Good menu at a bad price: restaurants are desperately trying to keep customers with clever tricks

“Restaurants are trying to keep prices down, but there comes a time when this is practically impossible given the rise in prices of everything: food, gasoline, logistics services,” said Igor Bukharov, president of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Russia, back in September 2023. At the same time, representatives of several restaurant chains in Moscow announced their intention to raise prices by at least 15–20% in the fall. Although you need to understand: only the next price increase has been announced – however, several price jumps have already been left behind, which no one has officially reported.

It is clear that eating in a restaurant is never a story about saving money, and calculating how much it would cost to prepare the same burger at home is not entirely correct. However – within reasonable limits. Let’s say that Japanese ramen with chicken (simply put, a good rich broth with noodles, chicken and egg) for 840 rubles, as one of the chain Japanese restaurants offers, is still an exaggeration. Or a portion of rolls, which until recently were considered cheap student food, for 750 rubles is also a bit much. Especially if sclerosis has not yet overcome you and you remember very well how much these dishes cost just a couple of years ago.

It’s easy to compare price dynamics today—everything is recorded. Literally: a huge number of bloggers specializing in restaurant criticism regularly publish reviews of establishments – of course, indicating the date of visit. Then all you need to do is look at the menu and see how much the same dishes cost today.

First example please. The restaurant near the Pushkin monument focuses on homemade Italian cuisine and desserts, as if made by the caring hands of an Italian grandmother. The dynamics are obvious: pear pie with almond cream cost 330 rubles in 2021, and today its price on the menu is 510 rubles. In the same way, the classic Italian tiramisu has become more expensive – today it costs 490 rubles (two years ago it was 390) or a branded sponge cake with strawberries and condensed milk cream – it sells for 550 (two years ago it cost 400 rubles).

On the one hand, this is only a plus of 100–150 rubles – it seems that the increase is small for those whose accounts at establishments usually run into the thousands. But, on the other hand, the price increase tends to be 30%, which means that the average bill also increases.

The next example is a pizzeria on Solyanka, famous for “real” Neapolitan-style pizza. Today the classic Margarita costs 390 rubles. Less than a year ago, in January, it cost 360 rubles, and in 2020, just before the pandemic, its price was 330 rubles. This means that the price has risen by about 15-18% during this time – it seems that this is quite a bit and not scary, but you just need to understand that we are talking about the simplest dish with a minimum of ingredients. But, for example, an eggplant salad in the same establishment today costs 570 rubles, just in January 2023 it was 550 rubles, and in the half-forgotten year of 2020 – 480 rubles. The price increase is the same, approximately 18%, but the numbers are different.

Another example is an affordable Georgian restaurant on Pokrovka, where today’s prices can also be compared with 2020 thanks to previously published stories. So, the price of chicken satsivi has increased by exactly one hundred rubles: today it costs 590 rubles, although three years ago it was 490. Eggplant rolls have risen even more in price – 590 rubles today versus 470 rubles in the 2020 menu. The price of cheburek with lamb has increased enormously – three years ago it cost 190 rubles, and today it’s already 320.

There is another interesting observation here: khinkali in this establishment are no longer sold individually, as it was before. Now you can order at least 3 pieces for 330 rubles, although previously one piece cost 70 rubles (and it would have been 210 for a trio).

“It’s not profitable,” the restaurant’s waiter, who introduced himself as Eldar, throws up his hands. — In fact, there was an informal restriction on selling less than two or three khinkali before, it just worked differently. This way we cut off customers who want to order, say, one with cheese, one with veal and one with lamb. This is completely unprofitable for the establishment; we’re not going to put out a pan just for one khinkali, are we? The only difference is that before after three you could order as much as you wanted: four, six, twenty, as many as you want. Well, now the number must be a multiple of three.

However, this principle applies in many Georgian restaurants: in some places three khinkali are considered a serving, in others five – in a word, this is not an innovation. Although with khinkali everything is noticeably simpler: they do not involve ingredients that would depend on sanctions and logistical difficulties. At the same time, the dish still becomes more expensive, because the owner of the establishment has increased associated costs – for renting premises, electricity, waiters’ salaries, etc. However, the menu (and prices!) suffers much more in those establishments where the preparation is based on hard-to-find products.

There are no anchovies, but you hold on

In August 2023, a new ban was added to the existing (very considerable) restrictions on the import of products from European countries – it became impossible to import canned fish. Against the backdrop of existing restrictions on cheeses, meat, fresh fish, etc. It’s like a drop in the ocean, but some recipes suffer. For example, canned tuna is needed to prepare Niçoise salad, as well as for the Italian dish vitello tonato – roast beef with tuna and mayonnaise sauce. True, in the second case, Russian restaurateurs have long been trying to replace tuna (at least partially) with sprats.

Another problem is canned anchovies, which are used to make Caesar salad dressing and are also added to some pizza options: their shortage was announced in early November 2023. True, it’s too early to panic: they will try to replace Italian anchovies with Asian and African analogues – they have now begun to arrange supplies from Tunisia and Vietnam. It worked with oysters, and now French oysters on the shelves have really replaced Moroccan and Tunisian ones (and Russian ones are also available). And in general, most fish and seafood today come to Russia from Asia and Latin American countries – for example, Argentine langoustines turned out to be no worse than Italian ones (only they come from afar, so delivery is expensive).

The restaurateurs themselves explain: sometimes it’s easier to change the recipe of a dish or remove it from the menu altogether than to constantly raise the price. The simplest example is “4 cheese” pasta in Italian restaurants. After 2014, when an embargo was introduced on the import of European cheeses to Russia, this name alone sounded like a mockery – the necessary Gorgonzola, Parmesan, Camembert and other cheeses disappeared from the shelves. Today, of course, cheese import substitution has already been established, and domestic cheeses can sometimes be praised, but they cannot be called cheap. Well, European ones, which still come to Russia in small quantities through third countries, are too expensive: up to 8-9 thousand rubles per kilo. Then everything depends on the position of the cook.

“I immediately said: as long as there is an opportunity to cook with Italian cheese, I will do it.” Otherwise, the whole recipe suffers, the taste is not at all the same: for example, for a simple cacio e pepe pasta (pepper cheese) you need pecorino cheese, no other. Prices had to be raised three times,” says an Italian named Giuseppe, a cook at one of the Moscow restaurants. “This spring I gave up and just took it off the menu.” It’s not profitable to cook. For a serving I need 60 grams of cheese, and the cost of such a volume will be almost 500 rubles. Plus other components, plus extra. A simple paste will cost about a thousand rubles, no one will take it. We are still coping with the rest, but my forecasts are disappointing.

But with pizza there’s usually nowhere to go. A good pizza in a good restaurant is almost always a unique dough recipe, for which each chef selects the flour independently, using trial and error. Almost no one will agree to replace flour, so the only way out is to raise prices.

Stanislav Monakhov, a chef at one of the capital’s restaurants, told MK about how the price of a dish is formed and how you can avoid a rise in price by sacrificing some ingredients.

— There are additions to dishes that make up a significant portion of the cost. For example, we used to decorate Olivier with a spoon of red caviar. Today, caviar has become more expensive, we realized that we would have to raise the price by 8–10% in order to continue to supply it. We discussed and decided that we would do without caviar. She’s not that important there. Another example is the seafood salad we served with a large tiger prawn on top. Shrimp prices have gone up significantly. My colleague suggested cutting one shrimp in half lengthwise to reduce the cost. In response, I suggested removing this shrimp altogether. It seems to me that half is already petty struggle and outright greed, disrespect for the client. Moreover, there are shrimp inside, the top one is only for decoration. We removed it and saved the cost.

Many restaurateurs also say they have decided to stop using hints of truffle, such as truffle-flavored olive oil or truffle mayonnaise as a sauce for potatoes. Every year truffles become more and more expensive, and the simplest solution is to remove it from the menu completely. This is how, for example, the characteristic truffle aroma from mushroom risotto disappeared in some Italian restaurants – only oyster mushrooms and champignons remained.

The wine is worse, but more expensive

Even if the product has not yet become unavailable or at least difficult to obtain, restaurateurs may still decide to limit it or remove it from the range – purely for financial reasons. A clear example was discovered in October 2023 in one of the democratic steakhouses in Moscow, where the “wine tap” format was practiced: well, you press a button and the wine flows like a river… Just a few months ago, honest Spanish tempranillo flowed from there – not the most exquisite , but quite good. Now it has been replaced with dry red (the variety is not specified) from one of the “young and ambitious” domestic wineries. The reason is more or less clear: excise tax. Every day it becomes less and less profitable to buy European wines; since the beginning of 2023, they have risen in price by at least 30%. True, there is an unpleasant nuance: the price of “tap wine” has still increased. It was 190 rubles for 100 ml of tempranillo, now 210 rubles for 100 ml of “young and ambitious”. Here I want to joke: they say, it has become worse, but more expensive! Well, what did you want?

In the new realities, a glass of wine for 500 rubles will no longer surprise anyone, and we are not talking about some incredible, but about completely basic table wines. Another trend is also observed: in the wine list of this or that establishment, the number of European wines is rapidly decreasing, their place is taken by Russian ones – at the same prices. However, the rapidly growing self-confidence of Russian wineries is a special story. Another example is the signature restaurant of one of the wineries on Arbat. He once lured customers with bottles at store prices: 700–800 rubles for a good sparkling wine in a restaurant – is that bad? In other places a glass costs that much. But this policy is already a thing of the past – today you need to be prepared to pay at least a thousand for a bottle. The owners of the establishment shrug their shoulders: they say, it’s not our fault, it’s everything around that is becoming more expensive.

According to restaurant business experts, since the beginning of the year, the increase in purchase prices for imported and domestic products has amounted to approximately 30%. The cost of products has increased in direct proportion to the increase in the exchange rate of the dollar and euro – and the price level on the menu has increased approximately the same. Just a nuance: the salaries of most Muscovites did not increase at all in proportion to the exchange rate – only a few can boast of income growth or at least indexation. So the conclusions are disappointing: the thin layer of people who could afford more or less regular visits to restaurants has thinned out even more and will soon become translucent, like the dough for Viennese strudel (which, alas, has also become much more expensive).