Every blog needs a restaurant review on occasion, so the next time you are in Murom, Russia, be sure to go to the "Nobles' Club."
To understand any Russian restaurant you need to understand the phenomenon of the "Businessman's Lunch." Russians are not linguistically chauvinistic as the French are. The French actually have an official council that approves official French words. They want only "proper" French words. They do not want to repeat the horror of "le computer." The Russians could care less. Drop the proper ending if the noun needs to be declined and they are fine with it. So the English phrase, "Businessman's Lunch," is a proper Russian phrase now. It refers to a discounted lunch that they can bring to you quickly.
The first place we went to only had a "Businessman's Lunch" available. We did not want a simple salad and soup for $3. Certainly the price was right, but it was not what we wanted. Most of the restaurant bursting into a dirge made the decision even easier, we would go elsewhere. (The main room of the restaurant was hosting a wake.)
We had passed by the "Noble's Club" earlier, but as it was only a door with a sign we did not consider it. We went down the very steep stairs (as is typical in Russia my wife had high heels.) The club was a cellar made from bricks. The decor was very nice, and the bricks had an irregular pattern with arches that was esthetically pleasing. We did not want the Club's version of the "Businessman's Lunch" so we ordered from the dinner menu.
The English version of the menu they gave me was translated with Google Translate and had a number of amusing entries. One salad had sliced languages. Since I did not want a tongue salad I passed on this—much to my wife's disappointment as she wanted to share. We ordered zakuska (Hors d'oeuvres)- Champignon Mushrooms in a cheese sauce and a salad with fruits. The salad with fruits ended up as a type of Waldorf Salad without the walnuts. I ordered the lamb that “moves with eggplant.” This was, I thought, a mistranslation and should have been “comes with.” I was not happy with the $17 price, but it turned out to be a full rack of lamb so the price was all right. I was correct, the lamb came with grilled eggplant. Elena ordered the fish. We were happy with the food, but the sauce for the lamb was a little strong.
One negative was the wide screen TV hanging above the musician area. It was on MTV Russia, and it actually had music. The reason this was a negative was that I did not want to watch Snoop Dog sing, "I Want To Make You Sweat." Nor did I like the song that followed which had the chorus "What the ****."
It was an enjoyable experience and I would give "Noble's Club" 4 forks.