Senti Menti

Beige-cream walls, burgundy-colored tile, dark wood and three-meter paintings that are hard to miss from the doorway. The interior by Aleksandra Burmistrova and studios Verd and Blau sets the tone right away: this isn't an authentic osteria but a modern urban take on the Italian format. A large oven stands at the center of the room, and a dessert display sits by the entrance. There are two floors — the first lively and loud, the second quieter, with a separate wine room and a hall for twelve people. Seating is designed for a hundred and twenty guests, and judging by a Saturday lunch, tables fill up fast.

In the opinion of our restaurant guide's team, the place wins with a clear concept and accessible prices, although the kitchen works unevenly, and some dishes turned out to be a compromise in execution.

The menu follows the logic of an Italian day. In the morning they bake bread, grissini and focaccia, and cut pasta by hand. The small plates format takes up a significant part of the menu: cheese ponchetti with mousse and sun-dried tomatoes, ponchetti with parmesan and truffle cream, crostini, cicchetti, caramelized pear with gorgonzola mousse. Salumeria products, pecorino and turkey pastrami are called out separately. Among the pastas, the most interesting are cacio e pepe spaghetti with tapioca crisps, mafaldine with shrimp and vongole in bisque sauce, fettuccine with stracciatella and truffle. The Neapolitan dough is fermented for seventy-two hours, the pizza comes out of the oven in about a minute and a half, with puffy, well-risen crusts.

The main courses include Denver steak with French fries, sea bass acqua pazza, eggplant parmigiana and Milanese. The dessert display, visible from the street, offers a meringue cake with raspberries, tiramisu in a tray, pistachio and cherry semifreddo, and an unusual tomato-shaped dessert with rosemary cream and a peach-orange filling.

The bar is split into two registers. The first is Italian classics — Bellini, Rossini, Negroni, Aperol Spritz and Martini Fiero tonic. The second is a signature line built around a shared theme of interaction and feeling: cherry-chocolate Negroni, Cornicello with tequila, ramiro peppers, grapes and chili, Lupa, Tabaco Garibaldi. House liqueurs are made in-house: amaro Senti, creamy limoncello, cherry-chocolate. There's a non-alcoholic section too. Coffee here is treated not as an option but as part of the rhythm, from doppio to affogato.

The wine list is built like a friendly guide with hints. The focus is on young houses, easy-drinking glou-glou wines, organic Cremant de Limoux, Nero d'Avola Regaleali and vintage Champagne Pinot Chevauchet. The house wine, Senti Menti Bubbles from Veneto, comes with a label based on one of the paintings on the walls, which adds internal coherence to the whole place.

Our mystery guests gave the dinner a 6 out of 10. The place wins on format and lively atmosphere, but the kitchen is still uneven, and some dishes need refining. Senti Menti on Solyanka, 1/2s1, is an Italian café for an everyday visit, with no pretensions to fine dining, but with straightforward food and a character of its own.