The Big Onion

Okno v Parizh is a hilarious 1994 comedy about Nikolai, a St. Petersburg music teacher, and his friends who discover a “window to Paris” in a communal apartment. I was as shocked as Nikolai must have been this week when I stumbled through a door on Malaya Bronaya. I found a closely packed, noisy bistro filled with fulsome aromas from an open kitchen directly in front of me. It’s difficult to be modest about Uilliam’s: it practically screams best restaurant in town. One wants to be cautious, after all it just opened in July, so we’ll give it time. But, after six years of writing PASSPORT restaurant reviews, Uilliam’s is the first place with that genuine comfy feeling of a popular neighborhood Parisian bistro.

Uilliam’s is small, squeezing in at most 60 diners. Décor is simple. It’s practically impossible to get a seat. The tables wrap around a busy, completely open kitchen that is dominated by a huge bright red and brass French artisan Molteni range marked with a large brass plate “Specially for Uilliam Lamberti”. Molteni calls each of its custom stoves “a unique jewel” for great chefs, and Lamberti must be proud to have his Molteni in Moscow.

Owner-chef Uilliam Lamberti is a fifteen-year Moscow veteran from Ascona. Early on he was chef at El Dorado. Most recently he has been a consultant with Ginza Group, the St. Petersburg restaurant conglomerate that has dominated Moscow’s new restaurant scene for the past two years. However, we understand that Uilliam’s is Lamberti’s own pride and joy, and as chef-owner he is a rarity in Moscow. Read more in Passport Magazine…

Last month’s “Moscow’s Best Restaurants” article prompted some fierce comments. People have strong opinions on eating, each with his or her “best” criteria, for instance “the biggest helping for the least money.” My definition of best, as expressed in the last issue, does not depend upon how filled up I am, or who goes to a restaurant. One reader complained that “nobody goes there,” but if head-count was our criteria then McDonalds would be at the top of the list. If the selection was based upon the total value of black “elitny machiny” at 11pm then maybe Soho Rooms would top the list. The experts, like Michelin, Zagat, Gault Millau and Gambero Rosso rate best overall, and that’s what we have tried to do.

This month I add some Special Mentions, restaurants worth noting for superior ethnic cuisine, local color, or other unique features.

Ethnic Restaurants

One perennial mystery about Moscow is the lack of authentic ethnic restaurants—a Mexican restaurant run by Mexicans or a Chinese run by Chinese. There are a few exceptions, notably Caucasian, and even a couple of Indian restaurants. In small-business-unfriendly Russia, there just aren’t any really great family run ethnic restaurants like the hundreds found in most cities small and large around the world.

There ought to be dozens of great Chinese restaurants. Druzhba, which actually has Chinese proprietors (and ample portions of MSG), is the only place that comes close. Its principal fault is the lack of the vegetarian offerings I expect at a Chinese restaurant. Even Druzhba’s tofu dish is dominated by pork, but then that’s authentic Chinese food for you.

Darbar in the Sputnik hotel has always been a personal favorite not only for the quality of the food, but for its diversity of Indian dishes on the menu from southern and northern India. There is nothing like a real Mexican restaurant in Moscow, and in my opinion there won’t be until someone brings white corn tortillas to town, and has a real Mexican chef.

American Food

Starlite Diners have long dominated for basic American, and the SD locations at Oktyabrskaya and Mayakovskaya are popular Power Breakfast spots. Beverly Hills Diner (two locations) is the newcomer its own very good variants of American classics.

Isaac Correa’s Corner Burger is tops for American Modern Urban comfort food. … Read more in Passport Magazine

A few months ago, we questioned the results of the annual S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants, which placed Varvary at #48, followed by Semifreddo and Chaika in the top 100. The crowning of Vavary, Semifreddo and Chaika as Moscow’s best provoked a heated discussion in the PASSPORT dining circle, and a personal “gut check” of the Moscow restaurant menu.

The list below contains my Moscow Top 15. How do I define a “best” restaurant? It serves “a meal prepared with the highest quality, freshest ingredients, by people who greatly care what they serve, and led by a culinary artist, whether that artist was trained in a top chef school or is a local, self-trained artisan. The meal should be served in an enjoyable, restful or at least locally interesting environment, by courteous and responsive wait-staff.”

The Supremes

The three below head the class, with sumptuous cuisine made from the freshest ingredients by a true artisan-chef, very good service, and comfortable and relaxing setting.

La Marée

La Marée owner, Tunisian Mehdi Douss, founded and runs Moscow’s leading fresh seafood business, flying in fresh fish to supply many of the city’s top restaurants. There are two La Marée in the city and one out in Zhukovka, my favorite opened just over a year ago in majestic digs on Malaya Gruzinskaya. Each La Marée has a boutique seafood market with the fresh-off-the-plane catch laid out on ice, a diner’s first stop to select gifts of the sea to be prepared whole, filleted, baked in salt, steamed, “la plancha” or with Tunisian spices. Chef Abdessatar Zitouni oversees the La Marée kitchen, serving Mediterranean and Tunisian specialties. A favorite is Zitouni’s magnificent, rich, dark ochre Bouillabaisse brimming with an assortment of Mediterranean shellfish and fish. La Marée also caters to Moscow’s sushi fanatics with fresh sashimi assortment. If I have ever had fresher or better in Moscow I surely don’t remember.

Nedalny Vostok (Not Far East)

Australian Glen Ballis is the artist in residence at Nedalny Vostok, the greatest of restaurateur Arkady Novikov’s establishments. The restaurant centerpiece is its large, open, rectangular, stainless and glass kitchen, sous-chefs hard at work on all sides. Ballis serves a creative Pan-Asian-Fusion menu with an emphasis on Kamchatka crab. Ballis is a disciplinarian, with an obsession for detail that is on display to all each night in the open kitchen. More than a few Moscow restaurants have Glen to thank for kitchen staff who have served time at Nedalny Vostok.

Ragout

The newest and most democratic of the top three is Ragout, where Ilya Shalev is the chef-artist. A Stavropol native, Shalev returned to Russia after study at Cordon Bleu, and a stint with super chef and nouvelle cuisine pioneer Alain Senderens. The food at Ragout is exquisite and wonderfully presented, service polite without hovering, setting relaxed and cheerful, and the prices astoundingly reasonable. Ragout’s menu, a single page, reflects Shalev’s creative nouvelle cuisine influence, with a few nods to Asian and Russian.

Read more in Passport Magazine

As I walked down 2nd Brestakaya Street from Belorusskaya station one evening, a mutely lit restaurant, full of smartly dressed young diners, beckoned from large street-side windows. The simple sign read Ragout. I’d heard good reports about Ragout, so a week later, when Joel Babb was in town from Paris, we stopped by for lunch. Ragout drew me back the next day for another lunch, and then I lured PASSPORT publisher John Ortega in for a tasting dinner.

There are so many reasons to return to Ragout; the food is exquisite and wonderfully presented, the service polite without hovering, the setting relaxed and cheerful, and the prices astoundingly reasonable.

There’s a chef-artist at work at Ragout, Ilya Shalev, a Stavropol native who emigrated with his family twenty years ago. He returned to Russia after study at Cordon Bleu, and a stint with super chef and nouvelle cuisine pioneer Alain Senderens. It was Senderens who famously gave up his three Michelin stars, closed his illustrious Lucas Carton in Paris and converted it to a relaxed urban casual, yet food-as-art venue.

Shalev apparently co-owns the Ragout with three partners, including Ekaterina Drozhdova. Ms. Drozhdova is former owner of Simple Things, a gastro-pub concept that drew a recommendation from Food and Wine. Shalev and Drozhdova are apparently Slow Food advocates.

Ragout’s menu, a single page, reflects the nouvelle cuisine influence, with a few nods to Asian and Russian. The business lunch offers a selection of Starter&Salad plus Soup at 350 roubles, or 600 roubles with an added Main Dish. I took the Sweet Beetroot, Hazelnut Puree and Beet Leaves with Walnut Dressing (250r), Moroccan Style Tomato Soup with Ginger, Honey and Cumin (250r), and Tortelloni with Corn, Truffle Essence and Thyme Sauce (350r). Despite the business lunch bargain price, the portions were full-size, not a crippled business version typical at other Moscow establishments.

I stabbed through the heap of very fresh beet leaves to the tender beets slices, being sure to pick up some of the thick hazelnut puree. Wow! The mildly spiced tomato soup was refreshing, accented with soft whole cumin and coriander seeds that provided small bursts of flavor. The handmade thick-walled, al dente tortelloni contained whole sweet corn kernels and swam in a thick bright yellow, slightly sweet corn/truffle flavored sauce. Double wow!

The wine prices stunned me; there were excellent bottles at just 900 roubles, including a favorite, Chilean Montes Sauvignon Blanc. It was clear that someone at Ragout knew their wines, and cared about price/value when putting together the wine list. Bottle prices cluster around 1500-1800 roubles, for wines that would be twice that or more on other Moscow wine lists. I don’t do wine with lunch so we settled for a simple litre of Arkhiz Caucasus mountain spring water, set on the table in a stoppered bottle at just 50 roubles.

When I returned with John Ortega, I sampled more selections: Oriental Salad with Red Cabbage, Poached Chicken and Asian Peanut Butter Dressing (450r), a sphere pressed from shredded chicken laid over a red cabbage in an Asian dressing, and topped with a generous layer of tasty peanut sauce; and Marseilles Style Fish Soup (300r), thick and spicy, served with cheese-topped, crisp bread slices and a Provencal style rouille sauce. For entrées we added Flat Veal Chop with Celeriac Puree and Caramelized Fennel (450r), the generous slice of veal pounded thin before cooking: very tender; Chicken Leg Stuffed with Chicken Breast, with Mushroom Risotto and Sauce (400r); and Green Risotto with Prawns and Coquille St. Jacques (600r), further attestations to the chef’s skills.

The desserts looked equally intriguing. I went for Steamed Pudding with Ginger and Crème Anglais (250r) — heavenly! I hope I heard correctly that the pudding will be on Shalev’s Spring menu, which should be out by the time you read this.

Ragout was packed on each visit, understandably so. At the end of the evening, John declared Ragout among the very best of Moscow’s restaurants; I certainly agree. From menu, to presentation, to taste, Shalev demonstrates remarkable care and skill. I hope Ragout’s affordable-quality formula will not be ignored by many Moscow restaurateurs who have thought that raising prices and minimizing chef costs are solutions to filling empty tables. Passport Magazine May 2011