Vensky Dvor European restaurant is now offering a number of new dishes on its menu, including a salad with marble meat, green lettuce and French mustard dressing, lobster on a bed of mashed potatoes and saffron sauce, and rose dorado fillet with onions, nuts and cream sauce. For connoisseurs, the restaurant's Head Chef Andrei Oryol has introduced baked duck breast with strawberries, beef medallions with mushroom ragout and rose pepper sauce, and veal with artichokes.

Afternoon tea

This fall's cold weather only seems to be helping business at the garret cafe Loft, where they have introduced eight kinds of hot alcoholic beverages and a traditional British-style afternoon tea. Tea is served from 5 p.m., and the special afternoon tea menu is 900 rubles per person or 1,100 per person with a glass of champagne.

For simple people

The folks from Propaganda have opened an original, super-small cafe called Lyudi kak lyudi (People Like People) on Kitai-Gorod. It seats only 16 customers at a time, and has an arch in the center and a mirror and large windows create that the effect of a larger space. The menu includes sandwiches, pirogi, desserts cooked on-site, cocktails and, of course, teas and coffees.

Beauty salon/cafe

New spot Tsiryulnya is both a beauty salon and a small homey cafe occupying a 19th-century mansion located in the heart of Moscow. The salon is on the basement floor, and the first floor is shared between a barbershop and a French-style cafe. The cafe serves breakfast, including syrniki, puddings, omelets, pancakes and muesli.

Locations

Italianyets
13 Samotechnaya Ul.
Metro: Tsvetnoi Bulvar
Tel: 288-5651, 288-6401

Vensky Dvor
16 Krasnopresnenskaya Nab., Bagration pedestrian bridge
Metro: Ulitsa 1905 Goda
Tel: 255-8101

Loft
25 Lubyanskaya Ploshchad, Nautilus Shopping Center, 6th floor
Metro: Lubyanka
Tel: 933-7713

Lyudi kak lyudi
4/1 Solyansky Proyezd
Metro: Kitai-Gorod
Tel: 921-1201

Tsiryulnya
21-23/25 Pokrovka Ul.
Metro: Chistye Prudy
Tel: 924-0377