A pleasant place to eat and not too fancy is the Armenian restaurant Krunk hidden away in a basement on a side street.
Entrees range from beetroot and carrot salads ($1.65) to red caviar ($3.30). Our choices of crab cocktail and fish plater set the tone for the evening.
The first was full of exotic flavors we had trouble identifying but no problem enjoying, while the latter was simple to the point of being basic, though tasty enough. Other pleasingly presented offerings were standard Caucasus fare -- fried eggplant with nut, garlic and smetana sauces, an uninspiring vegetable dish, and a very good hot spicy bean dish with chopped herbs.
The restaurant's decor is pleasant but simple with a vaulted whitewash ceiling, cane lampshades, tables with plain white cloths and slightly battered white, wooden chairs. An upright piano stands invitingly in the corner. The chef stepped up the pace considerably with the main course.
The Beluga sturgeon with vegetables ($7.70) was great. It was all that this fish ought to be -- soft and succulent with a subtle taste.
The accompanying vegetables were pretty simple and like many other things about Krunk reflect the restaurant's roots -- somewhere between restaurants from the former Soviet East and Western style restaurants -- it is what people in the former Soviet Union and those in the West would both consider a good night out. In this case the post-Soviet feel to the restaurant should not be condemned.
The waiters are attentive, the environment is pleasant, and though often simple, the food is presented beautifully and generally tastes fine -- as well as being reasonably priced. The fish dishes proved the gems of the evening. The sturgeon kebab ($7.60) came with a selection of vegetables and was equally good.
It was served on a skewer with an intriguing and tasty tomato-based sauce. The delicious chicken shashlik ($5.30) was presented in a similar style. One of my companions said that it tasted rather like wild game.
Tolma ($5.28) is rice and meat wrapped in vine leaves - a familiar dish that seems to have migrated across much of a region spanning Greece to the Lebanon and evidently out to Armenia. It came served with yogurt.
Other main dishes include pork and beef ($6.60-$7.20). Desserts were relatively unexciting. A pastry selection ($1.49), a tasty ice cream serving ($0.90) garnished with oranges and a very ordinary baked apple topped with nuts ($1.10).
The overall impression we had of Krunk is one of a provincial cafe. As I have never visited Armenia I can't say whether it was an authentic example of an Armenian restaurant or something else.
But it had a vote of confidence judging by the large party of Armenian diners at the next table. Krunk has the advantage of relative anonymity for expatriates and the disadvantage of menus written only in Russian, although our waitress spoke a little English. Pricing was in dollars, though on inquiry we were politely told that they were in fact "controlled units" rather than US dollars.
We thought 5,100 roubles to the dollar on the night we visited Krunk was playing fair. Keep an eye on the way alcohol is priced. Here you are charged per 50 gram unit but your drink could end up costing more than you bargained for.
Find out how much is in the average measure first (in our case 200g). Other drinks include tea and coffee, fruit juices, wine ($8.25 per bottle), Martini ($0.75) and, of course, vodka (Absolut $0.80). The Heineken is priced at $2.20.
Krunk's strong points are its main courses, particularly its fish dishes, which are worth a return trip. It's ideal for those lunch time appointments (it's far from the maddening crowd and parking is no problem). Krunk is also a good place for a party of diners to enjoy ethnic food on the cheap.