Hard Times for Gourmets: Russian Restaurants Cut Menus

Russia«s food service industry has found a new way to balance on the edge of profitability — and this time, they are sacrificing not profit, but taste. Restaurant owners are mass-dropping from the menu everything expensive, complex, and labor-intensive, leaving guests simpler and cheaper dishes. An industry that until recently prided itself on a gastronomic renaissance known worldwide is now quietly cutting its menu to the bone — just to avoid raising prices and scaring off the last solvent customer. Details in the article by MSK1.RU.

The Assortment Is Thinning, and So Are Wallets

Restaurateurs are massively trimming menus and revising recipes. In some chains, the assortment has already been cut by 17–20%, dropping expensive and labor-intensive items. The reasons are prosaic: a shortage of chefs, rising food prices, and increased operating costs. Owners are optimizing recipes and cutting costs precisely to avoid raising prices — otherwise, they risk losing an already cautious guest.

What else can they do? Last year, 35,000 food service establishments were shut down in the country — nearly 10% more than the year before. Profitability in this business now hovers at around 10%. This fight for survival has entered a new phase: they are no longer saving only on rent and staff, but on the food itself served to the guest.

The guest is counting every kopeck

Co-founder and spiritual inspiration of HookahPlace, Anton Gaivoronsky, in conversation with MSK1.RU describes the situation as unprecedented pressure from all sides:

«Yes, revenues have grown, but in 15 years in the restaurant business, I don»t recall so many factors hitting at once: prohibitive lending rates, VAT, and a guest who is counting every kopeck,« says Gaivoronsky. »And people haven«t stopped going out. They»ve just become much more thoughtful, more often asking themselves, «What am I paying for?»«

Gaivoronsky advises desperate colleagues not to close down but to look for alternative sources of income:

«We must not fixate on classic restaurant techniques, but seek new development options: catering, corporate events, private parties, perhaps delivery with unique packaging or service.»

Raising prices, he believes, is possible — but only with honest justification: not just to increase margins, but for a clear improvement in product quality. «The guest is willing to pay, but he must see what for,» says the expert.

The Urals Push Mushrooms, Siberia — Fish

Chef and TV host Vasily Emelianenko says that the premium restaurant segment is holding up surprisingly stable. That is why Emelianenko warns: the very idea of mass simplification of the menu and cheapening of recipes is a road to nowhere:

«Today»s consumer understands everything perfectly. If the food service industry degrades quality, people will simply stop coming,« says Emelianenko. »If quality is poor, people won«t come, and establishments will close. If quality is good, then prices will rise.»

And here the chef articulates the main threat of a cut menu — it is not that the guest will be upset, but that he will simply go to those who never aspired to haute cuisine. For example, to dark kitchens (factory kitchens).

«They are tuned for low cost through huge volumes. They lower the price and keep it below restaurants,» says Emelianenko. «They use chicken because chicken is still the cheapest meat ingredient. More potatoes, more pasta, more cheap ingredients so that the dish ends up having both weight and volume.»

It is precisely this scenario — simplification for volume and price — that Emelianenko fears for restaurants cutting their menus. However, he is not ready to capitulate completely to fast food. Moreover, the chef believes that even against the backdrop of the crisis, the position of Russian gastronomy in the world has only strengthened.

He sees salvation not in gloss or Michelin stars, but in a return to simple and honest things — seasonality and locality.

«After all, every city has cool local dishes made from local ingredients. The Urals push mushrooms, milk mushrooms; Siberia — river fish, forest gifts. That»s how it should be!«