Aurora

Nearly a thousand square meters across three floors is already a statement on its own. Two spacious rooms with high ceilings, several private rooms and a dedicated chef's table used for more than just dinners: during the day it hosts tastings, training sessions for bartenders and sommeliers, meetings with the team's young cooks, and periodic guest sets from visiting chefs from different cities and countries. In the evening the chef's table turns into an intimate venue for wine dinners and meetings of the meat club — a format AVA Team develops alongside the main menu.

Our restaurant guide's team finds the restaurant especially striking at golden hour, when the chandeliers give off a warm glow and sunlight catches the panoramic windows.

The interior is built around contrast: outwardly restrained, with warm veneer panels and high ceilings, it's unexpectedly punctuated by large lighting objects. At the center of the room is a chandelier made of countless glass elements gathered into a single sculptural form — an effect somewhere between a piece of jewelry and an art installation. The staircase deserves its own mention: white and glowing, it has already become the venue's signature photo spot. The panoramic windows frame a view of the city — not just a backdrop, but a genuinely composed frame, as if chosen on purpose.

Aurora's menu is what happens when two chefs decide not to confine themselves to a single genre. Istomin and Losev built a card where sushi, pasta, risotto, soups and fish cooked whole for two all sit side by side — an unusually wide range for AVA Team. The seafood comes from different shores: Normandy and Japanese oysters, Spanish red shrimp, Far Eastern shellfish, Atlantic lobster. The meat section is just as serious — steaks age in coolers alongside noble molds, and the duck and Kologriv goose go through their own aging process.

The combinations on the plate are deliberately unobvious. Shrimp comes with a delicate tonnato sauce and sweet pepper, orecchiette with smoked eel and porcini, sea bass with tropical fruit. The dessert list follows the same logic: some items hide a familiar flavor in an unexpected form of presentation — the surprise lands even once you know exactly what you're eating.

Our secret guests gave the dinner 8 out of 10 — for consistent product quality, confident service, and a menu with plenty left to explore on a return visit.

Head bartender Anton Pyzhik's cocktail program works in the same celebratory register: unusual presentation formats, nonstandard glassware, striking details — specially shaped ice, small boxes, gilded spheres. The venue's flagship cocktail pairs well with the raw bar selections. The wine list matches the kitchen's ambition: major Champagne houses, signature cuvées, white Burgundy and high-scoring wines for those who track the ratings. The long round tables seat large groups — the restaurant was designed with exactly that in mind.