800°C Contemporary Steak

A two-story mansion on Bolshoy Patriarshy Lane was rebuilt from a typical 19th-century apartment building: panoramic windows, mirrors, and open staircases fill the space with light. The dominant tone in the dining room is a deep emerald, offset by yellow armchairs, mahogany, and brass fittings. The upper floor turned out noticeably brighter than the lower one — where the walls are gray and the ceiling hangs low, the atmosphere is more dim.

In the assessment of the restaurant guide's team, it's a decent steakhouse, but the interior has aged quite a bit.

The kitchen's main tool is ovens heated to 800 degrees: at that temperature the meat juice stays inside the cut while the crust sets quickly. Beef is brought in from Bryansk, Japan, and Argentina, and some cuts undergo several weeks of dry aging in a special chamber. Burgers are assembled on house-baked buns, and the signature mash, made to Joël Robuchon's recipe, is whipped for five hours to a creamy texture and served with bacon chips, black caviar, parmesan, and Kamchatka crab meat. Balashov trained for several months at Beefbar in Monaco, which is where he picked up his approach to searing steaks.

Our secret guests gave the dinner 5 out of 10 — ovens at 800 degrees sound more impressive than they come across on the plate, and the meat is evenly cooked but without bright accents. The wine list is chosen with food pairings in mind, and the bar menu offers a wide choice of cocktails for a group of several people. There is noticeably more talk here about the record oven temperature than there is an actual difference in taste — but with the house-baked burger bread and Robuchon's mash, the cooks are clearly not cutting corners.