If you happen to walk around Moscow and see Teremok, Grabli, Mumu, Varenichnaya or Shtolle – don’t hesitate and drop in for a light lunch and snacks. These are chains with very typical and easy Russian cuisine that you might try in any Russian home.
But if you are looking for something special – here is our guide and map.
$$$$ (From 2,500 rubles, or $40)
Cafe Pushkin
Feel like a nobleman from the pages of War and Peace and try 'bourgeois pike head' and their flagship dessert.
26a Tverskoy Blvd
+7 (495) 739 00 33
White Rabbit
One of the world's top 50 restaurants, White Rabbit serves traditional cuisine with such extravagant delicacies as Yalta rapa whelk, caviar, Black Sea oysters and Crimean truffles.
3 Smolenskaya Sq., 16th floor
+7 (495) 510-510-1 / +7 (495) 782-62-62
Beluga
With views over the Kremlin this restaurant boasts a dozen types of caviar, hundreds of vodkas, and delicacies from all over Russia served in crystal glasses and silver vases. Try their tasting sets.
15/1 Mokhovaya St., “National” hotel, 2nd floor
+7 (495) 901 03 36
Matreshka
An old Russian merchant-style restaurant that offers sour cabbage soup with lamb meat, beetroot cold soups and variety of pelmeni - Russian dumplings.
2/1 b. 6 Kutuzovsky Avenue
+7 (495) 154 65 68
Oblomov
A very traditional restaurant with 'khokhloma' paintings, samovars and lazy (just like its title character) cooking: main dishes are oven baked and cucumbers are pickled right on the premises.
5 1st Monetchikovsky Lane
+7 (495) 953 68 28
Savva
A restaurant not far from the Kremlin, based in the historic Metropol hotel. Oysters, pickles A-la-Russe, Far East sea food and borsch with duck. As a side dish don't miss young potatoes with garlic and herbs, just like a Russian babushka would cook.
2 Teatralny Driveway
+7 (499) 270 10 62
$$$ (1,500–2,500 rubles, or $24-40)
Glavpivtorg
Russian salads with black caviar and a Soviet apparatchik atmosphere, right next door to the KGB building at the Lubyanka.
5 Bolshaya Lubyanka St.
+7 (495) 628-25-91
C.D.L.
A kind of Club House for writers, this restaurant will show you classic Russian hospitality, and rabbit meat with cranberry sauce and sweet turnip.
50/53 Povarskaya St.
+7 (495) 663 30 03
Grand Cafe Dr. Jhivago
Another place with a Kremlin view, it offers great breakfasts, caviar and delicacies from Siberia, the Far East and Sakhalin.
15/1 Mokhovaya St.
+7 (499) 922-01-00
Twins Garden
The only place in Moscow where you can find nine varieties of crab – all from Russian waters.
8a Strastnoy Blvd
+7 (499) 112 33 00
LavkaLavka
A farmers’ cooperative and restaurant that serves borsch, cod with beans, beetroot Panna cotta and much more, with everything from the Russian regions.
21 Petrovka St.
+7 (495) 621 20 36, +7 903 115 50 33
Selfie
An appreciation for Russian products such as pork from Kursk, halibut from Murmansk, veal from Bryansk, asparagus from Tver and Crimean truffle.
31 Novinsky Blvd, 2nd floor
+7 (495) 995 85 03
Yar
Gypsies and an atmosphere of pre-revolutionary wild partying - dishes include sterlet soup and Russian salads prepared from ancient recipes.
32/2 Leningradsky Avenue, "Sovetsky" hotel
+7 (495) 960 20 04
Teatr Korsha
Situated in the building of the Theater of Nation, this restaurant opened in 1885, serves quails, Pozharsky cutlets and traditional buckwheat porridge with mushrooms.
3 Petrovsky Lane
+7 (495) 694 50 38, +7 (495) 694 50 42
Voronezh
Situated in an ancient mansion, it has a separate menu for each of its three floors: a snack bar, a restaurant reflecting different types of ingredients (dishes from vegetables, fish, grains) and a meat club with 30 different meat dishes.
4 Prechistenka St.
+7 (495) 695 06 41
Tchaikovsky
Situated in the building of Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, it's a place to reflect on your musical evening with borsch, fish soup and pirozhki (stuffed Russian pies).
4/31 Triumfalnaya Sq.
+7 (495) 699 92 41
Ottepel
Soviet-era park VDNKh's restaurant Ottepel, designed in the style of Khrushchev's Thaw, has panoramic windows and terrace and offers traditional cuisine with a modern take that includes Russian summer soup okroshka, pelmeni and pike.
119 Mira Avenue, VDNKh, pavilion 311
+7 (499) 650 00 28
Golubka
This retro restaurant is not far from the beautiful Novodevichy monastery. It has a pure Russian breakfast menu with pancakes, porridge and eggs. Confit duck and chebureki from lamb are coupled with European dishes on the menu.
53/55 Bolshaya Pirogovskaya St.
+7 926 245 42 44
MariVanna
Probably the most well-known Russian restaurant internationally with an interior like that of a Russian apartment. Stuffed cabbage rolls, sandwiches with Russian 'borodinsky' bread and raspberry soup.
10a Spiridonevsky Lane
+7 (495) 650 65 00
Severyane
Severyane means people from North, so they serve cozy and warm modern Russian cuisine from a huge traditional Russian oven - they even bake their own bread. Kamchatka crab éclairs, homemade Camembert in ash with poppy brioche and asparagus soup with chanterelles.
12 Bolshaya Nikitskaya St.
+7 (499) 348 83 32
$$ (700-1,500 rubles, or $10-24)
Dacha na Pokrovke
For those who want to experience a Russian country house, or dacha, but have yet to receive an invitation - come here and try seasonal offerings, 'dachny' salad from fresh vegetables and chichen kiev.
16-18 b. 4-4a Pokrovsky Blvd, entrance from Podkolokolny Lane
+7 (495) 542 62 30
Fedya, dich!
Literally translated as "Fedya [a Russian man's name], game meat!" the restaurant serves boar cutlets, venison with forest berries sauce and braised beef cheek. This place is situated on the territory of the trendy Danilovsky food market.
74 Mytnaya St.
+7 916 747 01 10
Nikolay
This bar and buffet's main dish are pies with different fillings, ranging from trout&spinach, turkey&dried plum and the more traditional potato&mushrooms to sweet pies with berries, cottage cheese, pumpkin and more.
53 Pyatnitskaya St.
5 Staraya Basmannaya St.
30/2 Tverskaya St.
+7 (495) 258-45-59
$ (500-700 rubles, or $7-10)
Lepim i varim
Shaping and boiling – that’s the title and main concept of this chain. They prepare pelmeni with multiple fillings – the favorite dumplings of Russians. You can also buy freshly frozen to cook at home.
9/1 Stoleshnikov Lane
26/1 Prospekt Mira St.
26 Leninskaya sloboda St.
Stolovaya No. 57 in GUM
Maria Ionova-Gribina
This is a Soviet person’s favorite type of dining place - a canteen with lots of stereotypical gastronomic pleasures (borsch, pelmeni, and mayonnaise salads such as herring under the fur, Russian salad and more).
3 Red Square, level 3, line 3
+7 (495) 620 31 29