Buyan Russian Haute Cuisine & Caviar Bar – Dinner

Buyan is a fairly new Russian restaurant owned by a Russian.

It’s nestled in Duxton Hill, a few doors away from Flor Pâtisserie, and spans over 2 units.

Trivia: This restaurant has a $5 million wine cellar which made it to the news. Indeed the wine selection was quite extensive. This restaurant has also purchased an ancient bottle of champagne discovered from a 19^th century shipwreck for $40000+ from an auction recently.

They have a bar on the first level. Other than drinks, they also offer cigars.

On the secondlevel was their fine dining concept area, as shown above.

The third level was for the casual dining area and the kitchen.

The difference between the two concepts was the menu, the waiter and of course, the setting. The menu from the fine dining concept serves a wide selection of caviar. As it was my first time trying, I dined at the casual dining area to see how’s the standard like.

Not too casual either. The seats were pretty.

They used iPads for their menu!

When you touch on the “i” button, you’ll get to see pictures and sometimes the description of the dish! It really helped as it was hard for me to imagine what it would be like, since I’m new to Russian cuisine.

The free bread was unimpressive. It was served cold and it was tough.

Sauvignon Blanc, Pascal Gitton, “Les Belles Dames”, Sancerre, 2008 – $88.00++

We got a bottle of white wine. This wine was recommended by the waiter and it was really good! In fact, this may be the best thing I had tonight.

Layered Salmon Salad – $10.00++

Fascinated with how cute this looked, I ordered this. Not too bad!

Varenyky – Dough pockets stuffed with mushrooms – $8.00++

This looks somewhat like chinese guo tie. The taste of the dough was similar somewhat and actually it was quite good. The mushroom filling was tasty.

Salted Herring with Potato and white Onion – $10.00++

I liked this the most among the starters we ordered! The fish was indeed salty, but it’s ok for me. The potatoes were crispy and tasty.

Borscht – Beetroot soup – $12.00++

It tasted somewhat like tomato soup.

Shkmeruli – Garlic oven roasted chicken – $45.00++

This was good to share between 2 or 3. It was a whole chicken. The chicken was well marinated, juicy and tasty. Definitely better than Nandos!

Trout with nut sauce – $18.00++

I had this for my main course.

The skin was very crispy which I liked, and the flesh was tender. The taste was similar to salmon. The nut sauce was very nutty and tasted like peanuts to me. I liked the pumpkin mash and vegetables too. Not a bad choice, but not something which would make me crave for more as it wasn’t very special.

*****

Ambiance: 8.5/10

Food: 8/10

Wine: 9/10

Value: 7.5/10

Overall: for anyone who wants to try Russian food, this is the place to go. It’s a good choice for having wine too.

*****

Buyan Restaurant Haute Cuisine & Caviar Bar

9/10 Duxton Hill

Tel: 6223 7008

*****

Mon-Sat: 12pm-2:30pm, 6:30pm-10pm