On Top of the World: Restaurants with Breathtaking Views

A glass cube perched at 1,057 meters, offering 360° panoramas of mountain ridges and the city’s pulse below. It’s front-row seats to a love affair with Almaty. The kitchen reimagines Central Asian flavors as fine dining: think horse pâté, baursak (fried dough) with Caspian sturgeon caviar, or venison medallions with birch glaze. If culinary daring isn’t enough adrenaline, the nearby extreme trampoline will do the trick.

Every guidebook points you to Kok-Tobe («Green Hill»), where a cable car ride delivers you 1,110 meters up to a park with lookout decks and old-school amusement rides. Here, the circular Abay restaurant hides under a glass shanyrak (traditional Kazakh dome), its walls adorned with engravings of spring festivals and nomadic rites. The menu is a gateway to Kazakh cuisine — beshbarmak, zhaya (horse delicacies), and rich meat broths (sorpa) taste even better with the city sprawled beneath you.

Also on Kok-Tobe, Inzhu swaps yurts for minimalist elegance and Mediterranean-European fare. Kitchen is shared with Abay restaurant, so you can mix paella and beshbarmak, or pair Spanish jamón with Kazakh kazy (cured horse sausage). Oenophiles will geek out over the wine grotto, stocked with treasures from Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Champagne. (P.S. In 2024, Inzhu snagged WhereToEat Kazakhstan’s Media Choice Award.)

When «special occasion» isn’t just a phrase — it’s a 28th-floor promise. Perched atop the Ritz-Carlton (Almaty’s tallest building), Seven is all hushed luxury: smart-casual dress code, flawless service, and chef Glenn Thompson’s globe-trotting fine dining. Think Wagyu nigiri, dry-aged sea bass, or chicken ballotine stuffed with truffles and foie gras.

For drama, book the Le Petit Chef experience: a 3D-mapped dinner where a 58mm-tall animated chef «cooks» six courses on your plate via projection — part gastronomy, part magic show. Cap the night two floors up at Sky Bar, sipping cocktails above the city lights.

Almaty’s iconic Hotel Kazakhstan — a Soviet-modernist «wheat stalk» crowned in gold — houses this 26th-floor gem. The view? A cinematic sweep from the Alatau peaks to downtown’s glow. The menu jets between Asia (sushi, crispy duck) and Europe (foie gras terrine, Milanese-style octopus), with prime steaks for center stage. The summer terrace edges right up to the building’s golden spire, and a private karaoke room awaits for belting out Batyrkhan Shukenov’s hits.

Tucked on the 18th floor of the Shanyrak residential tower near Dinamo Stadium, this under-the-radar spot earns its place with one killer feature: a rooftop that frames sunsets like a painting. The Kazakh-European menu (Greek salads, kuyrdak) plays second fiddle — come for a cocktail at golden hour, stay for the skyline.