Russian Restaurant reopens

By Qin Zhongwei (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-18 09:23

For many Beijingers, the capital's famous Moscow Restaurant was for the first place they used knife and fork.

This week nearly 1,000 diners lined up every day to dine in the exotic atmosphere of "Lao Mo", which has been closed for three months for extensive renovations.

Reception manager Liu Nan said the restaurant opened in 1954 when relations between China and the Soviet Union were still in a "honeymoon period" and quickly won over a generation of Beijingers who were curious about Western food.

"It is really touching to see our old customers swarm back, especially some old couples in their eighties staggering in with their walking sticks," said Liu who has worked at the restaurant for more than 17 years.

The Moscow Restaurant, known affectionately as Lao Mo or "old Moscow" among locals, was the first foreign restaurant in Beijing and offered many Chinese their first experience of Western cuisine and dining traditions, including the use of knives and forks.

The iconic eatery specializes in Russian-style Western food and also offers British, French, German and Italian-style food. Russian specialities like borscht, braised mutton in casserole, and Moscow-style baked fish in cream sauce are among it's best-selling dishes.

Liu said the restaurant was becoming more popular with younger people, many who had dined there as children, or heard stories from their parents about the Moscow restaurant.

Liu said 30 percent of customers were young white-collar workers, which was unusual for an old Western-style restaurant.

"I am very pleased that our restaurant is becoming a popular destination for young people to dine," Liu said.

"When the kids were young, they were taken here by their parents and when they grow old and get married, they take their parents to show them their gratitude," Liu said. "The time flies, but they eat under the same ceiling and chandelier."

The Moscow restaurant is part of the Russian-style Beijing Exhibition Center, a massive Stalinist architecture complex located near Beijing Zoo.

Initially, the 1,300-sq-m restaurant only served top Chinese leaders, foreign guests and those with special coupons. These restrictions were removed in the late 1960s so local people could dine at the restaurant.

The restaurant is known for its distinctive Russian architecture, captured in award-winning films and high-profile TV series, such as In the Heat of the Sun, which won the best actor prize in 1994 Venice Film Festival.

In 2000, the restaurant was expanded and decorated and as a result, modern features were blended with the original style.

As more trendy western-style restaurants have mushroomed across the city, the State-owned restaurant closed in June for renovation and has been restored to resemble its original 1950s design. Songs from famous Russian pop artists provide the background music.