Fooding and Clubbing by Joffrey

Decor 7,5/10 Drinks 9/10 Ambiance 9/10 Music 8/10
Pokrovka 17, stroenie 1
M@ Chistye Prudy
Tel : +7 495 624 07 18
Perhaps you think that Moscow is not as crazy as it used to be, that it got too reasonable, westernized. Well, this place is here to prove the contrary!
Don’t pay attention to the name… Of course there is a great collection of rum but you won’t hear any salsa or merengue here. The music is mostly remixed well known radio hits like lady gaga and others. People come here to dance, drink (or get drunk) and socialize (or get laid).
Even for Moscow, this bar is incredible! People start to dance at 10.30 in the evening! It’s quite small so girls don’t hesitate to dance on the chairs or on the counter! They’re mostly 18-20 years old but we weren’t the only thirty-something which was quite a relief. It’s also very surprising that everybody is very friendly… the young crowd and the staff. There’s no face control but people don’t come here randomly anyway which is good.
The booze is absolutely not expensive, varied and well chosen. You can have a pint of Bochkarev (100 rubles) or Heineken (150 rubles). Cocktails cost about 200 – 250 rubles. Great whiskies like Talisker or Lagavulin: 350 rubles. My favorite (Bushmills, Black Bush) costs 200 rubles for 50g (4,5 euro) when it can be found in Paris for 8 euro, no less!
So if you’re looking for a nice little bar full of energy and youth and good booze at a great price, this is the place!
P.S: I forgot to mention the tradition of this bar. At hour X (don’t ask when, I didn’t see it), girls who do topless, get a free drink! May I add that toilets are mixed and, obviously (I saw it from my own eyes), are also shared. One guy got in the loo with three gals! Don’t ask me what they did! There are too many possibilities!
Opening hours: 24/24

Décor 8/10 Food 7/10 Service 8,5/10 Ambience 8,5/10
Sadovaya-karetnaya 20 Building 2
Go through the arch at dom 20 korpus 1 and to the left
M@ Tsvetnoi Bulvar
+7 495 699 39 52
It’s already getting dusk when my counterpart, Christophe, and I, are heading to Delicatessen. As any normal Frenchmen, we are ready to criticize sharply this new place. First, because we had a bad experience in the former tasted restaurant (Gavroche: a very nice décor, reasonable prices but awful food). Secondly, because I read that this place was opened by the guys from Tapas de comida! I know very well how Spanish cuisine should look and taste, so believe me when I say Tapas de comida is more than average!!!
Delicatessen is not easy to find. That’s why the message at the entrance (Thank you for finding us!) was like a balm on our heart.
Looking at the stairs, we thought: oh no, another basement! But once inside, we discovered a very nice, warm and welcoming room. The room was entirely full of people. We didn’t expect that. Maybe I should have thought about the very enthusiastic article of Afisha. Usually, after such a positive comment, restaurants are literally assaulted by people craving to try a new gem!
While waiting for a table at the counter, we noticed the incredible sense of hospitality of the owner (an extremely nice guy with a big mustache).
Once seated, and after a bottle of Sangria, we ordered as a starter a chicken Sorrentino (250 rubles) and a beef tartar (300 rubles). The Sorrentino is a sort of big round pasta stuffed here with chicken and olive oil with Parmesan cheese on top. Christophe really appreciated it. My beef tartar was surprisingly tasty and of good quality for this price.
We had then a gazpacho (250 rubles). It was a big miss! It was like a soup of olive oil with tomato in it. And that’s all! If you want a great gazpacho, go to Ragout!
We finished our dinner with Burgers. Yes, their second dishes are mainly burgers and pizzas. Not really a girly restaurant but I must say the burgers and the pizzas, like everything else at Delicatessen, are always made with an original twist. My Burger Juicy Lucy (380 rubles) was very decent and accompanied by dry mushrooms and a coleslaw salad. The owner told us there won’t be any French fries in this restaurant! Which I respect! But the coleslaw was quite average and didn’t add anything to this dish.
The Burger with Turkey and spices was definitely a hit. It was incredibly original in taste. We liked it very much.
Eventually we left Delicatessen with the feeling that we had spent a great evening. Everything was not perfect but the hospitality and the atmosphere, the originality of the dishes and their quality for this price enchanted us. It’s really worth to go and have dinner at Delicatessen.
P.S: Don't ask for the wine card. The beverages are written on the wall of the main room.
Menu: 700 rubles by person in average without beverages
Opening hours: noon-midnight

Décor 7,5/10 Food 7/10 Service 6,5/10 Ambience 7/10
Starovagankovski Pereulok 19 Building 2
Rhythm and blues café on 3rd floor and on the roof
M@ Biblioteka imenni Lenina
+7 495 795 66 80
On the rooftop of café Rhythm and blues is hidden a very nice place. It used to be a bar called Krysha (roof) where Vasily Kuybar organized some parties. Now it’s all painted in white and blue to make you feel in a small café next to the sea. It’s a very relaxing place. They even have hammocks.
The food is usually quite average but the fish was very decent this time. We had a sea-bream and a sea-bass. The sea-bream was perfectly grilled and its flesh was soft and tasty. The sea-bass was ok even if a little dry.
The waiters and waitresses are nice and really try their best but they’re obviously not professional. Girls seem to be more accurate. The boy though can be dangerous. By going up to the mezzanine he dropped a knife right next to our table. Before that he had dropped a glass on our table which exploded. I found some pieces in my dish then. Not to mention the aggressive wasps trying to drink our limonade or eating our food...
It’s not a bad place. The atmosphere and the surrounding are really nice but be sure you got a good life insurance before deciding to go up there.
Menu: 600 rubles by person in average without beverages
Opening hours: Sun-Fri noon-midnight, Sat noon-6 am

Decor 8/10 Drinks 9/10 Food 7/10 Ambience 9/10 Music 9
Malaya Bronnaya 26
M@ Tverskaya, Mayakovskaya
+7 495 626 85 63
This bar is a gem.
The guys who created this project are the same who opened Rolling Stone and Luch. Klava is not a first name but the name of a little-known 1980s movement – Klub Avangardistov.The décor has been done by Balayan (Luch again). There’s a booth area on the right where you can relax in comfortable chairs. On the left there’s a little box for the DJ. In front of you, you can’t miss the long bar where people gather to socialize at night. At the end of the bar you’ll find another small relaxing area where people have a little chat and where they can even play. There are table games like Taboo or scrabble.
Food at Klava is decent but that’s not the point. The emphasis is placed on drinks. The variety of whiskey is impressive. There is one page in the menu only for them. Cocktails are great too. Of course, it’s not cheap: 450 rubles for a Mojito, 500 rubles for a single-malt or 300 rubles for a pint of ale.
The real triumph of this place is the atmosphere. There is no face control and, still, it’s frequented by a certain class of people: actors (I’ve seen the daughter of Russian director Mikhalkov), designers, journalists,advertising people and so on. The servers are incredibly nice and efficient. The music selection is absolutely perfect for this kind of place. Good standards of rock, pop, funk or reggae can be heard until 10pm and later, on Fridays and Saturdays, it’s getting louder but it’ll be still the same kind of music. From 10pm at weekends it becomes really crowded. People chat, laugh, drink, socialize, move gently their body along the bar, sing and play cards in the small room. I forgot to tell you there is a very nice terrasse inside with even an alcove for lovers who want some intimacy.
Some Americans told me they felt like home at Klava because of the atmosphere. It definitely could be a nice little bar in New-York.
This place is perfect: chic décor, creative and talkative people, great cocktails, delightful waitresses, perfect background music, games. It's neither posh, nor pretentious. It's just cool and edgy. What else do you want?
Opening hours: from noon until 6 am every day

Decor 6,5/10 Drinks 7/10 Ambience 8/10 Music 8,5
Pyatnitskaya 3
M@ Novokuznetskaya
+7 495 953 16 20
If you like electronic music and you don’t use the word TECHNO for any kind of electronic music, then, this could be interesting for you.
If you were an aficionado of the former club Mix which closed in 2007 and if you’ve been feeling like an orphan ever since, then you will know what I’m talking about.
Paparazzi is not the Mix but it reminds me my beloved club when I’m there. The former barman Dima who hangs out there regularly, DJ Meshkov and DJ Helga who play once in a while between those walls are all linked to the Mix.
Now Paparazzi is located in a basement and has a quite simple décor. It resembles any bar in a basement. The greatest interest is the cheap booze and the top of the notch minimal Techno that you can hear. Just check who is going to play. I’ve already mentioned my favorite ones.
It’s also one of the few after party in town.
Are you ready to dance until 10 in the morning?
Opening hours: Mon-Thu noon-midnight, Fri-Sat 12pm-10am

Decor 8,5/10 Drinks 7,5/10 Ambience 8/10 Music 7,5
Bersenevskaya Naberezhnaya 14
M@ Kropotkinskaya
+7 495 771 74 16
Strelka is a new postgraduate school for media, architecture and design. This is also a big entertainment complex for the same students and all hipsters of Moscow. The location speaks for itself: the former chocolate fabric well-known as Krasny Oktyabr (Red October). This area has the biggest concentration of bars and clubs in the capital: Progressive Daddy, Rai, Rolling Stones, Mao, Forma Café are part of this complex.
As a matter of fact, people don’t come there for the food but for the atmosphere, the drinks and the view on the river and the cathedral of Christ the savior. Once passed the bouncers and Phillipe, the nicest and most professional face-control of this city, you’ll find on the right a bar/club/restaurant.
On the left there is a big courtyard which is used as an open-air club. It’s fun to dance under the stars. There is also a bar along the dance-floor.
Between those two areas there are stairs which lead to the upper floor. You’ll find there a big patio with a nice bar and a fantastic view.
This is a great place. It will be interesting to see how the atmosphere will be in winter without this patio.
Opening hours: around the clock

Decor 7/10 Drinks 8/10 Ambience 9/10
Boslhaya Sadovaya 5
M@ Mayakovskaya
+7 495 363 42 23
I’ve been to this place a couple of times with different friends and at various occasions. What amazed me more than everything at radio-city, this is the atmosphere.
This huge restaurant – bar-concert hall is on the first place a sports bar. I’ve never had lunch or dinner there but I’ve drunk a reasonable quantity of beer while watching football. I’m not a fan of football but I like to feel the atmosphere of big international matches. At Radio-city, when you seat with your friends while supporting your favorite team (Spain in my case) and the hall is full of people of different nationalities all screaming by fear or excitement, I can tell you it’s worth being here. You can't miss the action. Big plasma screens are all over the place.
So if you’re looking for a sports bar, you have two alternatives.
1. It’s a match between national or European clubs, then I would choose Liga pub, John Donne or Silver's for example.
2. Now if it’s about European championship or the World cup, go to Radio-city. This will be the most incredible evening for sure.
Opening hours: around the clock

Décor 7/10 Food 8/10 Service 6,5/10 Ambience 7,5/10
Bolshaya Ordinka 40
+7 495 933 49 85/86
This is a perfect example of the evolution of the pub scene in Moscow. If, in the past, brown wood panels and Guinness were sufficient to call a pub any average bar, now the offer has dramatically improved. Especially concerning the beer selection and the food.
Fuller’s has an impressive range of British ales, stouts and bitters. London pride is my favorite at a reasonable price: 250 rubles.
The food is surprisingly more than decent. I was with my Polish friend Piotr, another pub addictive. He had a chicken curry. The best ever eaten in a pub in Moscow!!! Although I tried them at Katie o Shea’s (average), my favorite pub Silver’s (very decent) and John Donne (very decent too), this one was hot and delicious.
But that was Piotr’s choice. I had bangers and mash. Another classic British dish available in all pubs. It was also tasty, hearty and beautifully presented.
During sunny days it was a great pleasure to have a seat at their great big patio quite close to Correa’s one in the courtyard of a business center.
The only negative point is the service. The waitresses are kind but there must be a lack of professionalism in the kitchen as you get the dishes not at the same time. Our neighbors had the same problem. One got his starter after the main dish and the other one got his dishes later than his colleague.
Anyway this pub is a great addition to the Muscovite pub scene.

Menu: 600 rubles by person in average without beverages
Opening hours: noon-midnight

Décor 9/10 Food 6/10 Service 8/10 Ambience 7,5/10
Ulica Sretenka 1
+7 495 625 42 21
Opening an American diner in Moscow is almost an impossible challenge. There is already Starlight diner which is like a legend to all of us.
That day I was with my wife, her sister and her husband… and a little baby-girl quite too young to eat a burger half as big as she is. The weather was incredibly hot and I wondered where to go to have lunch. Despite the heat the idea to try this new diner came to my mind.
Four is a great number. From four you can really get a better picture of the cooking. When we entered this place, we just got amazed by the interior: black and checkered walls, red vinyl seats, a red Cadillac hood above the entrance, cute waitresses in little 1950s outfits, a chrome bar and genuine Hollywood posters!!! Fantastic!
Now the food. We had a bacon blue burger, chili Nachos, two Tacos, Fajitas, a chicken burger, a lime pie, a brownie and a milk-shake. Not bad, huh?
The chili Nachos were impossible to eat. The sauce made them so wet, you just couldn’t hand them without having your hand full of it. It remained untouched. The Fajitas were quite average. The ones at Poncho villa are better.
The bacon burger seemed to be ok. The meat was quite juicy. The chicken burger has no taste at all. I ate it without conviction. The French fries were the worst ever found in Moscow. How can they serve frozen disgusting fries in an American diner? Even mac Donald’s gives you very decent fries! How dare they?
A positive note: the Tacos turned out to be very tasty. The exception during this meal!
The lime pie was chemical and the brownie was quite tasteless. The milk-shake was too thin to call it a milk-shake and far too sweet.
Our waitress turned out to be the most efficient, the fastest and the most charming ever encountered. Another waitress approached our table but wasn’t so nice. If you go there, ask for Anna, the blonde one!
Now you’ll tell me: why going there if the food is crap? Well, you can still have a beer, a little chat with Anna, admire the décor, listen to some old good rock-and-roll and grab some tacos!
I don’t even need to talk about our beloved Starlight. I think you got my point.

Menu: 700 rubles by person in average without beverages.
Opening hours: around the clock

Décor 8/10 Food 7,5/10 Service 7,5/10 Ambience 8/10
Multiple locations:
Bolshaya Gruzinskaya 32, M@ Barrikadnaya. +7 495 933 46 84
Bolshaya Ordinka 40, Building 2, M@ Tretyakovskaya. +7 495 725 60 35
Sadovnicheskaya 82, M@ Paveletskaya. + 7 495 969 21 13
Gasheka 7, M@ Mayakovskaya. + 7 495 789 96 54
Timura Frunze 11, M@ Park Kultury. + 7 495 755 91 79
Rublevo-Uspenskoe Shosse, Village Barvikha. + 7 495 739 25 85
I don’t like chains too much but this one is different. It was the first chain of restaurants offering fresh and quality food at a rather reasonable price and in a modern New-York style setting. No sushi for once but nothing too original anyway. It serves pizzas, salads and various classic meals. Its focus is quality and fresh supply.
This time we didn’t have pizzas. They’re quite good but we decided to try pasta and risotto. Before that we enjoyed dolmas (stuffed grape leaves), green asparagus and a chicken broth with noodles. Soups are very tasty at Correa’s. We recommend them. Dolmas were ok but what can you expect? Asparagus is a kind of delicacy. It was incredibly fresh and crunchy. As usual, though, the portions were quite small. This is where they are pretty smart. Top of the notch quality but small portions! Girls will appreciate!
We had then penne with shrimps and risotto with seafood. The pasta was Al Dente but really without imagination. Even the taste was quite absent… The risotto didn’t look like one. It was more like common rice with vegetables and seafood… It wasn’t bad but really not what I remembered of Correa’s. I remember going out of one of them with a full contentment. It wasn’t the case this time.
Maybe you should go for the dishes that never disappoint. Soups, vegetables, meat and pizzas. The atmosphere is nice, the surrounding is nice and it seems people are thankful especially for that.

Menu: 800 rubles by person without beverages.
Opening hours: from 9am to 11pm.