Cantinetta Antinori

I knocked my chair over on departure from this restaurant yesterday. Was it the excitement over the cuisine? Or was it shock over the bill?

Possibly both!

If you wanted your conviction confirmed that Moscow is expensive, come here. If you wanted your conviction confirmed that this expense can be (partially) warranted, come here!

Apart from the over-salted quail in Andrei's main course and the rather ordinary cherry tomatoes in my opening salad (whose quail, especially the eggs, was exceptional), the food was universally excellent, the ambiance good and the company superlative.

The only shadow was one that stalks many a Moscow restaurant - the over-zealous (if, in this case, the wholly polite) waitress. You feel that no sooner have you finished your plate (and in the case of your glass or bottle before you have quite finished), they swoop down to clear away, as if staring at an empty plate was a culinary offence rather than a sign of a satisfactory task completed to be enjoyed, nay, celebrated.

The other niggling doubt is that rarely does the food eaten out compare with that prepared at home (even by a modestly competent cook like me) but, I suppose, you eat out for the occasion and for trying new things (and for respite from domestics).

Do go...once..but take out a mortgage first!

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