The restaurant Prisoner of the Caucasus (Kavkazskaya Plennitsa) is one of the most successful theme restaurants in the city, having been in operation since 1998 and from the day it opened having drawn people in with its hospitality and excellent food.

The restaurant is designed with motifs from the Soviet comedy beloved by millions, “Prisoner of the Caucasus, or Shurik’s New Adventures”. Here, you’ll find “members of the Komsomol, athletes, and simply beauties,” as well as “Soviet justice—the most human justice on the planet” and even a “Rozenlef refrigerator”. On the other hand, there is also splendid service, because the restaurant’s nostalgic theme does not incorporate that aspect of Soviet culture. There is also wine, and food prepared according to home-style recipes by the kitchen’s team of Caucasian cooks.

You can sample different kinds of shish kebab, hinkali (large meat dumplings), lyulya (a spiced meat patty), artala, chakhokhbili, chicken tabaka, hachapuri, red mullet with plums, lobio, chikhirtma, satsivi, sausages, and much more. For those who want to try everything and all at once, purmarili is recommended—the word is Georgian for “bread and salt” and is a kind of Georgian smorgasbord.

You have to visit Prisoner of the Caucasus at the very least in order to have the opportunity to recite the cult phrase: “Living is good. But living good is even better!”