Restaurant Dr. Zhivago

A restaurant for celebrations and all kinds of ordinary days, opened by Alexander Rappoport many years ago on the ground floor of the “National” Hotel. The creators of the project call it a novel about Russian cuisine, but in reality, the cuisine here is both Russian, and Soviet, and contemporary, having absorbed a great deal of influence. Thus, Olivier salad with sausage, crucian carp in sour cream, and forshmak coexist with beef tartare, baked Camembert, and stracciatella with figs.

This potpourri is overseen by chef Artem Mukhin, a devotee of the French school who has long and skillfully been integrating its techniques into all cuisines and traditions.

But no less important attributes of “Zhivago” are its interior and atmosphere, which provide a round-the-clock sense of celebration—if not happening right now, then about to begin: slender plaster drummers, gleaming chandeliers in the Soviet Empire style, pure scarlet accents here and there, flowers, snow-white tablecloths, nostalgic music, and powerful service of a kind rarely found in Moscow.