I’m not a vegetarian, but I considering becoming one after traveling for three months through Eastern Europe and Russia and eating nothing but meat.
The Slavs love their meat and during the early 90s as they were coming out of communism, that was pretty much the only thing one could find in Warsaw Pact restaurants. In fact, a few years later when I move to Prague to live, the only place I could find affordable vegetables was at the local Hari Krishna restaurant.
Although the culinary scene has changed drastically in the last 20 years, it’s still difficult to find good vegetarian food in this part of the world. In fact, according to an article by Stas Shectman, the mere concept of being a vegetarian is actually met with considerable animosity in Russia. There is even an anti-vegetarian website that “devotes itself to exposing the ‘evils of vegetarianism.'”
So, with this in mind, Shectman has compiled a rather detailed article revealing the very best places in Moscow to oblige your vegetarian fetish without necessarily revealing your unmanly habit.
If you have similar dietary restraints and are planning to visit Moscow any time soon, this is one article you need to print out and take with you. Otherwise, good luck explaining your meatless diet to your next Russian waiter.