Not one to give up easily, this time round the Solyanka team has chosen a more grounded location for their summer "resort," albeit only several hundred meters from where Kak na Kanarakh was moored.
The new offering is called Lebedinoye Ozero, or Swan Lake, and it is indeed situated beside a large pond with two swans named Masha and Borya. The open-air restaurant is through Vremena Goda restaurant's gateway at the very back of Gorky Park (via Leninsky Prospekt), so you don't have to buy park tickets to get in. Besides the lounge area, which is covered but with open sides, there is a space for Thai massages, a small swimming pool and deck chairs for catching some rays. All the teak furnishings have been sourced from Southeast Asia. The overall feel is like a small Asian oasis stashed at the back of Gorky Park.
The menu is concise with a mix of Russian, European and Caucasus dishes plus a lone Thai soup (280 rubles). Cold starters and salads include ruccola with prawns (420 rubles), Caesar with chicken (360 rubles) and tasty hummus with pita bread (220 rubles). Caucasus dishes make an appearance on the hot starters list with khinkali (270 rubles), khachapuri (290 rubles) and Ossetian meat pie (320 rubles). Besides the Thai soup, there is also cold svekolnik beet soup and okroshka with either kvas or kefir (both 250 rubles). Mains include shashliks of chicken (290 rubles) and pork (310 rubles), lyula kebab (360 rubles) and grilled salmon (420 rubles).
Wine starts from 240 rubles a glass, while draft beers start from 290 rubles for a pint for Edelweiss or Harp, while 310 rubles buys a pint of Guinness or Newcastle Brown Ale.
Lebedinoye Ozero: 9/11 Ul. Krymsky Val (by the back gate of Gorky Park), 782-5813, noon-6 a.m., M. Shabolovskaya.
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