Although the Cruise club-restaurant is quite a new edition to Moscow's restaurant map, it boasts a cuisine and layout better than those of many other joints of its kind.

And it has gone even farther in servicing a very special clientele — those urgently needing ‘rehabilitation' the morning after a stormy night binge.

The ground floor accommodates an Irish bar which offers ‘hangover discounts' from 5 a.m. until 7 a.m. The program is called ‘Gloomy Morning Hangover Healing Procedures,' which indicates the management of the new restaurant has a good sense of humor. Remarkably, there is one price, $1, for all dishes and drinks on the ‘Gloomy Morning' menu, which is a good deal for omelet with vegetables, mushroom puree soup, sausages, free-refills coffee, champagne and many other items.

However Cruise is not exclusively a ‘first aid point' for boozers. In addition to the Irish bar, Half Door, which is open 24-hours, and except for the two ‘Gloomy Morning' ones, it operates as a normal bar. Cruise includes a second floor with a poolroom with two American pool tables and a cozy bar where you can sip something while sitting on a couch and enjoying a view of Myasnitskaya Ulitsa through the large windows. The restaurant's owner told us a disco is set to open there soon.

For now, food is available in full measure. The first floor is given to the restaurant, Captain Cook, and its menu features the same humorous style — each section opens with a funny quote from the legendary captain, for example ‘Good guys also happen to be lucky sometimes' or ‘You cannot live a life full of honey — you must add some flies to it.' (The menu is in Russian; the managers promise that an English version will appear soon). And there is a figure of Captain Cook standing in the corner beside the bar.

If you are bold enough not to be scared off by forks and knives arranged in the pattern of pirate flag (skull and crossbones), waiters and waitresses dressed as pirates and pirate lifestyle motifs of the interior, you won't be disappointed with the ‘pirate cuisine.'

For starters, we ordered the Caribbean Rhapsody (assorted smoked fish, shellfish and ‘voracious cuttlefish,' as the menu puts it, for 225 rubles) and Greek Salad (195 rubles). The Rhapsody looked like a real piece of art — plunging a fork in looked like an act of barbarity on the high seas in itself. And the taste matched the appearance.

For the main course we chose ‘Sterlet As It Is' (790 rubles; the menu says it will make you forget about the hungry little children you left at home) and ‘Lamb Cruise' (lamb steak with soft cheese and wine sauce, 590 rubles).

Although the latter dish took 40 minutes to prepare, the sight of a charming piratess-waitress (she spoke English, by the way) serving the dishes on our table exceeded all expectations. The first dish was packed with a huge fish with all the accessories - fins, tail and head with jaws half-open — truly ‘As It Is,' and the second displayed neatly cut lamb ribs arranged vertically in a circle against the background of tempting cubes of white cheese sprinkled with dark-red sauce. The ambiance of serving was so fascinating that it was obvious that the chef must have great artistic taste.

The dessert was as good as everything else we tried: ice-cream covered with coconut chips on a bed of sweet sauce (90 rubles). For those who like to end dinner with coffee, we strongly recommend to choose the ‘Pirate Coffee.'

CRUISE
13 Myasnitskaya Ul.
Metro: Lubyanka
Tel: 92—304—92