When pasta, sushi and burgers start to pall on me I drop by ‘Gurman’, a cosy mid-tier restaurant in a quiet part of the city called Osmolovka. I highly recommend you walk here from Victory Square to enjoy this historic area. 

‘Gurman’ offers an extensive menu with all the popular dishes from European cuisines. But the main purpose of all my visits here have always been the pelmeni — small dumplings that consist of filling wrapped in thin, unleavened dough.

My favourites are the classic pelmeni that are nothing more than a combination of minced beef and pork with onion, garlic, salt and pepper, or the pelmeni a la Kiev with chicken and butter. If you’re in the mood for something exotic, they have a wide choice of fillings.

Pelmeni come in regular or big portions. The price difference is less than a dollar, so go for a big one. The greatest thing about pelmeni is that you can eat a lot without actually overeating because of the small size of each dumpling. Each portion is served with some fancy sauce, but I’d recommend you go classic and choose the sour cream. Order a pint of local draught Lidskoe beer for a drink and voila – simple, yet truly special and unbelievably good.

From mid-spring till early autumn there is also an outdoor patio where it’s always nice to have your meal and enjoy the quiet and calm of Osmolovka.