Six Astana Spots for Girls’ Time

The scenario: morning conversation over coffee and a French breakfast

The kitchen at the recently opened Bizou is led by the young and promising chef Nurkhat Karbayev, whose résumé includes Lou Lou, Crème Brûlée and Almaty’s Renée Café — and breakfast here feels almost like a genre of its own. It is served until 2pm on weekdays and all day on weekends. The clear favourite is the zucchini fritters with salmon rillettes, along with a French breakfast for two that feels especially well suited to sharing with a friend. The interior plays elegantly into what arrives on the plate: floor-to-ceiling wine shelves, candles, and paintings with an Art Deco inflection. The bar list is broad and expressive — sweetness, tartness, berries, smoke. Raspberry Mandarine arrives in a shell-shaped glass, while the Smoked Cherry Alexander is served in a jellyfish-like vessel, finished with a theatrical veil of smoke.

The scenario: beautiful, impeccably elegant lunches

Named after style icon Loulou de la Falaise — Yves Saint Laurent’s celebrated muse — the restaurant is exactly the sort of place one chooses for a beautifully staged lunch along Nurzhol Boulevard. Champagne, baguettes, the mood of vintage Paris, and a light touch of bohemian ease combine to create the feeling of a brief and perfectly timed escape.

A closer look at the restaurant’s aquasystem is well worth it: oysters from the Arabian Gulf, Dutch lobster, and Kamchatka crab can all be ordered directly from it. In the Josper, scallops, loligo squid, horse-meat filet mignon, and a number of other things besides are cooked over flame. The avant-garde cocktail list sustains the mood. Guests are offered a sample box of eight scents, each paired with its own drink: Mystical Diptyque, Forbidden Apple, Nude Lychee, Rich Raspberry, Le Moulin Rouge, L’Amour de l’Or, La Vie en Rose, and L’Âge de Passion — something very close to a perfume tasting, only served by the glass.

The scenario: a celebratory dinner, properly dressed for

They say diamonds are a girl’s best friend. We see no reason to argue — and would suggest a setting worthy of them. Selfie offers the perfect excuse to bring the jewellery box into circulation, ideally in the company of women who know how to appreciate the ritual. Whatever March may be doing outside — cold, wind, snow — the 18th floor of the Ritz-Carlton remains warm, flattering, and entirely in a festive mood. The panoramic views retain their particular glamour; the city, from up here, looks almost impossibly well behaved. Chef Evgeny Chekanin’s menu rises to the occasion. There is octopus with baked potatoes, one of the most lavish tartares in the city, and a pear tart served with clove ice cream — the kind of dessert that lingers in the mind before it even reaches the table.

The scenario: important conversations over cocktails

This intimate bar, with room for just 30 guests, has no kitchen — and yet loses none of its power to impress. Bartenders step out into the room to get a sense of each guest’s tastes, then build a drink around individual preferences. Particular attention should go to the Passion Sour with passion fruit, the Ocho Old Fashion 2.0 with notes of orange, and the Aromia Gimlet, built around a berry-led perfume accord. There are mocktails, too, for those in the mood for something without alcohol.

The scenario: wine, tasted properly

Provino’s founder, Daria Fedina, trained at Enotria, whose programmes are recognised by the International Sommelier Association, while the bar itself has earned a place on Star Wine List. Set on the right bank of the Ishim, just off the embankment, Provino is very much a place where wine takes precedence: white, red, sparkling, dry, semi-sweet — bottles are chosen straight from the shelves. To accompany them, there are antipasti with artichokes and jamón, roast beef bruschetta, sardines, pasta and risotto — all served in the soft half-light of the room, among rows of bottles that make the whole place feel less like a bar and more like a quiet argument in favour of staying longer than planned.

The scenario: street food, best left for the very end of the night

If, by the close of a celebratory evening, the appetite tilts towards something fast, carb-laden and unapologetically rich, there is little reason to settle for the nearest shawarma. Far better to turn instead to Italian street food: panuozzo, generously filled — whether with the truffle bestseller of ham and mushrooms, or ratatouille with courgettes and aubergines. For one evening, at least, calories need not enter the conversation!

Images: restaurant websites and social media; Yandex Maps