I Like Bar
21 Ul. Shukhova, (495) 741 0707, ilikebar.ru
Mon.-Thu. 9 am-midnight, Fri. 9 am-6 am, Sat. noon-6 am, Sun. noon-midnight
Shabolovka must be one of Moscow’s most underrated neighborhoods. Although quite centrally located, just beyond Oktyabrskaya metro station, it still looks and feels like a suburb on the city’s outskirts – or in the provinces, even. Chains like Tanuki and Kofe Khaus arrived here relatively recently, a good 10 years or so after chains started gobbling up the cafe scene downtown, and you can still find quirky old-school spots where time has stood still.
Now Shabolovka has taken a leap into 21st-century Moscow with the opening of its first trendy, modern bar-restaurant. I Like Bar is a creation of Vladimir Perelman, his second after Barbara Bar. Its logo is the thumbs-up “Like” symbol popularized by the world’s leading social network, something that clearly positions the new bar in the present while other nearby cafes seem to exist in the pre-Internet age.
The interior is divided into two separate zones, allowing I Like Bar to “friend” two completely different kinds of clientele. An enclosed balcony (which staff assured us would be heated to stay open through the winter) is a quiet lounge with plaid sofas mostly populated by young couples with babies even on a Saturday night, while the main room is a groovy bar with pinky-purple illumination and the same light fittings I’ve seen in countless other trendy club-like restaurants around town. Quirkiness and originality are present thanks to an arty book motif, with stacks of old tomes serving as table legs and ironic decoration. Although the place hasn’t been open long, it’s already popular; we were told that the place was fully booked and we could only have our table for one hour.
© Photo / The Moscow News / Jennifer Chater
The baked vegetable ‘caviar’ starter comes with a side of focaccia
Under time pressure the service seemed slow, but in other circumstances we might have considered it fast, since we managed to eat two courses and drink a bottle of wine before turning into a pumpkin.
The eclectic menu offers culinary greatest hits from around the globe, from pizza, pasta and risotto to Singapore-style stir-fried noodles, Vietnamese rolls, Jewish forshmak, Caucasian pkhali, Tex-Mex quesadillas, the obligatory sushi and modern European fare.
The forshmak looks nothing like what your Jewish grandmother might make, barely recognizable in a trendy vertical presentation featuring erect matzo “sails” towering over a stack of salad leaves hiding the diced herring and boiled egg concoction. This dish got the thumbs up, as did the scrumptious “caviar” of baked eggplant, peppers and tomato, reminiscent of Caucasus cuisines but served with a few slices of focaccia.
For the main course, the pike fishcakes were a mouth-watering composition of lightly browned patties generously laden with red caviar alongside stripes of green spinach sauce – greedily gobbled up by my dining companion, who gushed that these might just be the best fishcakes he’d ever had.
The pappardelle was less aesthetically pleasing, with rabbit meat and honey mushrooms hidden in a pale creamy sauce, the only color coming from a tiny sprig of rosemary. But this dish also proved to be absolutely scrumptious, rabbit and honey mushrooms being a perfect autumn combination, deliciously complemented by that rosemary sprig. The wide, flat pasta noodles appeared to be freshly made and hand-cut, and the cream sauce – usually not my favorite pasta topping – was just right.
The drinks menu deserves a mention, with a good selection of cocktails, unusual beers, and wines for as little as 700 rubles for a decent Argentinean white. A two-course meal for two with a bottle of wine and mineral water cost us a smidge over 2,000 rubles, once again proving that great value can be found in Moscow’s less fashionable parts.
So I Like Bar gets “likes” from us – it’s a newcomer that’s well worth friending.
Schyot, please!*
Forshmak 270
Baked vegetable caviar 210
Pike patties 390
Pappardelle with rabbit and honey mushrooms 370
San Pellegrino mineral water 0.25L 120
Las Moras Sauvignon Blanc 0.75L 700
*All prices are in rubles
Read other articles of the print issue “The Moscow News #68”