Minsk serves excellent home-style "Belarus home cooking" prepared by native chefs. The decor is minimal (elaborately stacked vodka bottles, a vodka-themed calendar on the wall), but the food is uniformly good - from the richly flavored borscht (heavily seasoned with cumin, dill and other herbs), to the spongy buckwheat crepes stuffed with minced chicken, to the garlicky potato pancakes.

There's a selection of Georgian and Moldovan wines, but the hearty Russian Baltika #3 beer might be a better match for the food. Of course there's also plenty of vodka - around twenty varieties, including unusual finds like Nemiroff Honey Pepper and Stolichnaya Chocolate and Raspberry.