cgreenlander

I've been here a few times since the restaurant completed its remodeling in 2018. It's always delightful and cozy here with a good atmosphere, and the service is better than most restaurants in Novosibirsk.

Sometimes they offer a complimentary little appetizer or dessert. One one of photos I've attached shows the small complimentary appetizer I received yesterday. It was quite tasty.

In the past, I would go to a bank further from my house to do Western Union transfers. But on this particular day, it was -25C on the street. Walking around in this kind of weather isn't for me: I'm from California, I ain't a Siberian, so I decided to try this bank. The staff was friendly and helpful and helped me immediately, and I was happy with the service.

I've come here twice since the recent opening. The first time I had some kind of salmon dish and some wine (picture attached), and the second time a Russian salad and then sashlik with grilled vegetables.

I was happy with the food and the service.

This restaurant seems pretty full most of the time. I ended up sitting at the bar both times because there were no tables. I guess the lesson is to make a reservation?

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at this place. As soon as I walked in, the wait staff was very friendly.

During the process of deciding what to order, the proprietor himself came out. My strongly accented Russian obviously didn't fool him: he knew that I was a foreigner. We had an interesting conversation in English about Greek restaurants in the San Francisco area. He spent awhile explaining the preparation for many of his favorite dishes on the menu.

I enjoyed the salad and steak I ordered. I also ordered the bread. I don’t normally order bread in restaurants, but I had the feeling that the bread in this restaurant would be tasty. I wasn’t wrong: I really enjoyed the taste of this restaurant’s bread even though I generally dislike bread.

At the end of our meal, the proprietor gave us a free dessert of some kind of yogurt with honey and some fresh fruit. It was really tasty, but I couldn’t eat much of it because I was already so full.

The service was especially good. I’m often dissatisfied with food service in Russia. I think it’s because the wait staff don’t primarily work for tips, and therefore have less incentive to please the diners. But this place was an exception, and our waiter was absolutely great, friendly and helpful.

I came here one time with a bunch of Russians, and then two times more I've invited groups of my foreign friends here. It's a fun place, hidden in the basement of another bar. They have good bands here. It's a fun place. I enjoyed my time here on every occasion I came. And it's reasonably priced.

My only complaint is that the service is uniformly awful. The waitresses don't really do their job, and to get them to actually provide service you have to get up, approach the bar, and distract them from playing with their mobile phones.