The Best Restaurants in Yekaterinburg for Russian Food

Right in the heart of the city, this wonderfully kitsch and cavernous restaurant will satiate any hunger for authentic Russian cuisine. There is a bright and colourful terrace, which is perfect for summer, and the warm interior is ideal for those cold winter days. The kitchen prepares all the hearty standards you would expect, including pelmeni and vareniki. The dessert menu offers favourites, such as blini and cheesecake, as well as that ballerina inspired summertime delight, pavlova. The restaurant even has a separate vegetarian menu.

There are so many good things about this restaurant. It is cheap, the waitstaff are friendly, and, you can even make your own pelmeni, or the vegetarian alternative, vareniki. The restaurant serves a mouth watering array of delicious dough parcels stuffed with fish, meat, berries or sweet cheeses. Pelmeni Club uses local flavours and techniques, including implementing bird cherry flour to the dumpling mix. If you can’t make it to their main location, there is a second location on Ulitsa Krasnoarmeyskaya.

Dressed up to look like a cosy country cottage, or dacha, this restaurant serves up Russian and Ural favourites that fit right into its decor. Naturally, there is a selection of soups to choose from, as well as some quintessential Russian dishes like beef stroganoff and ‘herring under a fur coat’, which is a classic layered salad of pickled herring, carrot, potato and beetroot. It also has an extensive dumpling menu, if you are looking for a local Ural meal. Try the Ural pelmeni (stuffed with beef, lamb and pork), or the sweet vareniki drizzled in cherry jelly.

Stolle prepares classic Ural dishes that are now common across Russia. Fill up on any variety of pelmeni, pirogi and stuffed buns, which, by the way, are a good way to soak up any lingering seediness from the night before. This welcoming cafe caters to sweet tooths as well. It offers a selection of berry-filled vareniki, among other sweet pies. For those who don’t want a carb overload, Stolle also prepares classic Russian soups like borscht, as well as mayonnaise- drizzled salads and filling main courses.

This restaurant is a not-to-be-missed destination for avid foodies and hipsters alike. Headed by local boy and trailblazer of contemporary cuisine, Vladimir Olkinitskiy, Cafe 26/28 is where modern Russian and Ural dishes fill the menu. Olkinitskiy takes familiar ingredients and flavour combinations and creates ingenious new meals, such as savoury eclairs with mushroom mousse. His creativity is also responsible for the tapas menu at the popular Amy Wine House.

If you’ve got cash to splash and want to indulge in a luxurious lunch or dinner, Troekurov is the place to go. It exudes the opulence of Russian royalty, and it is the place where Yekaterinburg’s current elite go. Here, you can quaff Georgian wine and feast on rich dishes that have strong French and Ural influences, while staying true to their roots. Sample all the classics like black caviar, smoked salmon, Russian pancakes and fire cooked cutlets, and enjoy it all in style. Apparently Troekurov is so good, Dmitry Medvedev brought Angela Merkel here when they were in town.

Onegin’s restaurant is on the top floor of this swanky hotel that somehow manages to be both fancy and cosy. Given its rooftop position, it has a pretty amazing view. However, the food is even better. All the Russian classics are prepared here with aplomb. There are succulent portions of juicy steak, as well as tender salmon and pike served in creamy sauces. The restaurant also serves draniki, moorish potato cakes topped with bacon and slathered with sour cream. Delicious!