Lucky

In Japanese culture, an izakaya isn't a restaurant in the usual sense but something between a bar and a communal feast: a place you drop into without a reason, stay longer than planned, and eat with your hands. That format is exactly what shaped Lucky Izakaya, Lucky Group's project on Bolshaya Nikitskaya. Brand chef Glenn Ballis, who spent years working in Singapore and knows Asian street food from the inside, built the concept around clean flavor and quality ingredients. Chef Vasily Zaytsev, who trained in Hong Kong and Beijing, brings it to life in the kitchen every day.

Our guide's team says Lucky Izakaya has a distinct vibe: loud, lively, and especially good on a Friday night with a group.

The menu is built around several axes. The raw bar is the main section: sushi, sashimi, hand rolls and tataki with Kamchatka crab, Faroese salmon, hamachi and big-eye tuna from Japan. The hand rolls here are made by hand, without a bamboo mat, the traditional way. The robata and kushiyaki section offers dishes cooked on the flat grill and over open fire, including halibut with avocado and miso. Among the dishes people keep coming back for are the katsu sando Japanese sandwich, a wagyu burger, and sushi with hot scallop, where the rice and kizami wasabi don't overpower the ingredient but bring out its flavor.

The bar menu is a reason to visit on its own. Japanese lagers sit alongside a wide selection of sake, and the spirits list includes Taiwanese, Chinese and Japanese distillates. Head bartender Maxim Gorelik and bar manager Artur Mirasov built the cocktail menu in two registers: rich drinks with a pronounced Eastern character, and light, almost transparent ones for a long evening. Each cocktail references the symbolism of Japanese numerology.

The interior was designed by the Sundukovy Sisters studio. Inside there's a sense of restraint without austerity: the eye lingers on the texture of restored beams, the warm glow of open fire, and Falconnier glass bricks that scatter the light in unexpected ways. Terracotta plaster near the kitchen, dark wood, cool concrete — none of it creates coziness by the book, but it works. Nineteen seats along the low counter give direct contact with the kitchen — from here you can watch Zaytsev at work. In summer the panoramic windows open, and the boundary between the room and Bolshaya Nikitskaya disappears.

Our undercover guests rated it 7 out of 10 for dinner — for the consistent quality of the raw bar ingredients and a kitchen level that doesn't get lost in the atmosphere. A cocktail evening here is a story of its own: for the bar program alone, the place earns 8 out of 10.