1 rouble 25 kopeks (6 courses) or
2 roubles 25 " (8 courses)
The restaurants are generally open till about 2 A.M.
The numerous waiters are dressed in white on week days, on Sundays and feast days in coloured silk Tartar dresses. A large orchestrion plays from time to time during meals.
This restaurant has three head chefs and thirty-eight chefs, besides pâtissiers and all the smaller fry of the kitchen. The store-rooms for game, etc., form one of the sights of Moscow, and should be seen. There is a service of Sèvres china, which is very beautiful, and on which dinners are served on very special occasions. An extra charge, and a high one, is made for the use of this.
The Ermitage is unlike any other restaurant in the world in many respects. There is an admirable cellar of wines, and it is not a place for a man to give a big dinner at unless he is prepared to encounter a very big bill.
In Russia there is, as you will see by the subjoined menu of a typical Ermitage dinner, a sort of intermediate course between the soup and the fish called petits pâtés, which rather takes the place of an entrée, and although counted as nothing when it is preceded by the Sakouska (i.e. a preliminary "stand up" snack which waylays you at a separate buffet as you walk into dinner and consists of all sorts of appétissants such as caviar, cunningly smoked fish, olives, etc., with Kümmel and other liqueurs as an accompaniment) the smallest dinner resolves itself into a formidable repast that perhaps only a Russian would be capable of doing full justice to.
Ermitage Restaurant.
Menu.
Consommé Bariatinsky.
Petits Pâtés.
Timbale Napolitaine.
Vol-au-vent Rossini.
Friands à la Reine.
Tartelettes St-Hubert.
Esturgeon en Vin de Champagne.
Selle de Mouton d'Ecosse Nesselrode. Punch
Imperial.
Bécasses.
Cailles.
Salade et Concombres Salés.
Chouxfleurs. Sauce Polonaise.
Bombe en Surprise.
Dessert.
The Bolskoi Moscovski is opposite the town hall and has a spacious and fine central dining-hall. Here also the waiters are dressed in white, and an orchestrion discourses music during meal times. Its prices are practically the same as at the Ermitage.
Testoff's is another good restaurant where purely Russian dishes are served; it is therefore interesting and worth a visit, and gives a very good insight as to the national cuisine.
These restaurants are much frequented at lunch time, especially in summer, when families are out in Datchas or villas in the environs of Moscow, and the men have to lunch in town. In winter they are full until late in the evening.