Moscow Travel Guide

Eating Out

Prices err on the high side, unless you seek out the gritty backstreet eateries frequented largely by the locals. There you’ll find traditional Russian food as authentic as its gets, although minus any of the frills of upmarket establishments.

If you are resident at any of Moscow’s reputable hotels, then you won’t need to travel far to find good food: in-house restaurants are known for producing some of the finest food in the city, with both Russian and international cuisine gracing their menus.

Soups are exceedingly popular and come in both hot and cold varieties with shchi (cabbage soup) perhaps being the best known in the former category. Other popular dishes based on traditional recipes include: pelemeni, which are pastry parcels filled with minced meat; blini, which are thin pancakes made from rye flour; and kotlety, which are small pan-cooked meatloaves.

Food in Moscow, as in most parts of the country, is often accompanied by lashings of vodka, which has strong cultural significances for the locals.