Tatarskaya Usadba
Upscale Tatar cuisine with a view.
Tatarskaya Usadba (Tatar Manor) is an upscale hotel complex with an enormous restaurant and a cafe, located in the center of the Old Tatar Quarter on the bank of Lake Kaban. It’s also the perfect place to start exploring Tatar cuisine. Get a table at the main restaurant, under the sign “Tatarskaya Usadba” and try the traditional Tatar flatbread kystybyi with a millet or herb filling (120 rubles for two) hot from the wood-fired oven. Continue with a plate of beshbarmak: boiled meat, noodles and potatoes (380 rubles). If you are lucky enough to sit next to a window, you can enjoy great views of the lake.
Ulitsa Shigabutdina Mardjani, 8 tatusadba.ru
Neft
Best coffee.
Neft (Oil) is a small coffee chain with a couple of locations. It can be a good breakfast place — porridge is only 120 rubles and there are also sandwiches (from 120 rubles). Or you can just drop by and get a coffee to go before you start exploring Ulitsa Baumana. Cappuccinos are 120 rubles, flat whites are 150, and there are plenty of alternative options too.
Universitetskaya Ulitsa, 7 vk.com/neft_coffee
Marusovka
Restaurant in a Gorky slum.
Marusovka is an upscale restaurant in the recently renovated Lyadsky garden. Funnily enough, it’s named after a slum that once stood next to the garden where famous Russian writer Maxim Gorky used to rent a room. His experiences here became the basis of one of his best-known plays, “The Lower Depths.” Little eclairs with smoked trout paste are a great starter (390 rubles). The menu is quite international and you can choose anything from Kung Pao chicken (320 rubles) to risotto with white mushrooms and portobellos (470 rubles).
Ulitsa Shchapova, 37 facebook.com/Marusovka
Vegan Day/ Divan Coffee
Coffee and vegan food.
Divan coffee is a small coffee shop chain (with just two locations) and it shares one of them with Vegan Day in the Old Tatar Quarter. It’s a great place to rest after seeing the local sights. Coffee is rather cheap, too: cappuccinos are 100 rubles while flat whites are 120. If you are having breakfast, get toast with peanut butter and bananas (100 rubles), and for lunch try the falafel with salad (170 rubles).
Ulitsa Shigabutdina Mardjani, 18 veganxday.ru
Dom Chaya
Kitsch meets Tatar food.
Dom Chaya (Tea House) is an unassuming building in the middle of the pedestrianized Ulitsa Baumana that looks like a teashop on the outside. Inside, it’s a cafeteria on the first floor and a cafe with table service on the second. The interior takes the word “kitsch” to a different level: there are plastic flowers everywhere, as well as statues of dogs and swans. Tatar cuisine specializes in baked goods and Dom Chaya has plenty. Try olesh — a round pastry filled with potatoes and meat that comes with a clear soup and greens (116 rubles) or the famous echpochmak pastry with meat (38 rubles).
Ulitsa Baumana, 64 +7 (843) 292 5654
Priyut Kholostyaka
Bachelor’s Shelter.
Priyut Kholostyaka (Bachelor’s Shelter) is a veteran of Kazan’s food scene; it’s been around for about a decade. “Bachelor’s Shelter” sounds a bit seedy but, luckily, the only references to the name are a few nude paintings on the wall. Priyut Kholostyaka serves European classics like vitello tonnato (460 rubles), onion soup (370 rubles) or beef Stroganoff with fried potatoes (470 rubles). There’s also a steak menu, as well as a menu with Japanese dishes, so you’ll definitely be able to find something you like.
Ulitsa Chernyshevskogo, 27a prihol.ru
Tubatay
Genuine Tatar fast food.
The flagship location on Kremlevskaya Ulitsa is a great rest stop after exhausting yourself checking out all the Kremlin sights, which are just a short walk away. Here you can try some of the already-familiar Tatar dishes with a twist: like echpochmak fries, where triangular pastry with various fillings becomes a Frenchfry-like snack (from 87 rubles) or “kysty-burger,” where kystybyi flatbreads turn into a sandwich with meat inside (from 185 rubles). Tubatay also has several kiosks shaped like nomads’ tents all over Kazan.
Kremlevskaya Ulitsa, 35 tubatay.com
Zhavoronok
Best Breakfast.
If you are looking for a good breakfast place, look no further. “Zhavoronok” (Lark) also means a “morning person” in Russian and it has everything an early riser needs. There is a whole menu of bagels with cream cheese, veal or avocado (from 102 rubles) and great coffee. Zhavoronok makes both espresso-based drinks (a flat white is 150 rubles) and various “alternative” coffee options (chemex, aeropress, etc.).
Ulitsa Professora Nuzhina, 7 vk.com/zhavoronok_coffee
Sebbie Kitchen and Bar
Hearty Dinner.
Located in the historic center of the city, this restaurant has a stylish and elegant interior and a well-traveled Australian head chef, but will surprise you with its prices (a burger will only set you back 300 rubles). Be sure to try the cod in cabbage, baked on charcoal with a cream sauce. The cocktails are also well worth a try.
Ulitsa Nekrasova, 11b @sebbiekitchen
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