Where to eat Moscow: 15 Kitchen & Bar
In her research for where to eat in Moscow, Greedy Girl came across a venue that intrigued her – Door 19. From all reports, it was a pop-up from a talented team headed by London native, chef Leandros Stagogianis, who has had stints at the Fat Duck and in Singapore. Apparently he also goes by the name the ‘Afro chef’ thanks to his rather impressive hairdo.
The menu at Door 19 changed on a weekly basis but when the crew found its permanent home in Pozharsky Lane, they slowed the frantic pace and decided to offer a new menu each season. 15 Kitchen and Bar opened in late May, 2015. Navigating the streets in Russia is an interesting experience. While the occasional tourist sign is in English, it’s pretty rare to find street names in our alphabet, so a working knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet comes in very handy. We did a ‘dry run’ walking from our hotel near Smolenskaya to the restaurant and only got lost twice. Our trip, for the actual booking, was a relatively straightforward experience but nonetheless we were relieved on arrival to get a greeting in English from the host.
Apart from not quite being able to communicate with our waitress all that effectively (she needed to call in reinforcements) we settled in comfortably. Having been stung an exorbitant amount for two coffees earlier in the day, we made sure we did some mental arithmetic before placing our order for wine although our usual practice of having a bottle of champagne with dinner went out the window very quickly.
While cocktails are a fairly reasonable price, champagne in Russia was pretty much priced out of our budget. A bottle of bog-standard Moet et Chandon in most restaurants we visited was over A$200 (and the Australian dollar is strong against the ruble). Here, we found a bottle of Veuve Clicquot listed on the menu for 6600 rubles. A little pricey but, hey, it was our first night in Moscow. We ordered it, but then the communication issues began – it wasn’t available. We could have something else but it was ‘more expensive’. No thanks. Gluttonous husband had to content himself with a Corona, while Greedy Girl sipped a glass of prosecco. There certainly was a rather international feel.
As we looked around the room, with the open kitchen, staffed with a bevy of tattooed and bearded hipster chefs, the polished concrete surfaces, the sliding doors opening to the street, we concluded we could be absolutely anywhere. We weren’t sure what to expect with the food; there wasn’t anything you could say was ‘Russian’ except perhaps the slices of black bread that were put down before us first up. Basically it was standard fusion fare – French based with influences from around the world, most notably Asia.
Black bread
Indeed Greedy Girl wonders why she should be surprised. Food is a global business. If you can get croque monsieur in Tokyo, why shouldn’t you find a variant on nasi goreng in Moscow? But Greedy Girl is getting ahead of herself.
First up, she chose a beef tenderloin tartare with onion puree, fried capers and buckler leaf. It was an attractive plate and her first tastes were very pleasant although it could have used some more seasoning. Not knowing the Russian for ‘salt’ didn’t help. Gluttonous husband took the dorado sashimi with wakame salad and cherries (pictured at the top of this post). Greedy Girl was quite happy with her dish until she tasted his. This was a wow. The dorado was perfectly flavoured and went very well with some splashes of mayo, the seaweed and some thin slices of fennel. The cherries were a step too far – we were both happy to eat them but felt they overpowered the fish.
Beef tenderloin tartare
Next up, gluttonous husband took the beef short rib with charred broccoli. This was cooked very well and the flavours were accented by some shaved horseradish. The beef was meltingly soft and while there were a few leaves and florets for crunch on the dish, the broccoli was served as a quenelle of mash. There were also some interesting seeds that kind of looked like pomegranate – it was pretty much impossible to find out.
Beef short rib
Greedy Girl chose quinoa goreng with pork belly, seafood and a fried quail’s egg. It also had a few baby broad beans and some coriander leaves on top which Greedy Girl happily left for gluttonous husband. The texture was good, quite firm to the bite and the added crunch from the broad beans was a welcome component. The level of spice was pretty mild but not insipid. A disappointment was the quail egg – it just wasn’t big enough to provide the lovely extra bit of moisture from the runny yolk that a dish like this really benefits from.
Quinoa goreng
Being our first night in Moscow we wanted to prolong our stay; gluttonous husband opted for a dessert that called his name – tiramisu. Again, it was a rather different interpretation, featuring chocolate, salted caramel, coffee soil and meringue. Not outrageously sweet, it was perfectly edible; the meringue seemed to be in two styles – soft Italian meringue and the crispy French variety. The dish was very skinny on salted caramel. Greedy Girl got a taste although gluttonous husband said it escaped him. Still, a reasonable way to end the meal.
Tiramisu
The place was packed and as we prepared to depart we were certain our table wasn’t going to stay vacant for long.
Open kitchen
15 Kitchen and Bar
Pozharskiy Pereluok, 15, Moscow
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