Quote Originally Posted by Hanna View Post
Whose lifestyle are we talking about here?

LOL, the "geniune 1950s American diner". That really did look very genuine, at least how I imagine it!
I don't know the value of the rouble or what the price range for eating out is in Russia, so I have no idea.
But definitely if I went to Moscow I'd want a place that was different from anything I could find in Western Europe.
Same here. If I eat in Russia I want Russian food. You can get a good meal at a Teremok for about the same as a meal at McDonald's.
A combo meal at McDonald's is about 250 rubles ($7.24 USD) but you can get a minced meat and potato blini at the new Teremok in St. Peterburg for only 114 rubles ($3.30 USD).
Also, the last time I checked you could get a Baltic beer and a Caesar Blini at the Teremok in Novy Arbat for only 219 rubles ($6.34 USD). A 20 ounce (591 ml) coke will probably cost about 70 rubles ($2.00 USD) - but it depends on where you buy it.
An average inexpensive meal will only cost about 250-500 rubles ($7.24-$14.47 USD) but if you want really awesome food from a restaurant like Cafe Pushkin or Vogue Cafe then that will cost over 2,500 rubles (over $72.35 USD) and dress code is mandatory.
There's also restaurants like One Red Square where the prices start at about 700 rubles ($20.25 USD) for a meal.
So yeah, it's really about the same pricing as the restaurants here. Well, even less since you can get a good meal at a Teremok for less than $10 USD. I can't even get a hamburger for $10 at my favorite sandwich shop here.

Btw, the restaurants I mentioned serve Russian food. Teremok specializes in soups, borscht, and blini.