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Restaurants

Royal Family
By Jennifer Chater
Issue 7
June 10 - July 8, 2004

 
Alexander Antonov
Korean Restaurant: Royal Family
Whatever your prejudices concerning hotel restaurants, they’re sure to be dispelled if you go for a Korean meal in the oddly named Royal Family restaurant at the hotel Orlyonok.

Find the separate entrance beside the main hotel building, descend down the stairway, pass (or better still, drop into) the shop selling sliced deer antlers and other Korean delicacies, and you’ll find the rosy-hued dining room.

This spacious yet cozy hall is lined with smaller rooms behind partially frosted glass that still allows a good view of the action in the main room. Most likely you’ll find it packed with Korean diners, as it was during our visit, when the action to watch was an amateur, spontaneous song-and-dance show by an unstoppable toddler who had the whole room captivated. Yes, it’s a family kind of place.

Service is impeccable. Although the table in our glassed-off section was equipped with a button to press in order to summon the waiter, we never had to use it, as he was always on hand right when we needed him.

 
Nathan Toohey
One of the great things about Korean restaurants is that even expensive ones become affordable if your dishes come with complimentary side dishes and rice. Not that Royal Family is particularly expensive. But the assortment of these side dishes at Royal Family is the widest and tastiest I’ve had in Moscow — and better yet, the waiter keeps bringing out fresh ones to replace those you finish, like a bottomless cup of coffee only with spicy Korean zakuski. Even the beer is reasonable — 80 rubles for a half-liter bottle of Baltika No. 3.

And there’s nothing like a big, sizzling bowl of kimchi soup, or more accurately, kimchi stew (“kimchitsige,” 300 rubles) — a hearty dish that’s not for chili wimps: hot, very spicy, and thick with plenty of kimchi cabbage, sliced pork, tofu, green onions, other vegetables and noodles. Far from being a first course, it’s a meal in itself, even without the unlimited salads and rice that are included in the price. Royal Family’s kimchi stew is up there with the best.

The baby octopi with sesame seeds and vegetables (“chukkumi chalpangui,” 480 rubles) was another highly successful choice — delicious, with rice on the side for an extra 64 rubles.

If a reviewer’s mouth waters while writing a restaurant review, it must mean a return visit is in order.



Royal Family
15 Ul. Kosygina (Hotel Orlyonok) (M. Leninsky Prospekt)
939-8663/8551, 10am-11pm

Today's Gigs
19:00 - DJ Existence: Intelligent psychedelic electronic
DJ Sanches: Musical Landscapes program
DJ ZigZag and Epik Soundsystem: Afrobeat, Brazilian, groove, funk and soul

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