Chocolate Review

From Moscowiki

Chocolate

Cuisine: European
Address: Bolshoi Putinovsky per., 5
Metro: Chekhovskaya
Tel: 787-8866
Web: www.chocolate.su
Open 24/7.
All major credit cards are accepted.

Well, bless my soul, what an awesome place

By Len Readle

I was invited to go to this restaurant and reluctantly agreed, I had heard so many negative things about this place, "...too expensive" "...you got to pay $100 per person just to sit down" "...Full of Novy Ruskies" these rumors of course as usual were not true.

Well, grudgingly I arrived with my guest at 19.30 on Wednesday evening and was pleasantly surprised at the surrounding area as I walked through the courtyard. From the busy boulevard Road into an almost silent yard, surrounded by great architectural buildings and a quaint little Church, my mood was further dragged up at the interior of this restaurant.

It is difficult to put a descriptive word on the style of the interior, sort of a French Renaissance meets New Russia, but in a way that is both pleasing and relaxing. The views out of the windows are accentuated by fresh Lilies which also give a pleasant smell to the place. The tables are laid out with candles twinkling in the semi dark room lending a romantic feeling to the atmosphere, without making it too slushy.

We were led to our table and ordered our drinks, I stuck to my tried and tested Corona in a bottle (150 roubles) and my partner had a Martini Bianca (200 roubles/100 gr).

Surprisingly the menus were in very good English and reasonably priced, the wine menu was to die for, I will sample that some other evening.

To start I ordered the Frois Gras with raspberry (750 roubles) this was certainly the most delicious I have ever tasted, seems expensive but a fair sized portion that was cooked to perfection slightly crispy on the outside and pure heaven inside. My partner ordered Black Caviar and blinis (700 roubles) the blinis weren't your traditional size, they were like small cakes, quite quaint really, and she also ordered Cold Melon soup (300 roubles) that too was delicious.

For main course my partner ordered Fillet of Sea Bass with Risotto (600 roubles), cooked in a palm leaf, now I am not a big eater of Fish, after trying this I have changed my mind, the combination of tastes just blew away all inhibition I had regarding fish.

I had ordered Duck Breast with Spinach and Kumquat sauce (700 roubles), well, after my taste buds had calmed down from tasting the sea bass they actually decided to get up and leave due to over work once I had sampled the Duck, it melted in the mouth it tasted like no Duck I had tasted before, I like to eat Duck and have eaten it in many places, this was by far the best I have eaten, even the spinach was delicious, not being a healthy eater normally I have now developed a taste for the healthy stuff.

The portions were not small as you find in many "classy" places nowadays, but they weren't massive to make you feel overfull. So on to the desert, after we had had a chat to Frederic Hennin, the French Chef, not your normal pompous chef but very approachable and enthusiastic, he told us about the new menu plans; he decided to prepare 2 deserts for us to try.

My partner had a telephone call and was asked where she was, her answer "In Chocolate" seemed pretty funny at the time. Typical Russian pun.

The first dish was my favorite, Chocolate Quartet and caramel sauce (300 roubles) this was so light and tasty I nearly ate the lot without letting my partner taste it, we then had Mille Feuille (Chef's recommendation) with berries, this was a light creamy cake with lots of forest berries, delicious and sort of healthy.

After a cappuccino (150 roubles) for me and green tea with jasmine (150 roubles for a large pot) for my partner we discussed the good and bad about the place. Well the good was easy, even the bathrooms were interesting, you have to go there to understand, the views out of the window in to the yard overlooking the Church was good. The service, a little slow at some points but otherwise excellent, the food, well you can see my thoughts above, the location, easy access and central.

They have Latin jazz every Thursday, Russian showbiz stars every Friday, and classical jazz on Saturdays.

All in all I would put this down as a must visit; seriously, you need to try this place, tell them you heard about it on the Expat site and they may just give you a little something extra.

10.10.03.