15 Best Restaurants in Ulitsa Tverskaya, Moscow

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.

Oompah music plays in the background, dirndl-clad waitresses carry fistfuls of liter-size mugs, and the smell of sauerkraut lingers in the air. Whether you fancy a snack of knockwurst or just want to sample German and Czech beers, this is the place. Instead of sitting indoors, head through the arch to the left of the main entrance to reach the quiet courtyard that holds the biggest beer garden in Moscow. Food is served in both areas, but credit cards are accepted only in the restaurant.

In a mansion meant to recall the days when the writer Pushkin stolled the 19th-century avenues of Moscow, staff members dress like household servants; the menu resembles an old newspaper, with letters no longer used in the Russian alphabet; and the food is fit for a tsar. All the favorites can be found here—blini, caviar, pelmeni (meat dumplings)—and there's a fine, if over-priced wine list. Prices rise with each floor (there are three) of the house. If you don't want to splurge on dinner, the three-course business lunch is an excellent way to sample Pushkin's food without breaking the bank. Open daily, 24 hours, Pushkin is popular for breakfast after a night of clubbing. In summer you can dine on the rooftop patio.

This massive Uzbek café and lounge on ploshchad Pushkin is part of a chain with almost 20 locations around the city and offers diners the chance to sample traditional dishes like plov, a rice pilaf with lamb, and succulent kebabs. Each pillow, light fixture, painting, and plate is worthy of note. The only downside is that hookahs are a major part of the concept, so don't be surprised if the flavor of your neighbor's aromatic tobacco smoke infuses your meal.

The modern takes on Russian classics served in chic, contemporary surroundings in the InterContinental Moscow Tverskaya are truly inventive. A trio of Russian salads is a barely recognizable version of the mayo-heavy Soviet standards and the schi is a rich cabbage soup that's unlike the ubiquitous variety served elsewhere—this one contains suckling pig and is baked under puff pastry. Busy ulitsa Tverskaya provides a nice backdrop.

As if to reward you for locating the place (it's hidden in a courtyard with a front sign that says "Thanks for finding us"), staff members seem driven to make you join in their revelry. Greetings come first from the pirate-moustached owner, then from the team of gregarious bartenders, who will soon cajole you into trying one of the house-made liquors. Fresh flowers brighten the windowless space; menus are presented on clipboards; and the drink list is written in chalk across a wall. The casual fare includes well-prepared pizzas and pastas, and a selection of juicy burgers.

The menu consists mostly of classic Continental salads, sandwiches, and other light fare, though the real attraction is the pastry case, which holds house-made cakes and other sweets that pair perfectly with a steaming cup of coffee. The tranquil atmosphere with comfy window seats is ideal for a break from sightseeing or for whiling away a rainy afternoon. It's a few minutes away from Patriarch's Ponds.

The minimalist interior isn't necessarily welcoming, but this a great place for a quick, healthy lunch near the city sights. There are lots of fresh salads with some ingredients that are quite rare in Russia, like quinoa and soy sprouts, and the sweet potato fries are a great indulgence. While here, try one of the many vitamin-packed mixed vegetable juices.

Find the unmarked entrance, ring the right doorbell, and you will be taken back half a century to an idealized Soviet home. It could be Red Army Day, the way the tables are garnished with white cloth and water goblets—and the flour-and-water baranki crackers on the table evoke bygone scarcity. Stolid, apron-clad waitresses glide from table to table delivering beet salads, mushroom soup, and other nostalgic fare. Wooden shelves and the bric-a-brac on them—glass cookie jars, an old radio, a deer figurine—make this place feel truly homey. The experience isn't entirely homespun, though—Mari Vanna has branches as far afield as New York and Los Angeles.

This British pizza chain has slowly cornered the market for inexpensive Italian fare in Moscow with several branches. The Tverskaya location is the largest, serving decent pizzas and pasta dishes to local business people, students, and foreigners who pack into the two floor of dining rooms. Reasonably priced wines are available by the glass.

One of the most serene dining rooms in the city, with comfortable wooden chairs and upholstered benches, also has a nice terrace and beer garden for summer dining. The Swedish chef mixes modern European and Scandinavian choices. If you're out for purely Scandinavian fare, try the herring with boiled potatoes, which comes with a shot of aquavit; for casual dining, the burgers are considered to be the best in Moscow.

This chain scattered throughout Moscow serves sandwiches and burgers in brightly lit 1950s settings and is popular with late-night workers, early-morning partygoers, and American travelers and expats looking for a taste of home. This location is especially busy because of the city-center location and secluded summertime patio. Waiters are young and friendly, speak English, and serve fast.

Ornate decor and elaborate, modern interpretations of Russian, Continental, and Asian Fusion fare make quite an impression—which is the point, and why this over-the-top rendition of a baroque palace is one of the preferred eateries of the city's power elite. Beneath elaborate frescoes, domes, and columns, a waitstaff in brocaded waistcoats serves everything from dim sum to smoked venison; there's something for just about everyone willing to pay the bank-breaking prices. Weekend brunches are an expensive indulgence, while the pre-theater set menus are quite a bargain.

The tangy and savory Uzbek food here is served in a palatial dining room that appears to have been decorated by a particularly extravagant sultan. Walls are swathed in Persian rugs, transparent curtains, embroidered pillows, and turquoise-and-white tiles, and the food selection is just as lush. On the menu is a choice of more than 20 fresh salads, plus grilled meats, tandoori breads, and such classics as plov, the Central Asian take on rice pilaf, served with lamb and dried fruit. Another choice is a hearty lamb-and-noodle soup called lagman. Servers are friendly but can be a bit pushy, so be firm if they offer something you don't want.