Zorya

Zorya, sited within bustling Camden Town and a stone's throw away from the rejuvenated Roundhouse, is a both a modern and a traditional Eastern European restaurant, bringing together the eclectic Eastern European cuisines into a consolidated identity of a singular one, from the Russian influenced Latvia, Poland and Lithuania to Czech and Hungarian delicacies and the Turkish-Greek influenced Moldova, Bulgaria and Serbia.

The team of chefs under the leadership of Hungarian born Laszlo Szloboszlai have created a menu that is all encompassing with the likes of borsch, bilinis, palmenis, stroganovs and the golubtzy, but they go on to create a fusion of the familiar in a contemporary vein.

General Manager, Lithuanian born Ms Zana Gramakova, whose experience is in fine dining restaurants throughout Eastern Europe, and her vast experience of cocktails has inspired the Imperial Vodka Room which is the bar area that boasts some two hundred and fifty different vodkas from all corners of Eastern Europe and cocktails of home creation. Wines, largely from Moldova, Hungary and Bulgaria, adorn the list with a few Italian wines thrown in to fit in with several items on the food menu.

Zorya stems from the Slavic mythology of the guardian goddesses known as the Auroras. The Auroras represent the Morning Star (Zorya Utrennaya), the Evening Star (Zorya Vechernyaya) and the Midnight Star (Zorya Polunochnaya). In keeping with the mythological world of Zorya the three distinct dining rooms with a total capacity of ninety covers has been themed and named after Slavic mythological characters - Dennitsa, Psar-Ptitsa and Bouyan.

Zorya is for the discerning. Its elegance permeates throughout and exemplifies itself in both the dining menu and the bar menu with its unique infused vodkas and intriguing cocktails. It brings Eastern European cuisine to the modern world without the inherited notions, but yet retaining the flavours and originality of what was once just good simple country cooking.