You only really grasp how monstrous and catastrophic the situation with Moscow restaurants is when you go abroad. Yesterday we went to Nobu. One of the most famous restaurants in NYC, and in the world in general. You have to book a table a week in advance (we did it while still in Moscow). Of course, we understood it was 80% a tourist trap, that there probably wouldn’t be anything all that special about it, but we decided to check the box anyway. Like, yes, we’ve been to your precious Nobu. In New York’s main restaurant guide, Zagat, this place is listed as expensive. Quote: "stratospheric prices." So here it is: Dinner for two with alcohol came to $142. Plus tip, which here you’re expected to leave at 15–20% of the bill. Total: $165. Not cheap. But. On February 14, my wife and I foolishly wandered into a Moscow restaurant called Yoko. Across from the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Apparently one of Novikov’s places. Dinner for two, with two glasses of wine that were poured as a "compliment" (i.e. on the house), came to 10,000 rubles, not including tip. So we get: New York Nobu $165 Moscow Yoko $314 I’m not exactly some great connoisseur of Japanese food. To my taste, Nobu, Yoko, Whatever-oko, or Little Japan—it’s all more or less the same. But the price difference between a world-famous restaurant and a world-unknown restaurant ought to favor the world-unknown one. Outrageous, in short. I’m also quite sure that rent in New York is no lower than in Moscow, while labor is more expensive. And if you start comparing normal, everyday places in Moscow and NYC, rather than venues where people bask in their own importance, it gets truly horrific. Something has to be done. Might as well organize a gastronomic March of the Dissenters (a reference to Russian opposition protest marches).