Cococo

This glamorous restaurant in the Sofitel, just a short walk from the Four Seasons and Astoria hotels, is the brainchild of a Russian celebrity entrepreneur and wildly inventive chef Matilda Shnurova. Cococo also sits on the extended World’s 50 Best List.

Shnurova was married to a Russian rockstar and founded a ballet school before teaming up with chef Igor Grishechkin to open Cococo. The duo’s commitment to celebrating Russian culinary traditions and Russian ingredients sourced from small farms and fisheries combined with the fashionable patrons who flock here nightly have made Cococo a raging success.

The food is delicious and visually inventive (the piggy bank dessert is a miniature version of the real thing and comes with gold chocolate coins) and most dishes are based on Russian fairy tales, poetry or history. Another dessert looks like the Fabergé egg presented by Tsar Alexander III to his wife, but is entirely edible. The only drawback is that the stories behind the dishes are not explained on the menu or by the mostly non-English-speaking staff, so non-Russian speakers may miss some of the cultural context. Luckily, the food is good enough to be fully enjoyed regardless.

Note that this restaurant would be challenging for a picky eater as the food is innovative Russian.