A Truly Significant Holiday - Passport magazine

Restaurant Review
here’s a hot new restaurant on
“TKutuzovsky. They have a concert
tonight and the tables are sold out,
so let’s go!” With that we arrived at
restauranteur Kiril Gusev’s ANDREAS, located
in the space formerly occupied
by the flagship restaurant of Moscow’s
king of molecular gastronomy Anatoli
Komm. Komm was one of the city’s
most expensive with a prix fixé dinner
that was dominated by Komm’s foamy
creations.
ANDREAS is set off the right side of
Kutuzovsky as you head out of town.
Turn right in the alley just past the
Azbuka Vkusa, follow the road around
to off-street parking; otherwise take
your chances with the evakuator (towtruck)
if you park along Kutuzovsky.
Decorated with streamers of multi-colored
lights, the restaurant stands out
against the dark backdrop of surrounding
buildings.
Up the stairs to the second floor, the
large subdued and elegant dining
area overlooks the courtyard towards
34
March 2009
text Charles Borden, photos Andreas
Kutuzovsky, fairly quiet at 6pm. In
the back stands a large bar with its
own dining area. We had until eight
when all tables were sold out for the
Uma2rmaN concert – we were seated
directly in front of the drum set.
Gusev also runs RAI, one of Moscow’s
hot nightspots and apparently
ANDREAS is Gusev’s pre-RAI-party
meeting place. The chef is Sergei
Radjabov, a veteran of Komm’s establishment,
but his menu appears to be
foam-free with relatively straight forward
menu of the chef’s interpretation
of Moscow favorites: Caesar salad,
carpaccio, seabass, Kamchatka crab,
steak and a sushi selection.
We first checked the wine list, which
included some supermarket wines
such as Casillero del Diablo Syrah
(1500r) and Hardy’s Stamp Collection
Semillon-Chardonnay 2007 (1500r),
but peaked with a 1993 Chateau
Petrus (350,000r). Though the low-end
wines are priced at 5-6 times Sedmoi
Kontinent, it was nice to see a selec-