Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
You don’t have to be a Gucci-handbag-carrying oligarch’s wife to enjoy eating and drinking in Moscow - if you know where to look, reports Luke Harding.
My favourite destination for a cheap, decent meal is the capital’s gloriously eclectic Izmailovo market next to Partisanskaya metro. The market sells everything from matrioshki – those annoying Russian dolls – through to pirated DVDs and real bearskins. (Yup, they come with head and claws.)
Just inside are several guys grilling kebabs in the open air – including delicious lamb ones (250 roubles), which are even tastier than the lovely chops served in Moscow’s feted Georgian restaurants.
Nearby is one of Moscow’s few affordable Soviet-era hotels – the unpretentious and down at heel Hotel Izmaylovo Gamma-Delta (hotelizmailovo.ru). Built for the 1980 Olympics, this cavernous hotel has 8,000 rooms and is allegedly Europe’s biggest. Rooms cost $149 for a twin – not exactly a bargain but cheap for Moscow.
Near the metro, babushkas in tracksuit trousers also offer rooms in private flats. Another Soviet hotel worth considering is the gargantuan Hotel Cosmos (hotelcosmos.ru) – a sweepingly retro-futuristic edifice a couple of metro stops from the centre.
