26 Mar How to choose a restaurant in a city you don’t know
I’m in a city I don’t know and I’m hungry!! How to choose a good restaurant with normal cuisine? Just go into the first one you see? Naaah! I don’t want to throw money at the wind, and the doctor’s expensive too!
That’s what the inexpert traveler thinks. So he starts to comb the streets, peeking in windows and plates. Then, tired, he takes a table at the nearest place to the hotel and…
The service is bad, the food is disgusting, the evening is ruined, and the impression of the city, too…
A real foodie knows that a good restaurant is:
1. Public
There’s a full house and a slight buzz in the restaurant, and the waiters are knocked off their feet. No customers means that the place is unpopular. That means there is something wrong with it – the prices, the quality of food, the skills of the chef….
It’s not worth the risk!
2. Interior
Golden peacocks, all the Louis from XIII to XVI, and theatrical costumes on the staff: the pompous style may be good, but often, such decorations affect only the amount of the bill, and in no way the quality of the food.
Remember: more pomp – less meaning!
3. Cuisine
When we travel, we always have to try the local cuisine:
– This is what the local chefs do best;
– it’s definitely made with local, seasonal (and therefore fresh!) produce.
So, eat pelmeni in Tomsk, order a borscht in Krasnodar, enjoy a rich fish soup in Samara, and may the force be with you!
4. Price
Not too low (otherwise they are definitely cooking with cheap frozen semi-finished products) and not too high (in such places they often pass off rotten meat as “author’s cuisine from the chef”).
Prices must be reasonable!
5. Menu
In a decent place, the menu is never too big: three or four appetizers, the same number of main courses. Something written on the board, that’s enough.
Avoid overtly touristy places!
6. Placement
Good restaurants are where people live, not where they work.
So, to have a nice dinner, ideally you should choose a crowded local place with 10 tables, with a small menu, a simple interior, where instead of music you can hear the voices of customers and clattering of cutlery, and the smells from the kitchen drive you crazy. Prices are average, products are seasonal and local.
And if you don’t have time at all, come to our website. With us you will always find updated and honest information about establishments and restaurant life in Russia’s major cities.
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