Named after a fashion label and luxury importer and designed by Andrea Stramigioli and Sean Dix (an Italian architect and American designer known for their retail designs), Bosco Bar has a 1970s psychedelic feel, with bright splashes of color and funky plastic furniture. It's a bit pricey, but so is all of Moscow, and you're paying for the location: right on Red Square. Come to Bosco Bar for a lunch of celery cream soup and arugula with Gorgonzola, or a Caesar salad (a new Moscow standard), or better yet, grab drinks, a sandwich, or a scoop of designer ice cream (flavors include tomato-basil) just before dusk to watch the sun set over St. Basil's Cathedral. For a more formal meal, follow GUM's facade away from St. Basil's and dine at the more formal Bosco Café, where the waiters wear jackets and bow ties and the decor is in cream-colored linens. The Italian menu includes carpaccio and risotto, as well as some Russian specialties such as beef Stroganoff. Desserts include chocolate torte with raspberry sauce and grapefruit yogurt parfait, and they make a killer Irish coffee. Lenin, of course, would have despised this place, so while you sip your costly cocktail, enjoy the view of his tomb and muse on the twists and turns of history. Both Bosco Bar and Bosco Café have summertime outdoor seating area that opens directly onto the square.

Open daily 10 am to 11 pm.

The Pushkin Café is open and buzzing, 24/7. By day, the well-to-do and middle-aged lunch on caviar and blini. When they have gone to bed, night owls come here looking for dinner at 1 am; still later, exhausted clubbers stop in for breakfast. Given the prerevolutionary decor, including French windows, high ceilings, and shelves of ancient books, you may feel a bit like a character in a Russian novel yourself. The waiters, who tend to sport impressive sideburns, offer prompt service, and the Russian menu is high-priced but hearty.

Open 24/7.

This expensive, classy eatery, established by French expats, is among the city's best (then president Putin hosted a New Year's party here). Its name is inspired by Malevich's work and by the restaurant's square white plates. The excellent food is classic French: Try the scallops glazed in balsamic vinegar to start, and veal fillet in a sauce of shallot confit and orange zest with stuffed mushroom gratin. The 700-bottle wine list is encyclopedic. Elegant and candlelit, the dining room is perfect for a date—particularly since oysters are delivered from France four times a week. Although this practice is unusual for Moscow, you may order dishes in half portions if you wish to taste a selection. If you're trying to conserve rubles, tapas and sherry at the bar or a simpler meal in the bistro area are slightly cheaper than eating in the main dining room.

Open daily noon to midnight.

This hot spot is a creation of Arkady Novikov—the king of the Moscow restaurant scene. Photographic exhibitions give the venue a creative edge—its full name is actually Art-café Galereya—but people are mostly looking at each other. Moscow's beautiful people come here to see and be seen and block the road outside with their Mercedes and BMWs. If your face doesn't fit—too old, too fat, too lacking in Dolce & Gabbana—you won't get in here. Galereya is not gourmet, but everything, from the tuna tartare to the mashed potatoes, is superb.

Open 24/7.

Turandot epitomizes the excesses of modern-day Moscow. But that's no surprise considering owner Andrei Dellos's previous ventures: He is the man behind Café Pushkin and Shinok, a (now shuttered) restaurant that re-created a Ukrainian peasant yard—milkmaid, live farm animals, and all. Gilded, and covered in frescoes, carvings, and authentic Louis XIV antiques, Turandot looks like a chinoiserie-inspired palace lifted from St. Petersburg. The equally glittery crowd is a slice of the new Russian upper crust: oligarchs, film studio directors, and provincial nouveauxriches on a Moscow jaunt. Alan Yau, of London's Hakkasan fame, oversees the kitchen, which turns out the city's best dim sum (now a staple of Moscow's priciest eateries), including lobster tempura. There are also entrées, such as king crab in a sauce of borscht and 20-year-old Chinese wine. One of the few misses is the huge rooftop terrace (it resembles a suburban garden center filled with froufrou deck furniture), but it's still worth a visit for the wild scene of it all. If you plan on eating heartily and having more than a sip of wine, be prepared to spend at least $150 per person.

Open daily noon to midnight.