Where to Find Your Protein

Chef Andrey Titov and nutritionist Katya Organic have shaped a special menu around mindful eating. It ranges from a «functional» breakfast of eggs, chicken pâté and sauerkraut to porridge with fig chutney, and gluten-free draniki with salmon and kaymak. For anyone looking to raise their protein intake, the green doner — chicken breast, tahini mayo and 34g of protein — is the obvious choice. It has all the looks of health, too. If the aim is to come close to a day’s quota in a single meal, look to the main menu: horsemeat ribeye with pepper sauce and creamy kurt delivers more than 90g of protein.

Cafeteria’s refreshed Functional Menu was developed with Ayala Konakbayeva — nutritionist, biohacker and founder of the Quintessence clinic. Protein, fibre and probiotics are the focus, while every dish can be enhanced with superfoods such as flax, hemp and lion’s mane mushroom. Cafeteria’s version of a properly healthy breakfast is the Protein Morning: an omelette of four egg whites and one yolk with smoked turkey, broccoli and edamame. For lunch, choose baked salmon steak with teriyaki sauce (30g of protein, with an extra dose of omega-3), or chicken liver in a rice-flour crust (33g, with ferritin in mind). Dessert, naturally, is the Prollagen Pie — a berry pie enriched with protein and collagen.

English edition by Yevgeniya Yussupova

Vanilla’s breakfasts are now every bit as much a reason to visit as its coffee. An early-morning cluster of runners at Kunaev, cyclists at Medeu or friends in Skims at Villa usually has a simple explanation: the Protein Breakfast. Its bagel comes with turkey, egg, spinach, salted tvorog and fresh vegetables, for 39g of protein. For an even more substantial start, there is the Marathoner’s Breakfast: eggs, buckwheat, broccoli and a choice of turkey, chicken breast or salmon, delivering a generous 44g of protein.

The menu at Chou Chou — the wellness café from the team behind Salem, Sosed! — reads like an aesthetic catalogue of health-conscious eating: gluten-free syrniki, clean-label sandwiches, collagen smoothies and protein coffee. Clean girls, assemble. For lunch, order the Protein Bowl with quinoa, turkey pastrami, sweet potato and coleslaw (36.4g of protein). If time is short and the protein deficit more serious, there are gluten-free chicken strips, rolled in quinoa and baked without excess fat (59.4g). Sugar gives way to a strawberry soufflé made with Greek yoghurt, protein and, naturally, collagen (25.9g). Then there is the promisingly named Hailey Bieber smoothie (12.8g).

Photos: restaurant websites and social media; Yandex Maps

The natural address for devotees of special diets — vegan, paleo, keto, gluten-free and everything in between. Healthy eating is written into the project’s philosophy, while the menu sets out every ingredient list — clean, naturally — alongside calorie and macronutrient counts. Those arriving early to top up their protein will find an entire breakfast section devoted to the cause. The standouts are an American-style plate of fried eggs and chicken sausage (34g of protein), and buckwheat porridge with slow-cooked meat (29g). At lunch, order the «collagen soup» with beef (48g) or baked dorado (65.7g) — and you are, quite frankly, magnificent.

ProCoffee’s dedicated Protein Balance Menu is made for anyone who wants their meals to be both nutritionally considered and fully accounted for. Breakfast offers a five-egg-white omelette (16g of protein) or the Fitness Breakfast — eggs with turkey pastrami (32.8g). Add a Protein Latte (25.8g), and the «my body is a temple» routine is well under way before the day has properly begun. At lunch, the house doner delivers 34g of protein without drifting into blandness or excess calories, with a serving of kiwi to keep the gut content. The most substantial protein hit comes in the chicken bowl: quinoa, sous-vide chicken breast, edamame, vegetables and miso sauce combine for almost 56g of protein per portion.