“Belovezhskaya Bitters” is a local alcoholic beverage made on the basis of 100 herbs. Belarusian men prefer vodka to other strong drinks.
Please do not miss to taste the century-old beer brewed in Belarus (“Lidskoye”, “Alivariya” or from “Rakovsky Brovar” restaurant in Minsk).

The best Belarusian vodka are “Crystal”, the silky “Belaya Rus”, and “Charodey” which was the only official vodka at Oscar’99 ceremony, as well as at the New Year party of Prince of Monaco in 2000.

Restaurants and Cafes
With new restaurants and cafes mushrooming all over Minsk, eating is not a problem if you have got time and money. The food is usually quite good and very often appears to be really delicious. However, you never know if the same dish would be the same good the same place next time. Few establishments serve authentic western dishes.

Deluxe Restaurants
Gostiny Dvor
17 Savetskaya St. (near Red Church)
Tel. 206-64-17
Splendid interior, rich fire place banquet room with amazing wall paintings.

Krynitsa
2 Lenina St.
Tel. 227-08-04
If you visited Minsk for a crocodile steak or an ostrich stew move yourself just right there! Also, enjoy the most luxury and the most pretentious interior in the city.

Lukoil
36 Nyamiga St.
Tel. 206-48-36
Very good and very luxury Russian restaurant & club.

Zhuravinka
25 Ya. Kupaly St.
Tel. 206-69-13 www.juravinka.open.by
Actually, Zhuravunka complex offering not only restaurant, but cafe, bars, bowling center, etc. Luxury restaurant transforms into prestigious nightclub after 11-00 p.m.

European Cuisine
Acropolis
17 Svabody Sq.
Tel. 223-75-05
Rather Roman not Greek interior - yet quite nice - with fast and very friendly service.

Alkatraz (Restaurant, Bar)

25 F. Skaryny Ave. (Palace of Trade Unions)
Tel. 227-59-82
Monumental building called Palace of Trade Unions situated in the very city center now houses a casino, night club, restaurant, bar, and more.

El Rincon Espanol (Spanish Restaurant & Bar)
22 F. Skaryny Ave.
Tel. 227-23-31
Three establishments below for a long time have been a must for any respectable visitor of Minsk. All three of them situated under one roof on the main city artery - F. Skaryny Ave.

Patio Pizza
22 F. Skaryny Ave.
Tel. 227-17-91
Supposed to be one of the best pizzerias in the city. As far as we know, Italians are not inclined to think so.

Petchki-Lavotchki (Grill Bar)
22 F. Skaryny Ave.
Tel. 227-78-79
Really good salad buffet and pleasant country interior.

Grunvald (Cafe & Bar)
19 K. Marksa St.
Tel. 210-42-55
Very nice and cozy cafe where you can find good local/international food and some dishes of Jewish food among them. Situated just in two minutes walk from Main Post building and Nezhalezhnasci Sq.

Panorama
15 Starazheuskaya St., 22st floor.
Tel. 209-76-99
Good international food accompanied by bird's eye view of Minsk.

Paranoia
55 Kalinouskaga St.
Tel. 265-43-45
The cafe proudly advertise itself as: "European and Belarusian Cuisine served in absurd and paranoid atmosphere". Really, the interior inspired by chef d'oeuvres by Salvador Dali amazes. Very good food and fast service. Though staff do not speak English, they offer detailed menu in English so placing order is not a problem. Highly recommended to visit.

Pierre Smirnoff
15 Starazheuskaya St., 1st floor.
Tel. 234-64-34
Mixture of Russian, Belarusian, European, and Georgian (we mean Georgia from Caucasus, not GA in USA!) cuisine.

Westfalia (German Cuisine)
11 Gazety Prauda Ave.
Tel. 270-57-27
No doubt, the restaurant serves the best German food in the city. German speaking staff and menus in German and English makes visiting the restaurant breathe easy. Recommended.

Belarusian Cuisine
Kartchma Staravilenskaya (Traetskae Predmest'ye district)
2 Staravilenskaya St.
Tel. 289-37-54 Though Belarusian food can be found in a number of places we have chosen here those set a bit aside with true Belarusian dishes.

Pan Khmelyu
11 Internatsyanalnaya St.
Tel. 226-78-74
The dishes obviously influenced by Polish and European cuisine yet clearly show features of Belarusian one. Rather reasonable prices.

Talaka
18 Rakauskaya St.
Tel. 223-27-94
Recently opened cafe offers "ancient Belarusian food".

U Frantsyska ("At Francis'") 19 F. Skaryny Ave.
Tel. 222-48-02
E-mail: francisca@infonet.by
The cafe and the street named for the same person - prominent Belarusian humanitarian Francis Skaryna. The cafe offers "ancient Belarusian food and English speaking staff". At least, it is worth visiting to see the interior.

Chinese Cuisine
Though you can find hints of some Chinese about food served in restaurants below, don't expect generous dinner of seven dishes for a company or pastry shell with your fate foresight.

Dragon Gate
35 Kuybyshava St.
Tel. 213-45-74

Golden Lotus
38 Ya. Kolasa St.
Tel. 268-32-16

Kitayski Zhemtchug (Chinese Pearls)
22A Staravilinskaya St. (Traetskae Predmest'ye district)
Tel. 234-94-11

Italian Cuisine
One more pillar of world food religion presented in Minsk in better modification than that of Chinese. At least, two establishments below give the right idea of what really Italian food means.

Simply tasty Italian food.
Piccola Italia (Ristorante Pizzeria)
Ya. Kolasa St., 52
Tel. 207-51-33

If you search for genuine crispy Italian pizza, not its puffy American equivalent (to say nothing on poor Belarusian copies) it is restaurant for you. Also, lasagna, cannelloni, ravioli, and more.

Oriental Cuisine
Aren (Armenian Restaurant)
24 Revalutsyonnaya St.
Tel. 223-12-54

Astara (Azerbaijanian Reastaurant)
37 Pulikhava St.
Tel. 289-97-61
www.astara.by

Really, delicious food. Oriental sweets. Wide choice of shishliks (BBQs). Delivery via Internet (sic)! Menus in German and English. Highly recommended.

Taj (Indian Restaurant)
2 Bryleuskaya St.
Tel. 229-35-92
Chicken & fish curries, tandoori, and sometimes belly dances.

Japanese Cuisine
Sushi Planet (Japanese Bar)
18 F. Skaryny Ave.
Tel. 210-72-00

Territory (Territoria)
169 F. Skaryny Ave. (XXI Century Business Center building)
Tel. 228-72-00

Beer Restaurants
Minski Brovar (outlet of Minsk brewery)
30 Kisyaleva St.
Tel. 269-07-52

Good quality for the money when it comes to beer.

The restaurant is said to be extremely popular among local businessmen. Hidden in quiet nook of the downtown, Rakauski Brovar offers some brands of fresh beer and quite tasty meals. Interior presenting a kind of folk paintings is worth seeing. Recommended.

Staroe Ruslo (Beer Restaurant & Microbrewery)
7 Ul'yanauskaya St.
Tel. 217-84-70

Establishments for nonsmokers
Moya Dorogaya (My Darling Lady)
13 Kamsamolskaya St.
223-12-07

One of two rooms is solely designated to nonsmokers. Situated in the very downtown.

Some more Restaurant and Cafes
Every of the establishments we picked below is noteworthy in its own way.

Beze (cafe & sweet shop)
18 F. Skaryny Ave.
Tel. 206-64-09
Very good interior. Wide range of sweets. Choose local as strudels disappoint with lack of authenticity.

Cafe Blues
1 Lenina St.
Tel. 27-56-07
Good spacious terrace in Summer makes the cafe attractive. Nothing particular can be found about it in the other seasons.

Gabrovo (Bulgarian cafe)
81 F. Skaryny Ave.
Tel. 268-40-53

Goodwin (Bar)
19 F. Skaryny Ave.
Tel. 227-69-01
If you like to watch football (in Belarus it means soccer) within "birds of feather" sipping beer this is a ticket for you. Large TV screen.

Gourman (meaning "gourmet")
7 Kammunistytchnaya St.
236-67-74
Good choice of Russian pancakes and pelmeni (kind of ravioli). The cafe is said to be a favorite eatery of employees of some embassies in Minsk.

Kosatka (Fish Restaurant)
1 Rokossovskogo Ave.
Tel. 249-22-44
One of few spots where you have choice of fish dishes.

Le Routman (Cafe)
12 Makayenka St.
Tel. 263-91-94
Among Belarusian and European dishes you can find here some of Jewish origin. Not kosher, rather of Polish-Belarusian-Jewish roots, we would say Idish food.

Matilda (Restaurant)
7 Kalinina St.
Tel. 268-36-21
Nice small restautant with good atmosphere and moderately priced dishes. Five minutes walk from Moskovskaya metro station.

Old Minsk (Mini cafe & Bar)
14 F. Skaryny Ave.
Tel. 289-14-00
Bar with few seats and moderate choice of snacks houses a kind of gallery of the pictures of old Minsk (early 20 century). For those interested in history recommended.

Salodki Falvarak (Cafe & Sweet-shop)
2 M. Tanka St.
Tel. 206-34-11
Drop in on when you need to buy a really tasty cake for a party.

Tete-a-tete (cafe and Sweet-shop)
56 F. Skaryne Ave.
Tel. 237-45-90
Cafe's specialties are pancakes (called "bliny" in Belarusian and Russian) in their multiple varieties. Good for nonsmokers as from noon till 7-00 p.m. smoking is prohibited there.

Delicatessen
Delicatessen industry is not developed in Minsk. So, if you going to roll on a party it is wise to address a good restaurant to place order for dishes. However, a few enterprises offering prepared raw materials and ready dishes are available in the city. Below we picked some of them. See section "Local Food ABC" for terminology.

Dishes for order. Deliveries.

Very good choice of ready dishes, both meat and fish ones. To our mind, it is best delicatessen in the city.

Meat and fish dishes, including even stuffed fish and stuffed sucking-pig (1) to order. Wide choice of cakes of own production. They even promise phone advice on recipes.

Mix of delicatessen and liquor shop. Dishes to order.

Not exciting as Vienna, Paris, Prague or Warsaw, Minsk yet interesting enough for sweet teeth. A lot of stores selling cakes, biscuits, candies and all kinds of sweets are scattered around the city. Below we picked some of them we think worth visiting.

Nice cafe with splendid interior. Good chance to try a piece of cake before taking out.

Salodki Falvarak (meaning "Sweet Estate" in Belarusian) presents the richest choice of cakes in the city. Again, good chance to try a piece of cake before taking out.

One more candy shop of the same owners (see above).

Though Tete-a-Tete cafe is famous for pancakes served in main room on the first floor, their premises on the ground floor include a small cafeteria and a sweet-shop selling fresh French pastry.

In the supermarket cafeteria you can find the choice of cakes as wide as in the establishments above. For candies enter the main trading area. Obvious advantage is also big parking in front of the supermarket.

If you are going to order a big cake for a special party, of course, you can address any of the cafes and restaurants. It might seem strange, yet the fact is that the order for a cake can be also placed in Gas Station's cafeterias owned Russian Lukoil company. The cake can be picked up in the same place two days later. We tried cakes from Lukoil Restaurant (see section Restaurants & Cafes) and can sincerely recommend them to you. Please, see section Transportation for Lukoil Gas Stations.

One more way to buy or to order a cake is to visit one of the specialized shops entitled "Torty" (meaning Cakes) or a bakery. There you can buy or order a cake from one of the state run Bakery Factories. Such cakes are rather limited in designs and recipes. What's more, they often seem to be too sweet, sometimes even sickly sweet. However, sometimes the taste might seem new and exotic. Here are the sites:

It makes sense to visit stores presented below to buy candies of Belarusian production.

Lakomka - meaning "sweet tooth" - the store entirely devoted to all kinds of candies. It is very old store, so in minds of some generations of Minsk citizens this is the center of sweet world. Really, it is officially considered to be the central candy store in Minsk.

Kommunarka means "communist women". Odd title of the factory producing sweets hasn't been changed since communist regime. However, sweet products of Kommunarka are really delicious. And even don't compare Kommunarka products to those of Jacobs Suchard at least, when staying in Minsk.

One more candy store situated in one of the busiest streets in the city. Romashka means camomile in Russian.