meat, milk, butter, eggs and cheeses are produced and their flagship gastronomic project in Moscow is regularly supplied with all this. Of course, not completely. You have to buy more from other local manufacturers. But strictly within the framework of the original concept, farm products are at the heart of everything.
Anton Shcheglov, an experienced chef, is responsible for the gastronomic component. The food at the "Gastrodache Universal" appeals to the traditions of Russian cuisine, but it is not tied to a specific region and looks quite universal.
Turnip carpaccio with homemade apple and aloe honey
It serves, for example, pickled peppers with smoked Far Eastern cod, turnip carpaccio with homemade apple with honey from aloe, steak salad with smoked cheese mousse, wild sockeye salmon with zucchini paste, cappuccino soup with mussels, duck with pickled plum, goat baked with potatoes and custard pie, airy halva and lemon ice cream. Everything is executed gracefully, cooked, as they say, from under the knife and with maximum respect for the product.
"At the Cottage"
Dmitry Parikov, once the brand chef of Perelman's restaurants, and now a freelance artist continues to develop the original gastronomic project launched two years ago. The name — "At the Cottage" — corresponds as closely as possible to its essence. We are talking about a gastronomic space in the suburban village of Ozhigovo, located about an hour's drive from Moscow.
Assorted snacks
Parikov bought the old house next door, converted it into a country restaurant and arranges themed dinners there for a fixed number of guests. There is no regular menu at the Cottage. In fact, this is a full-fledged chef's table with omakase elements. The guests have only a general idea of the content of the meal. Everything else is at the discretion of the boss. He chooses products (with an emphasis on seasonality and locality) and determines the general direction for the gastronomic journey. It can be a Russian table, a festive (say, New Year's Eve), or a dinner-a memory of the chef's trip to some country from where he brought rare spices or something else.
Parikov deliberately avoids unnecessary complexity in food, which does not make it less gastronomic. On the contrary, even the simplest items like a sandwich with herring and beetroot mousse, morels stewed in sour cream or beef steak are executed with maximum respect for the product. At the same time, each dish is based on a competent combination of textures and a precisely balanced balance of taste.
Dessert with seasonal berries
"At the Cottage" there is only one communal table. Therefore, for an unobtrusive acquaintance in a comfortable atmosphere, guests (if desired) are first gathered at the Kievsky railway station, taken by train with guitar songs, and greeted with liqueur and light snacks at the station. On the spot, while waiting for dinner, the guests chat for some time, sitting around the campfire. And only then are they invited to a meal, which Parikov serves personally. Each dinner consists of six serves. An important and pleasant addition is live music, which at some point inevitably transforms into choral singing.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
