Location / Design
The restaurant Sinee More (“Blue Sea”) occupies an ideal spot within a small park directly on the waterfront of the Russian resort town Sochi. GI went in early March mainly to get a feel for the upcoming Winter Olympics taking place there in 2014 — which brings up quite a dilemma. Sochi is only happening in summer, and in the mountains, besides skiing, nothing much happens. Luckily, most of the better restaurants are kept running all year round, giving us the opportunity to review a few upscale eateries.
Crowd
Let’s be frank: we were the only guests – but the place exuded the promise of an elegant Moscow crowd, dressed in scant clothes, distracting the thoughts from food to other earthly pleasures.
Food
Leaving that trail – the food was surprisingly good; what could have been a disappointing nomality of a blackened tuna salad and spicy shrimp pasta turned out to be seasoned with courage and taste. Furthermore, the other staples of grilled dorade and sea bass, accompanied by succulent home-style potatoes with onions were as convincing.
Beverages
The wine list is rather comprehensive and has a few trophy bottles for the guys who cannot avoid but to show-off. Case in point, an ’82 Chateau Latour for about USD 7,000 which I think would be worth spending any money on. Why they charge even more for a 2005 Chateau Ausone escaped me, but as we know, GI has more knowledge of the bubbly than mere Reds. On that front, the usual branded army showed up, with M&C being the house-brand, scaling to Dom, Grande Dame, Roederer and Krug. An Henriot Enchanteleurs Millesime Souverain was as exotic as it would get.
Overall Value & Rating
The location, the food and the “Promise of Summer” make this a place to revisit, definitely! Prices are at Moscow levels and hence nothing for the value-conscious. At least you get decent, straight-forward and fresh food, not that this would be a staple in all of Moscow’s upscale eateries.
/MM
www.sineemore.net
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