Those who are interested in excellent Russian cuisine in Moscow should go to the Valenok restaurant, which recently opened on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, 5. According to visitors, in the new institution, “everything is big and there are a lot.” The guests are amazed by the roomy two-story restaurant building for 340 guests (sometimes it can accommodate 400 visitors), a six-meter felt boot instead of a sign at the entrance, and a generous menu conceived with a truly Russian scale, which offers more than 100 dishes.
Restaurant Valenok is a new institution of Arkady Novikov, one of the capital’s best entrepreneurs.
About the creator
The name of the Russian businessman Arkady Novikov is among the first in the list of successful and well-known restaurateurs in Europe. He is the creator of a galaxy of famous elite and respectable (“Tsarist Hunt”, “Biscuit”), as well as democratic and simple (“Fir-tree-sticks”) establishments. For many years, every restaurant of Arkady Novikov has always made a splash with its originality and innovative ideas.
About Novikov Group
The menu of Novikov's restaurants, especially elite establishments, are real masterpieces and include dishes not familiar to the general public. Often a businessman himself chooses refreshments for a new institution. In this, he draws on his own experience, as well as the trends of modern business.
For many years of hard work, newcomers have created one of the largest Novikov Group holdings, which includes a network of restaurants in Moscow and London. The entrepreneur has over 50 projects. He is rightly considered the founder of the principles and traditions that have become milestones in the development of the modern restaurant business.
Many of its institutions are laureates of famous contests. Chefs, working with a famous restaurateur, have become famous throughout the world. Their dishes fell in love with the metropolitan audience. Many of his establishments have become truly iconic (GQ Bar, Vogue Cafe or the Cheese restaurant).
About the quality of raw materials and technologies
The Novikov Group focuses not only on cooking technologies, but also on the freshness and quality of raw materials. Vegetable products in restaurants are supplied by the businessman’s own enterprise - Agronom LLC. Fish brought by plane.
Culinary technological positions and individual master classes are annually presented by Novikov Group at Taste - the international festival of the best restaurants in the world.
From the history of the project
Many consider Arkady Novikov a brilliant restaurateur. Firstly, it is known that he sincerely loves food. Secondly, he is inherent in the ability to accurately feel the atmosphere of the institution. To all, without a doubt, he is a good businessman.
Specialists know that Novikov is the creator of the now-despised Novomoskovsk chic of the late 1990s - early 2000s, distinguished by mixing in one menu borsch, sushi, tom-yama, pasta and arugula with shrimp. But wasn’t such a glaring, blooming abundance dreamed of by people who had escaped from Scoop?
In recent years, Arkady Novikov very skillfully noted in all the fashionable restaurant areas. This is pseudo-Soviet rollicking (“Kamchatka”), and the enthusiasm of the post-Soviet public for burgers (“FARSH”), and the wave of popularity of Greek cuisine (“Semiramis”).
Today people want to eat close, familiar, simple and understandable food. Everything is also inexpensive. Therefore, the Valenok restaurant opened on Tsvetnoy Boulevard .
Description
An institution where farm products are prepared, fun parties are held where guests with children are invited (interesting animation events are organized here for young visitors) - this is Valenok restaurant. The institution recently opened in Moscow, on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, 5.
- The restaurant is open from noon until five in the morning.
- The average bill here: 1500-2500 rubles.
- Free Wi-Fi is available.
- Card payment is provided.
- There is a summer terrace.
- Cuisine: Russian.
- Guests are offered a special menu: seasonal, lean.
- The institution features baking, sommelier, live music, free parking, a summer terrace for smokers, and children's animation.
What does Valenok symbolize?
The felt boots of enormous size (six meters high!), Located at the entrance, is a work of our contemporary, artist Valeria Loshak. The monumental sculpture managed to gain fame and popular love even before the opening of the institution, on Instagram. According to the author’s plan, manually dumped, the most enormous felt boots in the world should become a symbol of the breadth of the soul and the vast expanses of Russia.
Restaurant "Valenok" impresses not only with its external design. The symbolic design is embodied in the interior design: visitors, according to reviews, are amazed at its size and spatial solutions. Two-story-high windows, a space atrium, eight-meter ceilings, room capacity for up to 340 guests, an extensive summer veranda - impressive sizes are, according to the authors of the reviews, the main "feature" of the new institution. The design of the restaurant was done by Irina Glig (“A Country That Doesn’t” and Vogue Cafe).
Decor
Of course, the design of the establishment did not go without Novikov’s signature accents: an open kitchen, slate boards covered in white and red , a showcase with exposed desserts (with obligatory strawberry cake).
On the ground floor, a large hall, according to guest reviews, is more noisy. It is rather densely packed with tables. There are more tables on the second floor, they are located in wall niches. Here, according to many, a more intimate atmosphere is created. Network users recommend that guests who decide to spend an evening at Valenka go to the second floor, take a table and arrange a plentiful and long feast.
If you just ran out to lunch at work, you can stop on the ground floor.
Kitchen
According to guests, the menu in the restaurant is also amazing in scope. It is here, as they consider it, "old-fashioned huge." Three accents are noted here:
- folk Russian, with all kinds of smoking and sprats inherent in it;
- Caucasian - the most expressive and powerful;
- Italian is the least vibrant.
The increased capacities of the Novikovskaya Cheese Factory are used in Valenka: part of the cheese is exported here. A variety of salads are prepared with it.
Restaurant Valenok (Moscow) offers guests an international menu, which is based solely on Russian farm products. Beef is brought here from Bryansk, fish comes from Murmansk, dairy products are brought from Dubna.
The chef Sergey Batukov (“Ministry of Agriculture”, “whose Country is not”, Backstage) is responsible for the kitchen in the institution.
Valenok is a restaurant whose menu will please everyone with simple and understandable food: the most delicate mincemeat, moderately sharp ajapsandal, tiny one-bite pies, juicy chicken lula, fragrant homemade noodles with stewed lamb, manti and pasties, grilled pike perch and crab cutlets. Chefs have at their disposal open-kitchen smokehouse, wood grill, tandoor and robat. In the best traditions of Novikov, cuisine in places resembles market vegetable rows.
Valenok Restaurant bakes its own bread, homemade pickles, compotes and smoked meats are made here. It is proposed to drink everything eaten with home-made tinctures-liquors, lemonade-compotes, as well as wines, among which there are many unfamiliar to the public and familiar Russian names.
Sweet
Desserts here deserve special attention. The confectionery business at Valenka is Marina Nosova. Users in their reviews report that the pastries and desserts are amazing. You can come to the restaurant specifically to drink tea. Fans are waiting for the launch of the widely-announced samovar tea parties. In the restaurant "Valenok", according to reviews, you can sit for half a day tasting absolutely brilliant cakes, pies and pastries. Crispy rolls with cream from Marina Nosova, her homemade cake "Anthill" repeat the real taste from childhood. Her "Napoleon" with custard has become truly legendary, and a weightless, airy strawberry pie instantly disappears from the guests' plates.
Rates
The cost of dishes in the institution, users who have left their reviews on the networks, consider it quite democratic:
- salad and smoked duck breast cost 750 rubles .;
- manti with mutton meat - 900 rubles .;
- duck leg with stewed cabbage - 550 rubles .;
- homemade noodles with stew of lamb - 450 rubles .;
- rabbit meat stew - 650 rubles .;
- grilled pike perch with barley - 550 rubles .;
- crab cutlets - 750 rubles.
For dessert, it’s good to order a curd ring (90 rubles), Honey cake (200 rubles), nut pie (350 rubles), Moscow toast with jam (250 rubles), vanilla ice cream with pineapple (400 rubles) .).
Entertainment
On Fridays and Saturdays, live concerts are held in the Valenok restaurant, young musicians perform, DJ parties are organized, etc. On weekends, on Sunday, the youngest guests can have fun at interesting and informative events. A children's room is equipped for them, animation is used, various master classes are organized. In the immediate plans of the institution is to launch family brunches.
Summer terrace
In any season, Valenok restaurant opens its doors wide to meet its guests. The summer terrace is huge, it is covered with a cheerful white-green gable awning, under which fits up to 240 people. Parents with children come here in the afternoon: while adults have a quiet dinner, the kids have the opportunity to swing on a swing, ride a slide or play table football. On weekends, children can be placed under the care of caring nannies and animators. Adults can also have fun with ping pong, chess or sit at the bar. Cocktails are prepared at the counter here, on the street.
Chef-bartender Tamerlan Mayransaev (“A country that does not exist”) is invited to indulge in a special tasting of the brand new “Valenok” cocktail, mixed on rye moonshine with herbal liqueur and berries (600 rubles). The Smuglyanka drink is prepared on spiced rum with grenadine and pomegranate juice (750 rubles). The cocktail “Marina Vlady” is a mix of sparkling wine and prune cordial (450 rubles). And here the cocktail “Like a Cucumber” was awarded the title of the most summer drink, due to its lightness, freshness, sweet and sour taste and its inherent invigorating effect. This cocktail will quench your thirst, cheer you up, return strength lost in the heat (600 rub.)
Guest Impressions
According to visitors, sorting out the restaurant’s huge menu is not easy: from the abundance of the dishes on offer, many simply run their eyes. Therefore, users of networks advise, if you came with a large, noisy and hungry company, you should look for the section "On the company." There you should definitely find and order a saj - a huge Azerbaijani frying pan, on which a mountain of kebabs, kebabs and vegetables baked on charcoal are laid. The authors of the reviews recommend to definitely try the rabbit stew or the leg with millet porridge.
The restaurant Arkady Novikov offers wines corresponding to the mood of visitors and the season - Crimean, Kuban, Georgian, Don. According to many, a snack for lunch or dinner in "Valenca" should be "Napoleon."
Users note the local wonderful selection of meat dishes, mulled wines and chic desserts. In the institution, they believe, is a delicious herring and mushroom soup, borscht, signature cocktails, excellent vegetable salads, and the jellied meat “as if my mother was cooking”. Pleasing guests with low prices. This place is very pleasant for gatherings, the authors of reviews say. Here in the room "infinitely beautiful and stylish." Of the pluses note convenient parking, the proximity of the motel, the presence of a busy veranda. Arkady Novikov, many call "restaurateur from God."
Everything would be perfect, some guests consider, if Arkady Novikov, "for no apparent reason", each time going to a restaurant, did not require musicians to play at least twice as loud. Live music in the restaurant is too loud, it is very difficult to communicate here - visitors complain.
Network users note other disadvantages of the institution. Many call the service here “deadly long” and “unprofessional”. This applies to the wardrobe and hostesses. It revolts visitors that here the client is not escorted to the table. “The staff is not trained and does not know what they are doing,” users write.
Reviews Valenok (restaurant) is described as an institution not designed for visitors with disabilities. The local toilet is located on the 2nd floor. Some network users believe that the institution is not interested in such clients and does not intentionally solve this issue.
Network users urge Mr. Novikov to read reviews and influence the situation with poor-quality service. Indeed, the lack of professionalism of staff can alienate customers.
Whatever the case, today Valenok restaurant is one of the most fashionable and “party” places in Moscow.