The  bar is festooned with football shirts and team scarves while the larger room has original photographs of Moscow scenes for sale on the walls.

Kelvin Pang, the Café’s Business Development Director, grew up running restaurants in Hong Kong and Singapore, created the idea for the Café two years ago with a group of cosmopolitan buddies who all felt a need for a place to entertain friends over authentic Pan Asian cuisine at affordable prices.

“Sport is the international language of friendship,” says the blurb at the front of the menu “but facilities in Moscow to enjoy a family atmosphere in a smoke-free environment are rare”.

The key to the restaurant’s popularity is undoubtedly its food and the menu includes surprisingly modestly priced dishes from Singapore, China, Malaysia and Thailand. Kelvin is proud that many of the dishes are as authentic as you get in SE Asia with the markets and suppliers bringing in Asian produce. “The rest are 90% authentic, only because of the unavailability of ingredients ,” he says.

The chef doesn’t compromise by watering down the spices for the softer palate of Russians. “Do you like spicy or not,” asks Kelvin as he steers diners towards what will suit their tastes.

A tour of the menu saw me devouring deep fried Chinese spring rolls (270 rubles a portion); a hot and spicy Szchuan soup with shrimps, tofu, bamboo and vegetables (290 rubles); Kong Po chicken with a classical Chinese soya sauce with honey laced with deep fried chopped red peppers which added fire (380 rubles); fried vermicelli noodles Singapore style (32) and the piece de resistance Singapore chilli prawns with the same home-made sauce served in Singapore with the city’s signature Chilli Crab dish.

“Crab here is too expensive,” says Kelvin who doesn’t have it on the menu as it would drive prices through the roof.

Even with a desert (Chocolate Cake, Cheesecake, Tiramisu or Ice-Cream) a meal won’t cost you more than 1,000 rubles (about $30).

Beer, the only alcohol served, ranges from 180 rubles for 500ml (Heineken) to 220 rubles (Guinness and Kilkenny). They are still waiting for a wine and spirits licence.

Lucky Heng

The head chef is from Malaysia and has been cooking since 18 years old. He started in Hawker stalls, the hard front-end of cuisine in Kuala Lumpur and grew through the kitchens until he was in the famed Raffles Hotel in cosmopolitan Singapore where Kelvin found him several years ago. When the decision was taken to launch Buddies, Lucky was brought from Singapore to be part of the concept and development team two years ago.

Address: Tverskaya Street, Block 12, Building 8 (Entrance from Kozizskiy pereulok)

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