Moscow’s craziest cafes: Drink a cocktail from a dropper, or eat a burger behind bars

1. Café Kusochki

At Café Kusochki the waitress might be dressed as a housewife in curlers or as a policewoman. You then eat dinner in a prison uniform handcuffed to the bars.

Café Kusochki

Or what about having your order taken from a nurse or doctor? In that case, be prepared to eat your rib-eye steak off a pole with operating knives, drink your cocktail from a dropper or your hot chocolate from a syringe. In Café Kusochki both the guests and the waiters perform unexpected and at times shocking roles. But it’s all safe. “Doctor” Dima might strike your knee with a reflex hammer or take your blood pressure. And if necessary he’ll “prescribe” you the right dish.

Shabolovka Street, 63

Average bill: 1,500 rubles

https://www.instagram.com/cafe_kusochki/ (in Russian)

2. Papa Veider Café Club 

Want to feel like a Jedi with a light saber or as a space paratrooper? Then Papa Veider Café-Club is for you. Designed in the form of a spaceship traveling the galaxy, this café’s menu will delight you with original names and a witty format: War of the Worlds Soup, Sound Screwdriver Sandwich, and Mars Craters Pizza.

Papa Veider Cafe-Club

Bolshoi Zlatoustinksky Lane, 3/5, bldg. 1

Average bill: 2,000 rubles

http://papavader.com/ (in Russian) 

3. Café Didu 

Café Didu is the “most plasticine café in the world,” as described on social media. It’s clear why: all the walls are in plasticine colors and covered with little people or anything that visitors can mold. There is also plasticine on the tables so that guests have something to do as they wait for food, which also leaves an impression. For example: Tomahawk Steak on a bone, or Fra Diavolo Fajitas. Something is always happening in this café. Recently, a bear den was installed in the center of the hall. The visitors love it. 

Cafe Didu

Myasnitskaya Street, 24

Average bill: 1,500 rubles 

https://www.instagram.com/cafedidu/ (in Russian) 

4. Café Expedition 

A river quietly flows under the glass floor, the MI-2 polar helicopter shines in the dining hall, logs crackle in the fireplace: everything is done so that visitors feel as if they were on an expedition in the North. The menu furthers this feeling, consisting of dishes popular among the peoples of the North: game and fish delicacies and polar gourmet appetizers. Each table has a sign with the name of a city and its foundation date. You chose the destination! 

Restaurant Expedition

Pevchensky Lane, 6

Average bill: 3,000 rubles 

http://expedicia-restaurant.ru (in Russian) 

5. Anti-café Soviny dom (Owl House)

Why not have tea and biscuits in the company of a few charming owls? If you want, you can even befriend the owls and give them something to eat. For example, people in the anti-cafe say that behind the austere appearance of an owl named Morty hides a sensitive and vulnerable soul. However, this does not prevent her from catching mice and hissing in an enchanting manner so as to seem even more frightening. But besides the flying owls there is nothing strange about this anti-cafe. The visitors socialize, play board games and relax.  

Soviny Dom

Prospect Mira, 79, bldg. 2 

http://owldom.ru 

Cost: 480 rubles per hour during weekends + 300 rubles for the owl card.

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