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The 8 Best Restaurants in Moscow

From the traditional to the modern, fine dining destinations in Moscow celebrate the best that Russian cuisine has to offer.

By Elite Traveler

With many of the best restaurants in Moscow also doubling as bars and clubs, the atmosphere is nearly always one step away from a party, and many of the city’s elite come dressed to impress. Of course, there are still many elegant and family friendly restaurants for those who prefer a quieter evening. With such a large selection available, Elite Traveler has compiled a suitable list for diners of all persuasions.

Café Pushkin

Designed to recreate the feel of a 19th century aristocrat’s house, Café Pushkin has become one of the most popular restaurants in Moscow, thanks to the quality of its food, impeccable service and the excellent vodka selection. The atmosphere of pre-Revolution Russia is delightfully charming, from the flowery script of the menu to aristocratic country house décor. Pushkin is the ideal destination if you want to be treated like Russian nobility and dine like a Tsar – but book ahead, the restaurant’s popularity requires reservation well in advance.

cafe-pushkin.ru

Lavishly decked out with chandeliers and hand-painted furniture, the menu selection may come as a surprise to first-time guests, with options ranging from Pi Pa duck with melon and truffle to beefsteak with foie gras. Turandot puts a French spin on pan-Asian cuisine, and does so with incredible style and boldness. Whilst the interior décor is certainly to be marvelled at, it is the thoughtfully conceptualized and perfectly executed menu options that make for an incredible dining experience.

turandot-palace.ru

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When the Ginza Project, a company that owns some of the finest restaurants in Moscow, announced that they would be opening a restaurant on the 29th floor of Radisson Royal Hotel, the excitement and anticipation was palpable.

The company has a reputation for the high quality of its restaurants that grace the streets of the capital, and Buono is no exception. The views from Buono are unashamedly spectacular, while the décor is elegant, with soft creams complementing the fine views on offer. The food is classical Italian; Chef William Lamberti is well known throughout Europe and has created an excellent menu. It’s always best to book ahead at Buono, as the window seats that offer the finest views over the city are quickly taken.

buonomoscow.ru

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Italian for ‘small’, Piccolino is a cozy, homely restaurant – something of a rarity in Moscow.

Serving typical Italian food, the family friendly establishment is laid back, but this doesn’t compromise the quality of the food: good, hearty portions that are exceptionally tasty. The interior of Piccolino has been designed to replicate that of a large country house, and the décor is entirely fitting with the atmosphere of the restaurant. In a city where many of the establishments value the names of their guests over the quality of their dishes, Piccolino is the place to come if your preference is quality of food rather than famous faces.

Twin Gardens

With two tasting menus and an à la carte option, the Twin Gardens at the heart of Moscow caters to any palette. With the restaurant concept based on the symbiosis of science and nature, their Vegetables set menu explores all manner of produce from seedling to peeling, delicately plated in a tasteful homage to the natural life cycle of wild plants and flowers. For more adventurous types, their Rediscover Russia menu offers a culinary tour of various local specialties found in provinces across the vast continent. They also have a wide selection of Russian wines.

twinsgarden.ru

Located in an elegant 19th century mansion, CDL is one of the most sophisticated restaurants in Moscow.

The interior has been gorgeously designed to recreate the grandeur of the Silver Age of Russian culture, with antique balustrades and bas-reliefs throughout the Oak Hall main room. The staircase in the Oak Hall is a particular masterpiece; it was built without a single nail or screw. The fireplace is equally impressive and has been used as a meeting room by President Dmitry Medvedev. Guests can also hire additional rooms such as the Cigar Room and the Cabinet Room. A menu of authentic Russian cuisine has been created by top chef Alexander Popov, with organic dishes bursting with flavor and a splendor to match the opulent surroundings. With so much luxury and class on display, it’s little wonder that former US Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush have chosen to dine here. Situated in the center of the city between Bolshaya Nikitskaya 53 and Povarskaya Ulitsa 50, it’s worth booking ahead to avoid disappointment.

White Rabbit

With a domed window inviting soaring views of the Moscow cityscape, White Rabbit has recently undergone extensive renovations, to both its interior and its menu. Renowned architect Natalia Belonogova has transformed the restaurant into an airy, modern space, perfected by the addition of a summer veranda. To connect the dining options with the new interior, head chef Vladimir Mukhin has created a new menu, Metamorphoses, to reflect the lifecycle of the mayfly butterfly.

Delight your palette with scallop, strawberries and blackcurrant or, for dessert, dandelion honey with melted cottage cheese. This summerlike and refreshing menu has its roots in Russian soil and its head in the clouds above Moscow’s skyline.

whiterabbitmoscow.ru

One of the best places to see and be seen, the O2 Lounge is half stylish seafood restaurant and half trendy pre-club hangout.

The food on offer is delicious Japanese fare, with sumptuous sushi prepared in front of diners by the team of talented chefs led by Nicholas Courtois. Located on the 12th floor of the Ritz-Carlton hotel, the restaurant has spectacular panoramic views over Red Square and The Kremlin. After dark the restaurant becomes one of the coolest bars in town, with award-winning cocktails and a selective wine list.

o2loungerestaurant.com

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The KGB’s Favorite Restaurant Reopens in Moscow

Aragvi, the haunt of Soviet-era celebrities and spies opens after a 13-year absence and $20 million renovation

Jason Daley

Correspondent

Anyone who stepped into Aragvi during the second half of the 20th century was likely to spot a Eastern bloc movie star, chess champion, cosmonaut or a politburo member. For decades, the restaurant at No. 6/2 Tverskaya Ulitsa in Moscow was the place to be seen for the cream of Soviet society and was a favorite haunt of spies and KGB agents. After the fall of the USSR, however, the restaurant fell on hard times and closed. Now, after almost 15 years, the Georgian restaurant has reopened its doors, hoping its Soviet-era cachet will bring it back to the culinary hip list.

Mary Louise Kelly at NPR reports that the restaurant, opened in 1938, was a favorite with Stalin’s chief of secret police, Lavrentiy Beria, who stopped in often with Stalin’s son Vasily for the Georgian wine. It’s even rumored that Beria designed the state-owned restaurant.

Veteran KGB spy Yury Kobaladze tells Kelly that the restaurant was also a favorite haunt of Kim Philby , a British agent secretly working for the Soviets who served as the liaison between MI6 and the CIA. He defected to the USSR in 1963 after being outed as a double agent. “He liked Georgian food,” Kobaladze says. “That's what he told me. He loved Aragvi.”

Many other people also loved Aragvi since, according to Ilya Krol at The Moscow Times , it was the only place in the city to get Georgian cuisine. “You can't compare today’s dining scene in Moscow with the Soviet one,” poet Lev Rubinshtein, who frequented Aragvi in the 1970s tells Krol. “How many places could you get food from the Caucasus in the capital? Just a few places serving shashlik (grilled meat). Aragvi, with its 12-page menu, had no rival.”

Sergei Solovyov , a director known for  Assa and  Anna Karenina also witnessed the Soviet-era decadence. “I was really shocked when I saw the dishes that you could order there,” he tells Krol. “I can see it as if it were yesterday. They brought our order of lobio, satsivi, shashlik, chicken livers, and caviar to the table … but I was so hungry that I fainted before the waiter brought our plates.”

According to Marina Lapenkova at Agence France-Presse , the formerly state-run restaurant changed hands several times after the fall of the Soviet Union, eventually closing for good in 2003. But the Tashir group and investor Gor Nakhapetyan have spent nearly 15 years and $20 million to restore the nine-room restaurant. The main dining rooms are painted with Soviet murals depicting tractors, workers and sheaves of corn, but otherwise the space does not resemble the previous incarnation.

Head chef Alexei Zenin tells Krol that the menu focuses on authentic versions of Black Sea cuisine, like the dumpling khinkali and the chopped salad  pkhali . Unlike the first time around, the restaurant faces stiff competition. Cheap Georgian food has become very popular in Moscow. That’s why the owners hope to capitalize on the restaurant’s unique history.

But recreating the Cold War ambience exactly would be difficult. Mikhail Lyubimov, a former KGB agent who headed operations against Britain and Scandinavian says most of the staff at the restaurant were retired KGB officers and the restaurant was a great recruiting ground for spies. It was also the spot where agents held farewell parties for colleagues going abroad. He tells Lapenkova he remembers a night “with plenty of drinking, [when] one of our men invited a beautiful woman to dance, not realizing she herself was a US spy and was being tailed by the KGB.”

To get the mood just right, the restaurant would have to bring back the surveillance too. “Everything was bugged, you know?” Kobaladze tells Kelly. “But everybody knew that if you were in Aragvi: don’t talk, keep quiet. The rumor was that all [the] tables had microphones.”

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Jason Daley | | READ MORE

Jason Daley is a Madison, Wisconsin-based writer specializing in natural history, science, travel, and the environment. His work has appeared in Discover , Popular Science , Outside , Men’s Journal , and other magazines.

Moscow Restaurants 2024

Top 20 restaurants you should definitelly visit during your stay in Moscow.

Looking for the best restaurants in Moscow? Checkout our latest list of the top places to eat in the capital of Russia.

Most of the trendiest restaurants are located around the famous Patriarch Ponds neighborhood, also known as the main gourmet center of Moscow and the neighboring Bolshaya Nikitskaya street. (our picks include Gvidon, Pino and Loro restaurants)

The list also includes a number of the beloved classics like Pushkin and White Rabbit that was awarded a Michelin star in 2022.

1 . Pushkin Restaurant

Pushkin restaurant is located in a 19th century mansion in the heart of the city. One of the best places to experience Russian cuisine. During summer they open summer verandah located on top of the restaurant's building and overlooks Pushkin Boulevard.

2 . Erwin Restaurant

Erwin is a seafood restaurant that occupies 2 floors of the building located at the bank of the Moscow River in close proximity to the Radisson Royal Hotel. Erwin's menu features an extensive selection of crabs that includes king crab, snow crab, frog crab, blue king crab, spiky crab and hairy crab.

3 . Dr Zhivago Restaurant

Dr. Zhivago is located in the heart of Moscow, just one block away from the Red Square and Kremlin. It occupies the ground floor of the legendary Hotel National built in 1902. The restaurant carries the name of the legendary novel, as well as creates its own intriguing story line.

4 . White Rabbit Restaurant

In October of 2021 White Rabbit received it's Michelin star. The restaurant represents the so called “new Russian cuisine”. At White Rabbit they use local products to cook traditional Russian dishes with a modern touch.

5 . Sixty Restaurant

The Sixty restaurant, located on the Federation Tower's 62nd floor, offers stunning panoramic views and stands as one of Europe's highest dining spots.

6 . Novikov Restaurant & Bar

Novikov Restaurant & Bar is located on the first floor of the Ritz-Carlton hotel on the central Tverskaya street. The menu is focused mostly on PanAsian dishes.

7 . Gvidon Restaurant

Gvidon restaurant is located in a restored mansion of the pre-revolutionary era. The historic building with large windows resembles old Moscow architecture. The extensive multi-page menu is divided into 3 sections that include seasonal dishes, raw bar, and main menu.

8 . Savva Restaurant

Savva restaurant is located inside the famous 5 star Metropole hotel right across from the Bolshoi Theater and TSUM department store.

Savva’s menu was compiled by chef Andrey Shmakov with a primary focus on Russian cuisine. Although you’ll find some French and Italian items in the menu as well. The menu also includes Raw Bar.

9 . Pino Restaurant

Pino is an Italian restaurant located in the heart of the trendy Patriarch Ponds area in the central part of Moscow. Pino’s extensive international menu has a dedicated section with dishes that can be shared among all guests at the table. Checkout their breakfasts served daily from 8:00 to 12:00.

10 . Bolshoi Restaurant

Bolshoi restaurant is located in the heart of Moscow next to the world famous Bolshoi Theater and TSUM department store. Local menu includes culinary classics from around the world. There are items from traditional Russian and Soviet era cuisine that are mixed with select Italian and French dishes.

11 . Sakhalin Restaurant

The Sakhalin restaurant is located on the 22nd floor of the AZIMUT City Hotel Smolenskaya that offers a 360-degree panoramic views of Moscow.

The restaurant’s menu features one of the best selection of seafood dishes in the city including crabs, shrimps, a variety of shells and fish brought directly from the Far East of Russia.

12 . Butcher Restaurant

Butcher on Tsvetnoy Boulevard is a premium steak house located on the first floor of the modern business center minutes away from the TSUM department store. Butcher specializes in premium meat from Argentina, Uruguay and Russia, so its a good place to have one of the classic steaks.

13 . La Bottega Siciliana

La Bottega Siciliana is a premium Italian restaurant located in the same building as the Four Seasons Hotel. The menu at La Bottega Siciliana listed on many pages is huge. It has all varieties of Italian dishes as well as some original items compiled by the chef Claudio Pirovano.

14 . Turandot Restaurant

Turandot is a premium pan-Asian restaurant located on Tverskoy Boulevard in the center of Moscow. The restaurant was created by the same restaurateur who created Pushkin restaurant located in the same building.

15 . Ivanka Restaurant

The Ivanka restaurant is located in the Neva Towers skyscraper in the Moscow City district. The main menu reflects the personal view of chef Ivan Negutarov on Mediterranean gastronomy with a primary focus on Italy. Checkout the menu’s dedicated “Carpaccio”, “Tartare”, “Crudo”, “On Ice” and “Caviar” sections!

16 . Le Pigeon Restaurant

Le Pigeon is a restaurant that specializes in Parisian cuisine where traditional French dishes are served with some creative modern twists. For those that are just starting their acquaintance with French cuisine, the chefs recommend trying some snails in white wine.

17 . Boston Seafood & Bar

Boston Seafood & Bar has 2 major advantages that make it stand out among other restaurants in Moscow also serving seafood. The first advantage is pricing policy that is extremely attractive considering high quality of their food.

18 . Aist Restaurant

Aist restaurant is located in the trendy Patriarch Ponds area in the center of Moscow. The restaurant is mainly focused on European cuisine but also has some signature Asian dishes. The restaurant is located in its own 3 story building and has one of the best summer verandahs in Moscow.

19 . Loro Restaurant

Loro was originally opened in the winter of 2019 and became famous for its fresh Moscow take on Italian classics. The menu consists of just one sheet and six sections. There is a raw section that has oysters, sea urchins, several kinds of carpaccio and tartare. The desert menu has all Italian classics like Tiramisu, Pistachio ice cream and Crème Brûlée.

20 . Yug 22 Restaurant

Yug 22 restaurant’s name is translated from Russian as “south” and the number refers to the building’s address. The restaurant is located on Bolshaya Nikitskaya street, famous for its restaurant scene and pedestrian area.

The front door of the restaurant is decorated with yellowish tones. You will definitely like the restaurant’s floor to ceiling windows that they open during warm summer months.

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9 Moscow restaurants that won over the Michelin experts

White Rabbit restaurant.

Two Michelin stars: Chef’s Table (1st floor); recommendation: Fireplace Hall (2nd floor)

Artest is located in a two-story 19th-century mansion in central Moscow. On the ground floor is the Chef’s Table (where guests sit at the same table and are personally served dishes from the chef); on the second is a hall with a fireplace. The restaurant, opened only at the beginning of this year by experienced Russian restaurateur Arkady Novikov, takes its name from the first three letters of the given and last names of Artem Estafiev, a young chef from St. Petersburg. Estafiev already has experience of several large restaurants in Russia’s two capitals under his belt, plus internships in Spain and France. Artem uses farm products and creates his own innovations in the restaurant’s “laboratory”, where he makes vinegars from vegetables and berries (carrots, chokeberries, etc.), experiments with Japanese  koji  mushrooms, and keeps products at high temperatures. The exquisite cuisine is complemented by wines (more than 400 on the wine list) and unusual cocktails based on  kombucha  and fermented products.

"Vremya" set: potato, tomato.

What to order: “Vremya” set, blackened vegetables and fruits. Average check: 15,000 – 20,000 rubles (Chef's Table) / 2,800 – 9,000 rubles (Fireplace Hall) Address: 15/2, Trubnikovskiy Pereulok street Website:   artest.rest

2. Twins Garden

Two Michelin Stars, Green Michelin Star, Best Service Award

Since 2017, brothers Ivan and Sergey Berezutsky have been serving creative and hi-tech dishes to guests at their Twins Garden restaurant. In their own laboratory, the chefs combine gastronomy with science: they ferment products, print food with a 3D printer and use freeze drying. Also installed here is a “kinetic farm” with products hanging in the air – symbolizing the 100-hectare farm in the Yaroslavl region from where most of the products are supplied. Part of the farm is located in the forest, so the restaurant always has seasonal berries, herbs and mushrooms at its disposal. The farm also rears goats, cows and poultry, and produces cheeses.

Far Eastern shrimp dumplings with strawberries, asparagus and trout caviar.

In addition to the main menu, you can order the “Rediscover Russia” set with local products from different regions of the country. The second set meal with the telling name “Vegetables” gives you a taste from the tops to roots. The picture is completed by 14 varieties of wines made from vegetables, mushrooms and herbs (how do you like wine made from tomatoes or boletus?!). The restaurant is famed for its extensive wine list, which is more like a book, featuring over 1,000 labels from all over the world.

What to order: “Rediscover Russia” set; Far Eastern shrimp dumplings with strawberries, asparagus and trout caviar.

Average check: 2,500 – 15,000 rubles

Address: 7th/8th floor, 8A, Na Strastnom Shopping Center, Strastnoy Bulvar street

Website:   twinsgarden.ru/en/

3. White Rabbit

One Michelin star

The restaurant is located under a glass dome on the 16th floor of the Smolensky Passage mall and offers a stunning panoramic view of Moscow. The restaurant’s brand chef, Vladimir Mukhin, is ranked the ninth best in the world, according to the Best Chef Awards. He experiments with alternative sources of protein and new technologies, including sensory food design (where color, shape and sound affect how the dish is perceived). Each signature set that Vladimir presents at the chef’s table is an audacious gastronomic performance.

Okroshka with brine and white milk mushrooms in an ice dish.

What to order: “Black Swan” set;  okroshka  soup with brine and white milk mushrooms in an ice dish; Borodino bread with coconut lard; apricot with black caviar.

Average check: 2,500 – 12,500 rubles.

Address: 16th floor, 3 Smolensky Passage Shopping Center, Smolenskaya Ploschad square

Website:   whiterabbitmoscow.ru/en/

Another establishment from the White Rabbit Family alliance offering modern, original fare. Here, chef Anatoly Kazakov riffs on Russian themes, using French techniques. The dishes speak for themselves: Sakhalin scallop with morels and cauliflower; turnip, rutabaga and turnips with honey and feijoa; Pozharsky cutlet with cucumber ketchup and mashed potato with black truffle.

Pigeon with Jerusalem artichoke and soaked cowberries.

What to order:  Pigeon with Jerusalem artichoke and soaked cowberries; crab, millet, Poshekhonsky cheese and sweet Abkhaz lemon jelly in celery root.

Average check: 2,500 – 7,000 rubles.

Address: 2nd floor, 31 VEB.RF Retail and Business Center, Novinsky Bulvar street

Website:   selfiemoscow.ru/en/  

5. Sakhalin

Sakhalin serves a mix of Mediterranean and Asian cuisine, built around fish, shells and other seafood from the Russian Far East. As desired, guests can select them from the icebox or aquarium in the center of the restaurant, which, inter alia, amazes diners with its 360-degree panoramic views of Moscow from the 22nd and 23rd floors. The head chef is Aleksei Kogai, who has worked in the pan-Asian style for the White Rabbit Family alliance since 2011.

“Goldfish” rolls; Tiramisu in the form of a can of black caviar.

What to order: “Goldfish” rolls; Sakhalin salad; Tiramisu in the form of a can of black caviar.

Average check: 3,000 – 11,000 rubles

Address: 22nd floor, Azimut Hotel, 8 Smolenskaya Ulitsa street

Website:   sakhalin-moscow.ru/en/  

This restaurant is located on the second floor of the luxurious National Hotel overlooking the Kremlin. Beluga is described as a restaurant of Russian delicacies: its menu boasts more than 20 types of caviar and one of the world’s longest vodka lists. The head of the kitchen is Evgeny Vikentiev, an avant-garde chef from St Petersburg, who effortlessly combines pike-and-foie gras  pelmeni  with hay-and-mushroom broth, cheesecake with crispy reindeer lichen, and grape snails with buckwheat.

Octopus with coconut kefir and eggplant; Grape snails with buckwheat.

What to order: “Theory of New Delicacies” set.

Average check: 2,500 – 12,000 rubles.

Address: 2nd floor, National Hotel, 15/1 Mokhovaya Ulitsa street

Website:  belugamoscow.ru/en

Located in the historic building of the Metropol Hotel, a stone’s throw from the Bolshoi Theater and the Kremlin. The menu contains four main “stories” from chef Andrei Shmakov: “Healthy Lifestyle”, “Dacha”, “Farm” and “Russia”, each consisting of four dishes. For example, the “Russia” set tempts diners with duck-and-cherry borsch and muksun with warm potatoes. There is a separate menu section with six types of caviar (served with buckwheat fritters, potatoes, pickled cucumbers or smetana), plus more traditional offerings, including desserts. Andrei Shmakov, who created the menu, joined the Metropol kitchen in 2013, after previous stints in Estonia and St Petersburg, having trained at the legendary Noma in Copenhagen and Chez Dominique in Helsinki.

Beef jerky and smoked beetroot with parmesan and mustard ice cream.

What to order:  Beef jerky and smoked beetroot with parmesan and mustard ice cream; salmon, cod and halibut pie with asparagus and herb and caviar sauce; pie with pine nuts, chocolate, chanterelles and pine-flavored ice cream.

Average check: 2,500 – 6,000 rubles

Address: Metropol Hotel, 2 Teatralny Proezd street

Website:   savvarest.ru/en/  

8. Grand Cru

This wine restaurant in a prestigious area of ​​Moscow near Patriarch’s Ponds is run by French chef David Hemmerle, who has experience of working at exclusive restaurants in France and the UAE under his belt. Hemmerle’s menu at Grand Cru is rich in seasonal, local produce combined with expertly prepared sauces.  Très français .

Stuffed farm chicken breast with chanterelles.

What to order:  Stuffed farm chicken breast with chanterelles; young carrots and ginger sauce; tart with Kamchatka crab mousse and pike caviar.

Average check: 3,000 – 7,000 rubles

Address: 22/2 Malaya Bronnaya street.

Website:   grandcru.ru/en/

9. Biologie

One Michelin star, Green Michelin star

Opened about a year ago, the Biologie gastrobar with its laconic menu is located in a wooden building in a Moscow suburb; the dining area is decorated in a chalet style. Chef Ekaterina Alekhina adheres to the tenets of conscious consumption, respect for nature and minimal food waste in the kitchen.

Grilled scallop with beurre noisette and cream based on spent coffee grounds and pears.

What to order:  Grilled scallop with  beurre   noisette  and cream based on spent coffee grounds and pears.

Average check: 2,100 – 4,000 rubles

Address: 30/2 Lenin street, Ilyinskoe village

Website:   biologie.ru/en/ Average-check information comes from the Michelin Guide.

READ MORE: How French cuisine conquered Russia (unlike the French army)

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O2 | Restaurant

The iconic o2 restaurant on the roof promises unforgettable panoramic views of the capital and refined gastronomic experience..

 Take Your Front-Row Seat

A restaurant with a terrace on the roof of the legendary The Carlton, Moscow hotel. Melt into the atmosphere of understated luxury, trust the subtle culinary intuition of the Chef Vladimir Shchepilov and enjoy a vivid gastronomic experience at the height with an always breathtaking panoramic view of Moscow.

Here you'll find familiar Mediterranean cuisine with a new twist and regularly updated seasonal offerings.

Signature cocktails

The cocktail menu from Bar Manager Filipp Glushakov invites you on a journey around Russia: behind each cocktail is a unique story with its own special aesthetic and original flavour combination. "Now more than ever, domestic tourism is becoming relevant. Come with us to the coldest place in the world, where temperatures drop to -70 degrees, or on a spit in the sea, over which a record 20 million birds fly during their annual migration – all that is right here within Russia. Our country has plenty of surprises for you. And we, in turn, are happy to charm you with drinks that convey the atmosphere of these places," says Filipp of his inspiration. Fresh and fruity, spicy and warming, deep and full of aromas of herbs and wild flowers …. Each cocktail is a work of art.

SERVICE POLICY

Neapolitan pizza and rustic italian cuisine, featuring local seasonal ingredients..

Maialina Pizzeria Napoletana opened in early 2013 born out of an obsession with wood-fired Naples style pizza and the beauty and art of handmade pasta. Italian food and wine is steeped in tradition and history and in the love of place. The centerpiece of our kitchen is our oven, imported from Italy made from refractory cotto brick which cooks pizzas at 900 degrees. We stretch our mozzarella by hand, obsess daily about our dough and make it with a starter we’ve had since we opened. We studied at one of three Vera Pizza Napoletana certified schools in the world to learn how to preserve the traditional Naples style techniques. During the summer our magical piazza-style patio overflows with growing basil, tomatoes, herbs, corkscrew willow trees planted in wine barrels, and the laughs of friends.

Our local farmers, ranchers, growers make what we do possible. We believe in the history and tradition of local agriculture and local, healthy food. Which is why our eggs, pork, beef, and many weekly hand truckloads of produce comes from straight from Moscow area family farms. We know our farmers. We’ve been to their farms. We love what they do for our community and we see it as a great honor to prepare and serve these lovely things to you, so we can all share in tradition and love of place.

CENTERED AROUND A WOOD-FIRED OVEN

Maialina features a menu of wood-fired pizzas, house-made pastas, and locally-sourced, farm-fresh fresh dishes — a celebration of rustic cuisine.

Lunch & Dinner from 11am - 9.30 pm

Lunch & Dinner from 11am - 10 pm

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Always a homecoming

Seasons Public House     

View our menu   here.

The Seasons Public House restaurant is home to some of the best food in Moscow, Idaho. Whether you're sitting down for a simple lunch or a big dinner, we've got you covered with our fantastic menu and unique dining experience. The restaurant offers a variety of American and international cuisine, as well as a wide selection of wine and beer. Seasons Public House at the University Inn is open for lunch and dinner every day, from 11:30 am to 10:00 pm.

Don't forget to join us for our happy hour either, which runs from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm daily! We offer amazing discounts on beer, wine, and appetizers during our happy hour. Come on down to the Seasons Restaurant in Moscow, Idaho to enjoy some amazing food and one of the best bars in town. Read on to learn more about our fantastic dining experience.

Seasons Public House

The Seasons is made to be enjoyed by both casual and business guests. It's newly renovated and is a perfect place to meet with friends and colleagues. You can sit down and enjoy any of our 12 beers on tap, our Pacific Northwest wines, or even sit down and enjoy a specialty cocktail around our fireplaces and outdoor patios.

Drinks & More

If our amazing food selection hasn't convinced you, join us for our happy hour. $3.50 Bud Light, Coors Light, Kokanee Drafts, House Wine, and even Well Drinks! If you get hungry, enjoy discounted appetizers to fill you up.

MEETINGS & EVENTS

With 12,000 sq. feet of meeting space, we are here to assist with your meetings and events from 5 to 500 guests.

BOOK YOUR EVENTS

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Restaurants

Moscow has developed a reputation as a “foodie” town, thanks to a local community of chefs and restaurateurs who regularly introduce new concepts and creations. From down-home comfort food to continental cuisine, you’ll have a variety of choices for any meal.

1317 S Main St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 882-2301

Applebee’s Grill and Bar

105 Warbonnet Dr, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 883-4821

Arby’s

150 Peterson Dr, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 882-4223

403 South Main Street, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 882-4279

Bucer’s Coffee House Pub

201 South Main Street, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 596-0887

Buffalo Wild Wings

1710 W Pullman Rd, Moscow, ID, USA

Café Artista

218 S Main St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 882-1324

512 S Washington St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 882-1154

(425) 985-2415

Corner Club

202 N Main St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 882-2915

Dominos Pizza

317 W. 6th St. Suites 105 & 106, Moscow, ID

(208) 883-1555

Duke’s Place

(503) 317-3880

Gambino’s

308 W 6th St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 882-9000

Garden Lounge

313 S Main St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 882-8513

(208) 907-1013

2002 S Main St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 310-4427

Humble Burger

102 N Main St, Moscow, ID, USA

(775) 600-2874

Hunga Dunga Brewing Co.

333 N Jackson St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 596-4855

2010 South Main Street, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 874-8007

1320 S Mountain View Rd, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 669-1743

Jimmy John’s

529 S Jackson St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 883-3278

Karma Indian Cuisine

Eastside Marketplace

1420 S Blaine St Suite #19-20, Moscow, ID 83843

(208) 301-5117

1400 South Blaine Street, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 882-8363

La Casa Lopez

415 S Main St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 883-0536

LocoGrinz Hawaiian BBQ

113 North Main Street, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 883-4463

106 N Main St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 882-2268

212 S Main St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 883-8221

Maialina Pizzeria Napoletana

602 S Main St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 882-2694

1404 W Pullman Rd, Moscow, ID, USA

(800) 244-6227

862 Troy Rd, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 882-1953

Mikey’s Greek Gyros

527 S Main St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 882-0780

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102 S Main St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 882-2050

710 W Pullman Rd, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 504-0280

Moscow Alehouse

226 W 6th St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 882-2739

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310 S Main St, Moscow, ID, USA

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630 North Almon Street, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 596-4058

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3080 State Hwy 8, Moscow, ID, EE. UU.

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121 E. Fifth Street Moscow ID

(208) 882-8537

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105 West 6th Street, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 882-5914

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533 S Main St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 883-3537

Palouse Juice

509 South Main Street, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 310-6692

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1932 W Pullman Rd, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 882-8880

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524 W 3rd St, Moscow, ID, USA

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450 W 6th St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 883-3984

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428 W 3rd St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 882-1111

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1970 W Pullman Rd, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 892-8569

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(208) 596-4061

215 W 3rd St, Moscow, ID, USA

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1046 W Pullman Rd, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 892-8007

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1930 W Pullman Rd, Moscow, ID, USA

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710 S Deakin St, Moscow, ID, USA

(208) 885-6600

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The Russian Chef Who Is Bringing Back His Homeland's Colorful, Classic Cuisine

• russian food
• vladimir mukhin

Chef's Table restaurant in Moscow is a cozy space. There are about 20 seats at a horseshoe-shaped bar with a kitchen in the middle. It's a small room, but the man who runs this place has a big personality.

Diners seated around the horseshoe burst into applause when chef Vladimir Mukhin sweeps into the room in a snow-white, short-sleeved chef's jacket, his long hair tied back in a man bun.

And why wouldn't they applaud? Mukhin is about to serve a 13-course tasting menu with dishes like lardo made from strips of coconut, scallops with something called eucalyptus snow on top and homemade black bread with three types of caviar.

Mukhin owns more than 20 restaurants, mostly in Russia, including Chef's Table.

But his most famous space is called White Rabbit, named one of the world's 50 best restaurants last year. It's an over-the-top, multi-level glass atrium at the top of a skyscraper. The furniture is upholstered in lush suede; there are velvet pillows everywhere, jewel-toned accents and paintings of anthropomorphized white rabbits in royal regalia. It's like Alice in Wonderland meets Imperial Russia. And that nod to pre-Soviet Russia is not an accident.

"I hate [cooking from the Soviet] period because it totally killed Russian food," Mukhin says. "Before, Russian food had color. The Soviet period was gray. Everything was gray. Everybody was gray."

He says that Soviet food was heavy, drab and smothered in mayonnaise. Fresh ingredients were rare. Food was just sustenance, nothing to be celebrated.

But there were vestiges of pre-Soviet cooking where Mukhin grew up. He's a fifth-generation chef, so his grandmother would cook recipes that had been in the family for decades.

Her honey cakes were sublime, he says. Her borscht with crayfish was a revelation. No one could beat her Russian black bread.

When Mukhin opened White Rabbit in 2011, he did so to celebrate and elevate these classic flavors. He sourced his ingredients from Russian farms. He even bought farms so that he could grow whatever he wanted.

But high-end Russian cuisine wasn't an easy sell to the urbane population of Moscow. The sophisticated set dined at French, Japanese and Italian restaurants.

Then help arrived in the most unlikely way — through sanctions. In 2014, the Russian army invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea. The U.S. and its NATO allies responded by slapping sanctions on Russia. Russian president Vladimir Putin hit back with an embargo of goods from Western countries. No more French cheeses, Italian olive oil or Spanish tomatoes for Russian chefs.

But Mukhin, with his farm-to-table business model, sniffed opportunity:

"So now we start to make some cheese from Italy in Russia. Because we have beautiful milk, why can't we make the cheese here? That's why my idea is: We must grow Russian cuisine."

And he's taken that idea on the road. Mukhin's been all over the world preaching the gospel of Russian cuisine. He recently caught up with a barbecue chef in Dallas.

Mukhin tried American-style coleslaw while in that Texas city and was not impressed. So he turned the barbecue chef on to Russian-style fermented cabbage as a side dish instead of coleslaw." He tried it and said, 'Oh, yes. This will work well.'"

The diners who recently gathered at Chef's Table were treated to a universe of ideas presented via ingredients grown in Russia. The name of the tasting menu that night was "Russian Evolution."

Mukhin's cuisine speaks to both the future and the past.

"Russian food is me. I have borscht in my blood. I think and hope that my children, and the children of my children, will grow up with the new Russian cuisine. With a Russian cuisine evolution."

Freelance journalist Anna Shpakova contributed to this report.

More All Things Considered

• Politics & Government

Blinken ends Ukraine trip with promise of U.S. help as Russia goes back on offensive

by Michele Kelemen

Tiger beetles might be mimicking the sounds of poisonous bugs so bats will avoid them

by Ari Daniel

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• Chain Restaurants

Chains Gone Glam

How a bunch of well-connected Hollywood types linked up to make the ultimate Chain

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In 2018, the actor B.J. Novak went on a podcast called Air Jordan , which is hosted by the food journalist Jordan Okun. On it, the two chat for a while about Instagram and pizza — Novak says he’s partial to Papa Johns — before Okun says, “You had an interesting idea you were telling me about, for a restaurant.”

“It’s a restaurant called Chain,” Novak replies. “It’s a chain-themed restaurant... the red leather booths, the onion blossom, the sports bar TVs, a big laminated menu. But it’s done really well, and there’s only one of them.” Novak goes on to say how, because this restaurant would have a single location, you could put it in a hip neighborhood, the kind of neighborhood that specifically does not welcome a Chili’s or TGI Friday’s. But, of course, a spot like this, with all that comfort, all the nostalgia, all that familiar food but done better, would kill. “What we really need,” Novak concluded, “we need our chef.”

There was a difference, one Novak knew well, between floating an idea and the slow and often grueling process of bringing it to life. “For an idea to become reality,” he told me recently, “there needs to be so much passion and it doesn’t necessarily need to be from you.”

So he brought others in, like Ruth De Jong, a production designer who worked on Nope and Oppenheimer , and who would eventually help design Chain’s interiors; and John “Your Body Is a Wonderland” Mayer, who mocked up one of Chain’s first logos. One co-founder, Nicholas Kraft, who everyone calls Nicky, works as VP of development at Novak’s production company. There was also Jack Davis, who Novak described as “one of my key business partners on this,” and who is the son of John Davis, a prolific producer of dozens of films including Garfield , Norbit , and Alien vs. Predator ; John also has a successful side career as an early investor in restaurant chains, including Wetzel’s Pretzels, Blaze Pizza, and Dave’s Hot Chicken. (Marvin Davis — John’s father, Jack’s grandfather — was an oil tycoon and owned 20th Century Fox for a brief period in the early 1980s until he sold it to Rupert Murdoch.)

There was also Tim Hollingsworth, chef at downtown LA’s Otium, who came to Novak via Phil Rosenthal, host of the Netflix food travel show Somebody Feed Phil and creator of Everybody Loves Raymond . At Otium, Hollingsworth serves dishes like a vibrant king salmon tartare with Tamaki rice, shiso, and ginger, but he was a blue-collar kid who had grown up in Placerville, a suburb of Sacramento. Placerville is about a two-hour drive and an entire world away from Yountville, the ritzy little town in the heart of the Napa Valley where the French Laundry — where Hollingsworth trained — is located. For the first 10 years that he worked in the Michelin-starred restaurant, his parents never visited, because — as he told Novak and Kraft over lunch at Otium — they felt too intimidated. But the Chain idea, Hollingsworth said, “could be a restaurant that my family has gone to so many times. This is the food that they would understand.” Novak knew then that he had found his chef.

In March 2021, Chain launched as a pop-up event in a West Hollywood parking lot. Hollingsworth crafted his version of the Outback Steakhouse Bloomin’ Onion (the “Bustin’ Onion”), and people came, and people stayed. That was surprising. “We designed these takeout boxes, thinking people were going to take out,” Kraft says. “But no one left.”

In the early days, items riffing on the McDonald’s McRib were created without the chains’ knowledge or permission. But they kept doing pop-up events, a few dozen, with foods from other chain restaurants, now as part of sanctioned collabs — Chili’s southwest egg rolls but with smoked chicken, Pizza Hut’s panned pizzas but with truffle ricotta. People kept hanging out, and after a year or so, they rented a house in West Hollywood for the events; celebrities like Mindy Kaling and Chrissy Teigen showed up, and folks stayed even longer. The list of people who wanted to get texts about these Chain pop-ups, which have been called, by the New York Times, no less, “ one of the city’s hardest tables to land ,” grew and grew until it is now some 25,000 strong, which is also why they moved into a warehouse-turned-event-space in Virgil Village, an LA neighborhood just west of Silver Lake.

Davis told me that Chain’s primary business now is to “create amazing live experiences.” In addition to its own pop-ups, it’s created dishes for events around movie premieres like the newest Scream and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. This is marketing work, essentially. But the biggest and best example of this is their weekend-long event called Chainfest, where, last year, Chain partnered with Jack in the Box, Red Robin, Sonic, Chili’s, Pepsi, Dunkin’, Pizza Hut, Panda Express, Postmates, and Diageo. “We had all those brands,” Davis explained, and they all paid Chain money just to be part of the fest. Plus, “we also made a lot of money on tickets and merch at the festival.” (Chain also recently inked a deal with the Roku Channel on a special about the festival; the hourlong show, executive produced by Davis and Kraft, will air later this year.)

In early May, Chain announced it was partnering with events production company Medium Rare to “expand the fest into a broader entertainment festival with live music and events,” according to Deadline . Davis says that Chainfest brought in the majority of Chain’s revenue last year: “We were very profitable, delivering an amazing experience to our brand partners, giving them insane earned media. We had billions of organic impressions.”

Earned media is how marketing professionals describe something that works quite a lot like an advertisement, but isn’t exactly, because the person creating that thing that works like an ad isn’t getting paid for it. Los Angeles is chockablock with events — usually some sort of party, an opening, a launch, a premiere — meant to produce earned media. The key indicator of events like these is that the environment must be one in which the attendees so badly want to capture the fact of their being there, that they are compelled to make content about it — to post — and, in doing so, deliver that precious earned media to brand partners. What might compel someone to post? The event has to feel exclusive, has to have elements that photograph well; maybe it is offering something one cannot get anywhere else; maybe, also — and this is an especially LA quality — there is the possibility of being near a famous person.

Chain’s warehouse space is wood paneled and retro-kitschy chic. Inside, the foyer houses a merch stand where, during events, Chain sells exclusive Chain gear: a “Coexist” T-shirt ($35) with the letters replaced with the logos of various chain restaurants, a Pizza Hut “Hut Hat” ($40) that appeared on the heads of several celebrities, an “I got sauced” bomber jacket with a winking Jack of Jack in the Box ($100). There was also, dominating the room, a very large, very red Chain-branded takeout box that was in fact the gateway to the rest of the space. Through the box was a line of arcade games ( The Simpsons , Paperboy , Mortal Kombat ), red velvet couches where a TV with Nintendo 64 Mario Kart gets set up during events, a bar above which was hung stained-glass lamps from Pizza Hut and Applebee’s, some high topped tables, a Ronald McDonald, a Bob’s Big Boy, this sort of thing.

I sat down at a vintage McDonald’s table, on a seat shaped like Grimace. This table, Kraft said when he came to greet me, had come from his childhood home. His dad, a talent agent, collects McDonald’s and Disney memorabilia, and unloaded practically a whole storage unit worth for Chain’s decor. “He was so proud,” Kraft beamed.

The entire space felt like someone’s idea of the past. My idea of the past? I wasn’t sure. I tried to articulate this generalized nostalgia to Kraft and Davis and Hollingsworth, along with my own weird mistrust of nostalgia as an emotional lever to pull. After all, I rambled, nostalgia began as a way of describing a then- unnamed ailment : the pain and heartbreak felt by soldiers pulled far away from their homes. “I will be stealing that,” Kraft said.

What Chain was tapping into, Kraft continued, was “a multigenerational nostalgia, because you have these brands that have been around for 60, 70, 80, even 100 years, with more or less the same brand identity.” They saw this at every event: People walked in and said that it felt like the ’70s, or the ’80s, or the ’90s, or even the 2000s — “What we found is people usually give the time period that they were probably happiest in,” Davis said.

It was the same for the food, Hollingsworth said. “It has to apply to everybody’s memory; everybody has to have that relationship.” The way he went about crafting the food wasn’t so much as a re-creation, but a remembrance. “It’s just trying to play off that memory, but do it in the best way.”

Take the McRib: It’s “not that many ingredients, right?,” he said, walking me through it. “You’re trying to smoke some beautiful ribs and overcook them a little bit so you can pull the bone out. And then, you get the best barbecue sauce that you can. Some nice onions and pickles and that’s literally it. If you can make that, that’s guaranteed going to be better than the one that you’re buying from McDonald’s. But it’s still a McRib.”

Minutes later, Chain’s vice president of culinary operations, chef Philip Hall, approached us with some food to try. It was for their next event. “We’re doing a meal box of discontinued items,” Kraft explained. This was their version of the Bell Beefer — essentially all the familiar components of a Taco Bell taco, but on a sandwich bun — which was discontinued in the mid-’90s. We all took a bite.

The team, which had already re-created the Taco Bell Crunchwrap in an earlier pop-up, has a strong understanding of the Taco Bell flavors. “It’s the beef,” said Hall, watching us chew. “It’s the normal Taco Bell beef, which I just removed some of the serrano and onion, added San Marzano Crushed tomato, and I made a fire-roasted salsa on the Traeger, cooked it down. Lime crema on the top. And then, I just got tomatoes yesterday from the market.”

“I’ve never even had [this dish],” Hollingsworth said. “So, I’m kind of thinking about, okay, what is their build?” As Hollingsworth pondered the build, I was stuck on nostalgia, and the trick of memory upon taste and experience. I, too, had never had a Bell Beefer, but I did eat quite a lot of Taco Bell’s ground beef when I was in high school, and it struck me that what I was currently chewing — which was bright and tangy and had the idea of spice without being very spicy at all — was closer to what I remembered than what I had more recently eaten at Taco Bell. That was the thing about nostalgia: It wasn’t a time machine, it was a product — an ailment, even — of our imperfect memories.

Hollingsworth began talking like he worked at Taco Bell: “We bring in a bun, and then we use all the products that we already have — kind of feels like a sloppy joe. I know it was our answer to a hamburger. Okay, so this would be a little bit different than the Crunchwrap, right?”

Hollingsworth’s version of the Chain Crunchwrap had been a real journey — some 80 different variations, and as research he, Novak, Kraft, and Hall had all visited the Taco Bell headquarters and food lab in Irvine. Rene Pisciotti, who has the title of Taco Whisperer at Taco Bell, had invited them down, after he attended a Chain event. Pisciotti works in the lab and helps figure out new dishes, which are often riffs on old dishes. He and his colleagues are always thinking, “Can we modernize a dish in some way so it doesn’t lose its essence? This is the inherent tension,” Pisciotti says. I asked him, if people cared so much about the old stuff, why even bother with anything new? “Well, that’s the fun part of the job, seeing how far you can push things.”

I was struck by Pisciotti’s use of fun as synonymous with innovation. Fun is a word Kraft and Novak use all the time when describing Chain, only not at all in the same sense as Pisciotti. “Chain has a little bit of that wink, but serious,” Novak had told me. “That’s a fun line.”

A few weeks after meeting in the space, I bought a $75 ticket and returned, this time on a Saturday evening, for Chain’s Comeback Combo event. Kraft was there, greeting folks as they came in through the giant red Chain box doorway, and we chatted as I waited for my Happy Meal-esque box of food. The previous evening they’d had an event, too, but it had been cold and rainy that night, so they’d limited the number of tickets released. This was yet another canny aspect of Chain’s business: by controlling the flow of customers through both the supply of tickets and timed entry, they could also control their staffing (which was nearly all temporary event staff), their food supply, their overhead. I was reminded of something Novak had told me when I asked him why he had abandoned what had seemed to me the sharpest, most interesting point about the initial idea: that single location, of a real restaurant, in a hip neighborhood that didn’t allow chains. He’d told me it had simply been too difficult, that he didn’t really want to be a restaurateur.

After wolfing down my Beefer and tallow fries, I took a few spins through the rest of the space and chatted with a few of my fellow attendees: all youngish, hip-ish folk who were delightedly snapping selfies on their phones or with Ronald and the Colonel and Grimace, or playing Tron the arcade game, or laughing over their mezcal Surge-inspired slushies. All had first encountered Chain on Instagram, where it has only 48.9K followers — but where famous attendees like Teigen (42.5M followers) and Kaling (6.3M) were photographed. I had to admit: It all felt a bit like a joke, and quite an ironic one, that this exclusive event space was drawing inspiration from extremely non-exclusive chain restaurants; that our nostalgia could be upsold to us via adult-size happy meals and all-you-can-drink alcoholic slushies. I found myself idly googling, just to see how many Chili’s were within 30 miles of me at that moment, places where a “3 for Me” deal could net you a soft drink, appetizer, and entree for $10.99. There were more than a dozen.

A few weeks later, I took my 5-year-old son to a Chili’s nearby. He, like me, loves a good diner; but I hadn’t been to a Chili’s in forever, and it was a bit different than I remembered — a little more slick, a little less well-worn. Still, we had a great time and our meal was, including tip, less than $35. Earlier, I had asked Novak: Is Chain a joke? “Like, yeah,” Novak replied. “It is a joke, on one level, that you would put this world-class chef and all of these resources and all this perfectionism into elevating chain food. But it’s also, like, fucking awesome.”

Ryan Bradley is a writer in Los Angeles, who last wrote for Eater about Din Tai Fung and malls, and before that, the Fresno chile pepper. Wonho Frank Lee is a hospitality photographer based in Los Angeles. Fact checked by Kelsey Lannin Copy edited by Cynthia Puleo

You Have Less Than 24 Hours to Buy a Red Lobster

What does it take to actually cook like a tradwife, behind the butter board: how the dairy industry took over your feed.

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Austin Bakery Texas French Bread Aims to Reopen in Summer 2025

Plus, a downtown hotel is opening a new lobby bar, and more news

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Share All sharing options for: Austin Bakery Texas French Bread Aims to Reopen in Summer 2025

Texas French Bread owner Murph Willcott shared some updates about the beloved restaurant/bakery’s rebuilding trek after a fire destroyed the physical space in early 2022 through the newsletter. Amid his opines on the history of the 2900 Rio Grande Street address and his childhood in Austin and the restaurant experiences he had as a youth, Willcot wrote that he’s working on securing the building permit with the City of Austin soon. That means construction would start in July and the goal is to open the brand-new space in the summer of 2025. He also included a rendering of what the new Texsas French Bread could look like. Currently, it’s operating as a food truck with garden space at the Rio Grande address.

Coming downtown hotel lobby bar attraction

Downtown Austin’s the Hotel Van Zandt is going to be renovating its first-floor lobby with the addition of a new lobby bar at 605 Davis Street. Brass Poppy — named after the flower — will have bar and lounge-style seating, a metal artwork installation, and takes on classic cocktails such as the Grasshopper and Pink Lady. Food-wise, the hotel’s executive chef Sergio Ledesma will serve pintxos that will be placed on brass spikes. The whole revamp is happening under the hotel’s new-as-of-late-2022 parent company Sage Hospitality Group. The bar is expected to open in the fall.

New Hill Country wine tasting room

Paso Robles, California-based winery Halter Ranch expanded into the Texas Hill Country this May. The new Halter Ranch Texas tasting room and restaurant opened in Fredericksburg at 8561 East Highway 290 on May 8. For dining, Restaurant H’s menu is based on seasonal Texas cuisines by executive chef Paul Arangorin, with dishes such as grilled fish tacos, burger with brie, and New York strip steak and fries.The tasting room will offer a Texas rosé, working with Bending Branch Winery for wine production.

Austin chef wins live-fire cooking event

Chef Francisco Baca, the executive chef of the Omni Barton Creek Resort restaurant Blind Salamander, Won the Austin iteration of live-fire cooking competition and food event Heritage Fire . He won with his Thai pork cheddar sausage, lobster roll, kimchi kraut, honey-mustard salsa, and chicken cracklings. He had also won last year’s one.

Tracking Austin food/drink events

McKinney neighborhood brewery Independence Brewing is hosting a Mother’s Day market with vendors, beer mimosas, and breakfast smash burgers from food truck Golden Tiger. It takes place on Saturday, May 11 at 3913 Todd Lane from 2 to 6 p.m.

East Austin bar Kitty Cohen’s is hosting another pop-up by French restaurant Austin Rotisserie this weekend. The Oui Oui Kitty pop-up is Southern French themed. This means smoked salmon rillettes with French baguettes; steak tartare, a nicoise baguette sandwich, and caprese baguette sandwich. The bar will also offer half-off rosé wine and bubbles. The pop-up takes place on Sunday, May 12 at 2211 Webberville Road, and runs from from 2 to 8 p.m. Going forward, this pop-up will happen on the second Sunday every month.

Zilker Spanish restaurant El Raval is celebrating its first birthday with a party next week. The come-and-go event will feature tapas, wine porrons, and a DJ. It takes place at 1500 South Lamar Boulevard, on Monday, May 13 from 5 to 9 p.m., with recommended reservations .

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