When the popular restaurant Crabs
are Coming moved to the trendy
Danilovsky Market, the space stayed
boarded up for several months.
That space is now home to Sagah, a new
restaurant belonging to the same owners,
Maria Maximenko and Kseniya Alexeyeva.
There’s nothing about Sagah that says “Moscow”
or “Russia”—you could just as easily be in
Brooklyn. The whitewashed space that greets
the diner is an antidote to the dark lofts that
have become standard interior design for Moscow
bars and cafes of late.
But the minimalist decor, wooden ceiling
and brick walls will be familiar to those who
were regulars at Crabs are Coming. These elements
play well with the furniture, which hints
at the 1970s.
The restaurant boasts a long communal
table that can accommodate up to 25 guests.
Potted plants inspire a distinctly homely
ambience. A cactus stands outside the entrance
door, next to the “smokers’” bench.
But enough about the design, let’s talk about
food. The menu has been developed jointly by
the owners and chef Alexander Chernov,
who used to work with celebrity chef Anatoly
Komm. The cuisine at Sagah resists easy classification,
but there are certain Middle Eastern
influences, as well as elements of Indian and
East Asian cooking.
The drinks menu has been crafted by Denis
Kryazhev, who works with one of Moscow’s
most prominent restaurateurs, Alexander Dellos.
This is not the first time Kryazhev has collaborated
with Sagah’s owners—he also worked
on their basement bar Drink Your Seoul, located
downstairs from Crabs are Coming.
The starters include several types of Indian
chutneys with lentil and rice chips (320
rubles/$5.40 each). There’s also a set of appetizers
including pesto, harissa, and olive tapenade
(390 rubles). They come with homemade pitas.
All of the seafood comes from the Russian
Far East. Try the meaty crab legs, served with
lemon risotto (890 rubles). The scallops with
nori seaweed and garlic shoots (650 rubles) are
also well worth investigating.
Sagah uses a charcoal grill for some of its
dishes—the grilled lettuce with mint sauce and
Dijon mustard (350 rubles) still retained a pleasant
smoky smell when it arrived.
Also recommended are the baked root vegetables
in sour cream sauce. The colors and textures
of beet, carrot, sweet potato and parsnip
mix in the dish to create an unforgettable palate
(590 rubles).
Sagah offers some rare teas, like green tea
combined with brown rice (250 rubles) or
hojicha—a special type of roasted green tea
(280 rubles). The desserts are just as diverse as
the main menu—try the sea buckthorn mousse,
cheesecake with walnuts or Indian ice-cream,
all for 300 rubles.
A breakfast menu is available here until 2
p.m. on weekdays and until 4 p.m. on weekends.
You can get eggs with goat cheese and
portobello mushrooms or with halloumi and
vegetables for 400 rubles. The eggs can be
scrambled, poached or sunny-side up.
This new addition to Moscow’s restaurant
scene may not have a particularly elaborate
design or exotic dishes, but it does provide
good, no-nonsense food without the pomp.
If Sagah were a fashion trend, it would certainly
be normcore.