The Italian trattoria Moi Druzya -- "Amici Miei" in Italian or "My Friends" in English -- is exactly that kind of place.
At the Belorusskaya branch, the upstairs dining room is spacious enough to put a decent distance between you and the next table, with a few intimate little nooks if you want some privacy. There's also a ground-floor cafe and a summer courtyard.
We arrived starving and ordered garlic focaccia (50 rubles) and draft Baltika (60 rubles a half-liter), to give us the patience to select from over 30 pasta choices and more than 30 types of pizza, plus authentic salads, tempting desserts and more.
The beer and focaccia arrived in good time. The tasty focaccia bread was thin enough not to fill us up, with the right amount of garlic, and ideal with the beer -- which wasn't quite cold enough.
Time for more beer. This time we went for draft Staropramen (110 rubles a half-liter), but it was too warm to drink. We sent it back, requesting a Baltika and a bottle of Corona (110 rubles). The waitress politely brought out Baltika that seemed cold and Corona that really was -- and didn't charge us for the warm Staropramen.
Our pasta arrived after a long delay, but was worth the wait. Farfalle More i Gory (Sea and Mountains, 200 rubles), bow-tie pasta with shrimps and mushrooms in a light creamy sauce, was so good I wished it would never end; while my friend was in a comparable state of bliss over the potato gnocchi with tomato and basil (150 rubles).
We were enjoying ourselves so much that we didn't want to leave, and ordered dessert. My mouth waters just thinking about the creamy tiramisu (170 rubles) and lemon sorbet cocktail (90 rubles) that we devoured along with some Ararat 3-star cognac (110 rubles for 50 milliliters).
What's warm beer between friends anyway? After all, it is an Italian restaurant -- and we were fools not to try their Italian wines.
22 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Ulitsa. Metro Belorusskaya. Tel. 251-1116. ? 18/22 Zemlyanoi Val. Metro Kurskaya. Tel. 917-9363. Noon to midnight. Cards: V, MC, VE, Maestro.
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