Restaurants and Nightlife

The Red October chocolate factory on the banks of the Moscow river once produced some of Russia’s most famous chocolate, the ‘Alyonka’. The chocolate bar with the iconic rosy-cheeked baby is still in production, but this vast factory has been transformed into a collection of nightclubs and restaurants. It’s now a place for Moscow’s best dressed to try their luck with the notorious ‘face control’, body guards who patrol the doors to haunts of the city’s ‘who’s who’ with fierce scrutiny. If you haven’t packed your Gucci or Chanel, and you’re after a more nostalgic Soviet experience, try Kvartira 44. Behind the typical steel apartment door is one of the city’s most intimate restaurants, decorated exactly in the style of a Soviet apartment. Likewise, Cafe Margarita at Patriarch’s Ponds has a similar theme.