Central Asian, Middle Eastern Cuisine Moscow

BELOYE SOLNTSE PUSTYNI

Cuisine: Uzbek, Arab
Address: Neglinnaya street, 29/14
Nearest metro station: Kuznetsky Most
Telephone: (495) 209-7525
Working hours: 12.00-3.00
Additional service: take away service, banquet service, parking
Average bill: £35
Credit cards: American Express, Diners Club, Euro Card, Master Card, Visa, Visa Electron

Named after a legendary Soviet film, Beloye Solntse Pustyni (White Sun of the Desert), is a theme restaurant that specializes in delicious Uzbek food. The restaurant's sun-bleached walls instantly sweep you down to Central Asia. Inside the illusion continues: a diorama with a ship marooned in the desert, Uzbek maidens as waitresses, and intricately carved wooden doors. Make sure you try the salad bar's mouth-watering array of vegetables. The Dastarkhan, a set meal, overwhelms you with food and unlimited access to the salad bar, numerous desserts, pilaf and a main course. Reservations essential. 
 

KHODZHA NASREDDIN IN KHIVA

Cuisine: Uzbek
Address: Pokrovka street, 10, bld. 2
Nearest metro station: Chistyie Prudy, Kitai-Gorod
Telephone: (495) 917-0444
Working hours: 12.00-last dinner
Additional service: take away service, banquet service, parking
Average bill: £40
Credit cards: American Express, JCB, Maestro, Master Card, Union, Visa

There are two halls in the restaurant. In the first hall you find yourself in the heart of Khiva - city square, where the ancient minarets and portals of oriental temples surround you. Immediately in your presence the Uzbek cooks will make on an open fire the oriental shashlik, will propose to you skilfully prepared appetizing "lagman". Right here you may see in the big cauldrons goldish short Uzbek pilaf. "Shy" waitresses in national costumes of townswomen will graciously propose to you before meal a glass of snow-white "airan" or a piala of green tea also brought from Khiva. The second hall of the restaurant is the only one in Moscow completely furnished with dastarkhans. All guests reclining on the dastarkhans in a relaxation find themselves in a real ambience of a sultan harem. Live music and belly dance after 8 p.m.
 

KISH-MISH

Cuisine: Uzbek
Address: Noviy Arbat, 28
Nearest metro station: Arbatskaya
Telephone: (495) 291-2010
Working hours: 11.00-0.00
Additional service:
Average bill: £10
Credit cards: not accepted

Actually, this chain has a few restaurants in Moscow providing tasty Uzbek food, all quite moderately priced. The restaurants are decorated in a traditional manner to look like an Uzbek country house. Dinner for £8 is real, but impossible - when you start eating their meals you won't be able to stop.
 

KASBAR

Cuisine: Uzbek, Arab, Lebanese, Japanese
Address: Ostozhenka street, 53/6
Nearest metro station: Park Kultury
Telephone: (495) 246-0246
Working hours: 12.00-last dinner
Additional service: banquet service, 20% discount for all menu from 12.00 till 18.00
Average bill: £15
Credit cards: Euro Card, Master Card, Union, Visa

The Kasbar Restaurant is an oasis of Oriental luxury in Moscow. The first floor houses a bar and the main hall decorated with the forged railings with stained-glass insertions, a fancy chandelier and furniture of Lebanese cedar inlaid with mother-of-pearls. The second floor, a combination of past and present, is decorated with engraved pitchers that become modern light fixtures, screens of transparent organza that glimmer on the curtains of felt, and necklaces, ancient coins and pieces of expensive fabrics that are seen through a glass floor scattered around on the sand. In a word, a merger of Middle- East style and high tech. Gourmets will certainly appreciate such dishes as broccoli with fried king prawns in a piquant sauce; filet of gilt-head bream with cherry sauce; mutton pilaf with raisins, spices and barberry; hummus with fried meat and cedar nuts; baba ganoush of baked eggplants, tomatoes, sweet peppers, and greens seasoned with pomegranate sauce; and assorted Oriental sweets known as baklava. 
 

SAMARKAND

Cuisine: Uzbek, Arab
Address: Prospect Mira, 48
Nearest metro station: Prospect Mira
Telephone: (495) 680-4711
Working hours: 12.00-0.00
Additional service:
Average bill: £20
Credit cards: not accepted

Samarkand is an oriental restaurant with Arabian, Caucasian and European cuisine. All dishes are prepared from the certified meat “halyal” and natural mineral water. The restaurant has three levels: balcony, main hall and VIP-zone. Many details of an interior are specially brought from the East. Comfortable sofas with lots of cushions create a cosy atmosphere. Belly dancing every evening.
 

SHAFRAN

Cuisine: Lebanese, Middle eastern
Address: Spiridonyevsky pereulok, 2/9
Nearest metro station: Tverskaya
Telephone: (495) 737-9500
Working hours: 12.00-00.00
Additional service: business lunch
Average bill: £30
Credit cards: Mastercard, Maestro

Excellent Middle-Eastern food in modern surroundings. Fill up on their extensive range of starters and dips if you’re not in the mood for a heavy, meaty meal. The hummus never fails. The restaurant’s light and airy interior also make this an ideal place for a business or leisurely lunch. Hookah.
 

SULTAN

Cuisine: European, Lebanese
Address: Ordzonikidze street, 3
Nearest metro station: Leninsky prospekt, Shabolovskaya
Telephone: (495) 958-2921
Working hours: 12.00-05.00
Additional service: business lunch, hookah, take away service
Average bill: £20
Credit cards: American Express, Cirrus, Diners Club, Eurocard, JSB, Master/Eurocard, MasterCard, Union, Visa, Visa Electron, Visa Maestro

The interior is designed in the style of oriental beauty and luxury. Wooden laced partitions and decorated columns with complex ornament divide the space of the restaurant into 3 rooms: Arab, European and oriental eclectic. Sitting on sofas among weapons hanging on the walls you should try Kibi Nai from raw mutton, wheat seeds, onion and oriental spices. In this atmosphere a traditional salad Tabuli from cut parsley with fresh tomatoes, spring onions, mint and boiled wheat and Hommus from ground white peas with mutton, obtain a special taste. Coal cooked shashlik assortment is a real man’s choice. Belly dancing and traditional Arabian music in the evening. Here you can also try different types of tobacco and hookahs on wine, cognac or from natural apples are inlayed with rich and complex ornament. 
 

TAMERLAINE

Cuisine: Uzbek
Address: Prechistenka street, 30
Nearest metro station: Kropotkinskaya, Park Kultury
Telephone: (495) 202-5649
Working hours:
Additional service: business lunch
Average bill: £15
Credit cards: Diners Club, Master Card, Visa

For a marauding tyrant, Tamerlaine has remarkably good taste in food and decor. This superb Mongolian-style restaurant is a tranquilly lit, ad an elegant place perfect for a business lunch. Two Kazakh chefs wield enormous chopsticks as they man the giant circular hot plate. You choose the ingredients - laid out before you - and the chefs stir-fry them in a couple of minutes. Set menus are provided to help you choose from the panoply of meats, fresh vegetables, and spices, or you can create your own potpourri. 
 

YOLKI-PALKI PO

Cuisine: Mongolian
Address: Tverskaya street, 18a
Nearest metro station: Pushkinskaya, Tverskaya
Telephone: (495) 200-3920
Working hours: 11.00-5.00
Additional service:
Average bill: £5
Credit cards: American Express, Euro Card, Maestro, Master Card, Visa, Visa Electron

As soon as you shed your coat, you'll be greeted by a row of fresh ingredients that you heap into a bowl according to your mood and hand to the chef at the centre of an enormous circular grill. He sizzles up your selection within minutes, and you take it to your table. The Mongolian barbecue-style concept is adapted with central Asian ingredients and Russian side dishes, and it has found huge success in Moscow. Most other branches of the Yolki-Palki chain only offer basic Russian fare; its three barbecue-style branches, including this glass-enclosed pavilion on bustling Pushkin Square, are its most popular and tasty, as well as a great choice for anyone on a budget. Ingredients include sliced chicken, pork, beef, sole, eggs, assorted vegetables, several sauces, and a large selection of fresh spices, including unique offerings from central Asia and the Caucasus Mountains. Vegetarians will also find plenty of options here.