Piano is your typical local’s local restaurant. It has few pretensions, yet is nonetheless formal in its presentation. The interior is basically one large, dark beige hall. Along the far end are three cabins, each with a drape than can be drawn across to create a private room. In one corner is a tiny stage for live music or a DJ. A couple of columns add a formal touch.
Piano seems to be aiming to appeal to families and has a special children’s menu. Children’s dishes include chicken breast skewers (200 rubles), meatballs on a skewer (220 rubles), fries (90 rubles), blini with jam (140 rubles) or with whipped cream (120 rubles) and a variety of milkshakes (vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, all 90 rubles). From noon to 4 p.m. on weekends, the restaurant holds children’s parties with clowns, music and other entertainment.
At other times, the restaurant would seem to be aiming to attract families celebrating anniversaries, birthdays and the like. You can expect to find people dancing even before it’s dark outside.
Dishes on the regular menu include salads such as a Greek (190 rubles), roast beef with Bulgarian peppers, apple and lettuce (280 rubles) and a “sea castle” with cocktail prawns, pineapple, cream sauce, white wine and a tiger prawn (390 rubles). Soups include chicken noodle (150 rubles), borshch with garlic croutons (160 rubles) and a beef goulash (190 rubles).
There are 10 varieties of shashlik on the menu, ranging in price from 200 rubles for chicken wings, lamb ribs or pork ribs, up to 550 rubles for sturgeon. Seafood mains start from 320 rubles for steamed river trout, and meat mains start from the same price for either chicken breast with whortleberry sauce and potato pie or chicken in garlic sauce.
Draft beer starts from 70 rubles for a half-liter of Baltika No. 7.

Piano: 5 Ul. Pokryshkina, Bldg. 1,
430-8211, noon-midnight,
M. Yugo-Zapadnaya.