Baku’s rapidly growing culinary culture is making it one of the region’s most intriguing gastronomic destinations. The greatest restaurants in the Azerbaijani capital offer everything from traditional pilaf to Russian cuisine and home-made cheeses.

Travellers to fast-developing Baku typically find themselves captivated by the unique mix of architecture, ranging from mediaeval to ultramodern buildings. But the city’s restaurant sector has also made huge strides forward in recent years, with a host of new businesses offering more diverse eating experiences. The greatest places to dine in the Azerbaijani capital include a beautiful tea garden, a museum-inspired cafe and the city’s best Georgian restaurant.

Shirvanshahs Museum Restaurant

Baku’s most immersive restaurant serves as a museum, so while you sample the joys of Azerbaijani food, expect to be taken on a trip through the city’s recent past. This sprawling restaurant is a maze of rooms and hallways, its heart a converted Mediaeval hammam, and it has a collection of antiquities and oddities large enough to rival an actual history museum. Each restaurant is themed, and an entire wing is dedicated to the Soviet era, replete with a replica of Lenin’s study. The prices are quite low and booking is necessary for nights.

Araz Cafe

Araz Cafe is one of Baku’s oldest bistros, dating back to 1953 and for many years catering to a cinema opposite. While it is fondly remembered by older Bakuvians, for many of whom it was a familiar haunt during the Soviet era, the café also attracts everyone from families and young creatives to travellers with its very convenient Fountains Square location, authentic atmosphere, affordability and speedy service. The menu is nearly completely Azerbaijani, with a huge assortment of pilafs, dolmas and qutabs (stuffed pancakes) along with local beer and wine. Or come over for tea and shisha.

Dərya Fish House

In the southern Bibiheybət area of Baku, a peaceful alley leads to a chain of fish eateries on the Caspian Sea shore. The most well-known is Dərya Fish House, a three-floor place with a clean, basic décor that has a local vibe and amazing sea views. The menu include white fish, mullet, pike perch and sturgeon harvested daily from the Caspian, but it is mostly fish, says manager Gunduz Osmanli. “We have sea and river fish, fried or on the mangal, and also local Azerbaijani dishes like buglama .” The prices are really inexpensive and you won’t spend more than 30 Azerbaijani manats (£13.50) per person. There is also a spacious playground area for youngsters and a secluded length of a coastal promenade.

Nuxa

Sheki, a picturesque town in north-western Azerbaijan nestled at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains, was historically known as Nuxa. The town is famed for its 18th-century old town, which has a Silk Road-style ensemble of cobbled alleys, mosques, hammams and caravansaries. And this restaurant offers a little of all that – with its red-brick décor and sparkling lights inspired by Sheki’s famed caravanserai – to a drab part of Baku. Long ago the caravans arrived there, merchants on camels. “It was a hotel and a bazaar at the same time,” says the manager, Elshad Rasulov. The waiters are all from Sheki and, while the food is essentially Azerbaijani, it’s a perfect location to try specialities from the northwest such as piti (a mutton and chickpea soup) which comes in a clay pot.

Çay Bağı 145

Çay Bağı 145, fourth floor, is located in the center of Baku’s Mediaeval Old City and provides unmatched views of the capital’s oldest and most intriguing monument, the cylindrical Maiden Tower. “The incredible panorama is breathtaking,” writes local food writer Emiliya Aliyeva, who also compliments the allusions to local culture that decorate the restaurant’s interior – anticipate lots of colourful Azerbaijani rugs. For a classic tea, jam and sweets experience, Çay Bağı 145 (Tea Garden 145) is definitely worth a visit. Or get there early for traditional Azerbaijani breakfast of tandir bread with cheeses, honey and a variety of omelettes. It also serves the greatest shisha in town, and in summer you can enjoy it on the roof of a 15th-century hammam.

Mari Vanna

Mari Vanna’s cuisine is a creative take on Russian home-cooking, with traditional dishes exquisitely presented and bursting with flavour. “We have great dumplings with potato and mushrooms,” adds manager Elchin Rasanov. “We have great borscht that everybody loves, beef stroganoff, pelmeni – all those tastes that we used to have in this post-Soviet space.” The inside is also full of Soviet-era nostalgia, with antiques such as shelves crammed with ancient books and a Russian furnace brought from St Petersburg. And even the waiters, who are terrific, seem as if they had popped out of a Young Pioneers’ camp.

United Coffee Beans

United Coffee Beans (UCB) is part of a new wave of modern cafés introducing a true coffee culture to the city, located opposite the National Museum of History of Azerbaijan in downtown Baku. We are glad to expose our customers to the notion of a ‘third-wave coffee shop,’ with various techniques of brewing specialised coffee – in our pleasant environment’, adds its creator, Parviz Dadashov. “We roast the coffee beans and carefully analyse the entire journey from the soil to the cup. But aside the coffee and the basic but trendy atmosphere that would fit easily into the hippest areas of London or Berlin, UCB also distinguishes itself with its assortment of nutritious snacks, sandwiches, sweets, pancakes and broad-ranging breakfasts.

Syrovarnya

Syrovarnya, which serves rustic Italian food, is a Russian restaurant that launched in September 2019. Its name, meaning “creamery” or “dairy,” is a clue to what makes it stand apart. It makes mozzarella, burrata, ricotta, stracciatella, scamorza, matzoon and halloumi – cheeses that can be eaten on their own or blended into wonderful salads or on top of wood-fired pizzas – from 12 manats (£5.50). Inside, the green design and dominating create a pleasant, cosy atmosphere: “It’s the best restaurant interior I’ve come across in Baku,” adds Aliyeva. Plenty of meat and fish meals are also on offer, along with a variety of sweets and drinks.

Art Club

Art Club is a café and gallery in a beautifully rebuilt 18th-century townhome, away from the tourist throngs in a calmer part of Old City. The menu is Azerbaijani and includes delicacies like shah pilaf, mangal salad, kebabs and dolmas, all beautifully presented and perfectly matched to the local lemonades and wines. But it’s the backdrop that truly strikes. The beautifully modern interior offers enough to gaze at, from a Soviet-era black-and-white ‘Old Baku’ picture series, to a string of antiques recalling the Old City’s past. And to make it all better, a musician strums away on a tar (a long-necked lute) every evening on the porch.

Tsinandali Georgian Restaurant

This being the Caucasus, a Georgian restaurant is a must. Baku has several of them, but Tsinandali is highly recommended. It’s down an alley in the center Sahil district, plain and big inside, with a little stage for live music in the evenings, maybe Georgian, Russian or Azerbaijani. The food is mostly Georgian with a European influence, so anticipate typical dough-based meals like as khinkali (stuffed dumplings) and khachapuri (cheese-filled bread), as well as a variety of pig, chicken and beef mains, and soups and salads full of flavour. And there is home-made wine from Kakheti, Georgia’s famed winemaking area.

Disclaimer: This article is intended for informational and travel-planning purposes only. Restaurant menus, prices, services, and opening hours may change without prior notice. Readers are advised to verify the latest details directly with the respective restaurants before visiting. All opinions and descriptions are provided for general guidance and do not constitute an official endorsement.