CDL, the restaurant of the Central House of Writers in Moscow

Should you find yourself in the Russian capital, try this restaurant: the cuisine is excellent and the atmosphere very lovely while the prices are good for European tourists.

Moscow is a megalopolis full of activity, with hundreds of buildings under construction as well as those of a glorious past that have been restored with evident pride. Everything is focused on a future that in some ways may be uncertain but in others is well-defined. The Mosco restaurant scene is quite interesting: you can sample the cuisines of the republic’s many regions as well as those of neighboring countries (I, personally, love Georgian food), along with top international ones, with a particular preference for French cuisine.

Thanks to the favorable euro/ruble currency exchange (1/70), you can eat at a very good restaurant and spend at most 50 euros, wine excluded, as opposed to double that in Italy. But there are some shortcomings and the price of wine is prohibitive, twice what it would be in Italy for the same wine. Thus the best thing to do is enjoy a nice Russian beer or have vodka with your meal, as many Russians do. Nevertheless, the wine lists are works of art, very complete with a lot of French wines but also Italian ones, with Tuscany and Piedmont well-represented.

This long introduction served to talk CDL, the restaurant of the Central Writers’ House. It is situated in the city center in an elegant building and on entering you can see photographs of the many Russians writers who have frequented the restaurant. The main dining hall is very large and well-kept, decorated with fine wood paneling, which fits together without the use of nails or screws. The upper level has tables reserved for starry-eyed couples as well as a table reserved for cigar smokers. A grand piano provides live music, the rugs are splendid and the vases stuffed with fresh flowers while fine tableware completes the picture.

Naturally, the menu is Russian cuisine, with a clear French influence, and very varied which allows you to choose between meat, fish, game and shellfish. Every dish is well-prepared, lovely to look at and precisely cooked with perfect sauces, condiments and excellent butter. The service is very attentive and can be less formal if you let them know you would prefer this. So if you’re looking for a restaurant with excellent Russian cuisine, in a very beautiful location and overflowing with culture, just book a table. And all this knowing you will spend around 50 euros a head, excluding wine.

A word of advice: travel around by subway, which is a trip in itself. The stations are monumental and beautiful, with cars that run at break-neck speed towards any part of this incredible city and all with maximum security and at any time of day.

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