La Bottega
May 2, 2012 Leave a comment
La Bottega is a new wine bar located on the White Square near Belorusskaya. I had above-average expectations about this place based on the number of reviews in Internet and press. I am not saying these reviews are fake, but my idea of a good wine bar is completely different to what I have experienced in La Bottega.
The location is very good, lots of offices in the neighbourhood alongside with a couple of fancy restaurants which are always fully booked. Bottega’s interior is very typical and reflects the common Moscow misconception that wine bar should be dark, posh and full of leather seats. The TV shows muted Le Notti di Cabiria underlining the Russian stereotype about the Italian style.
As usually ¾ of the wines by glass in the wine list are not available. Of course the suppliers are to blame, still it doesn’t mean that waitress should not inform the clients before they are trying to order. As a result you have to play a famous “guess what do we have left” game to get your glass of wine. From the 25 wines mentioned in the list they had only seven were available and these were not the cheapest. The price per glass is the same as everywhere else in Moscow: from 300 to 1200 RUB. A glass of Tignanello 2008 will set you back 1450 RUB (37 EUR). To be fair I have to admit that Tignanello prices jumped through the roof after the Chinese wine connoisseurs fell in love with Super Tuscans, but it would be great if the Bottega’s sommelier could manage to find some less prominent wines not to keep the prices in the stratosphere.
Despite the fact that there wasn’t too packed it made no effect on the waiting staff whatsoever. They were slow and not really helpful. As for food we tried the Potato and Octopus salad (goes well with your Gavi di Gavi), Parma salad with sheep ricotta, almond and vincotto sauce was also fine. The Parma sandwich with mozarella and pesto looked more like panini. We also tried Veal medallions with marsala sauce which tasted too similar to vincotto sauce from the salad. So I had an impression that I’ve ordered the same meal twice. The meat was nicely done, tender and juicy.
Bottom line: if you happen to be thirsty and hungry near Belorusskaya La Bottega is one of the places you might want to visit. If you really would like to enjoy your glass of wine with your friends try to find a proper wine place.
Website: http://www.labottega.ru/
Location: Lesnaya ulitsa, 5, Moscow, Russia, (495) 213-30-88.












