7 Best Restaurants in Moscow, Russia

This one-room café has home-style Georgian food so good that you'll feel you've found your way to a tavern deep in the Caucasus hinterlands. The house specialty is succulent hinkali, fist-sized dumplings filled with ground meat that you eat with your hands; the variety with herbs is best, and all the better if you add crisp-crusted hachapuri (cheese bread) to the order. There are many vegetarian-friendly options on the menu, including pkhali, assorted vegetables blended with herbs and walnuts. Ordering might be difficult unless you or someone in your party has at least a moderate knowledge of Russian.

Feast on exquisite traditional Russian fare in what was once (and still feels like) a private mansion. On the four floors, there are spaces to fit every mood: a Middle Eastern room with hookahs; a billiard room; intimate, plush dining rooms; and a chandeliered main hall with lots of natural light. Try the ukha, a fish soup, and a basket of their excellent pirozhki, savory filled pastries; the beef Stroganoff is outstanding. The lightning-quick waitstaff is unassuming and attentive.

This upstairs cafeteria-style café is a throwback to the Soviet era, packed with students drinking cheap beer, pensioners reminiscing over meat-filled pancakes, and business people of all ages from the offices nearby. A larger downstairs room gets rowdy on weekends. The no smoking policy is a huge plus and a rarity in Moscow, but you may have to walk through a cloud of smoke to get near the door.

This modern chain of cafes shares a name with Georgia's most beloved culinary export, a crispy pie filled with a creamy, tangy cheese (six varieties of this Caucasus pizza are on the menu). The brick walls and track lighting at this popular branch create a bright and airy space, and the cooking displays a refreshing contemporary sensibility, with the always luscious chanakhi (a lamb stew, light with fragrant cilantro) and the hinkali (large dumplings you eat with your hands) available with salmon or pumpkin in addition to the traditional ground beef. Go for lunch to get the best value.

A short and frequently changing menu features dishes rooted in Continental and Eastern European traditions and often includes a selection of pâtés, gratins, savory pies, and confits. A sweet beetroot and black bread ice cream duo is usually on the dessert list. The metal-and-wood surroundings are quiet and relaxing.

Meals at Moscow's best Ukrainian restaurant often include a plate of assorted salo—a specialty of cured pork fat. If such traditional country favorites seem out of keeping with the sleek interior, take a look at the far side of the main dining hall for a glimpse of a quaint Ukrainian farm scene, complete with rabbits, a cow, and even a milkmaid and a pair of beautiful peacocks.

The name comes from a popular Russian pastry, but there's nothing common or traditional about the presentations in this old mansion stripped down to its bare-brick walls. Head Chef Dmitry Shurshakov lets fresh, locally sourced ingredients shine through in dishes like stewed turkey necks with pearl barley and spiced carrot puree, and cauliflower and cod liver crème brûlée. You can enjoy the namesake vatrushka, a cottage cheese–filled pie, for dessert.