Must-see restaurants in Baku

It's hard to believe you're more than a few metres from the Champs-Élysées in this perfectly pitched French masterpiece. It hits all the right Parisian…

On an unassuming backstreet, this enticing place started life as a 19th-century bathhouse but is now a veritable ethnographic museum of handicrafts and…

It's inconspicuous, comfortably unpretentious and the menu is short. But if you want perfectly cooked, top-quality steak, this German-Austrian yard-garden…

Faultless Azerbaijani and Persian cuisine in a suave-but-relaxed setting right on the Bulvar. It's one of few places to offer shah plov (a giant ball of…

Dining at this revolving restaurant is the only way to gain access to Baku’s iconic Soviet-era TV tower. Views are stupendous and the upscale menu…

This historic two-storey caravanserai wraps its alcoved stone walls around a coverable courtyard featuring two dwarf fig trees and a trickling fountain…

If you liked Altay Sadikhzade's cartoon-esque work at Baku MOMA, you'll adore the interior of his eccentric Mayak 13 Cafe. Marvellously absurd rope-tied…

Picture menus offer mouthwatering arrays of both Azerbaijani and international cuisine and there’s a special section of sağlam həyət (healthy-eating)…

Fun, full of character and not as kitschy as it might sound, this theatre-dining experience has waiters dressed as Soviet soldiers who demand a password …

For good, fair-priced Azerbaijani food in an unusual setting, visit the main restaurant section in this cavernous former market hall, which uses many mid…

Big glass windows illuminate a plethora of pickle jars and hanging rugs, festive musical rhythms create further atmosphere and at the back, big təndir …

Though it's one of the cheapest central places around, Samik has a certain degree of elegance with touches of gilding on its arched vaulting and…

Stone floors, hanging flower baskets, a shady terrace and contrived but well-thought-out attempts at old-world decor all combine to make spaciously open…

Fountains Sq's long-lasting subterranean favourite is an attractive stone-walled basement draped in local carpets with tablecloths embroidered in a…

Climb three storeys to escape the Old City tourist throngs in this glass-sided rooftop restaurant with views across to the Maiden's Tower. Azerbaijani…

This fashion-conscious lounge-restaurant sports a ‘theatre kitchen’ producing sophisticated East Asian and Asian-fusion dishes, plus steaks and real…

There are several fancier places with similar menus, but this unpretentious little basement remains our long-term favourite in central Baku for genuine…

Decorated with book spines and framed old photos, this inviting branch of the small Baku chain occupies a grand Stalin-era building close to the Hyatt…

A flight of silver doves over the doorway welcome diners into what is as much a gallery as a restaurant with canvases on the walls and artefacts beneath…

The eight-room hotel is a tad kitschy but the front two tables of the upstairs restaurant have the best view of the Maiden's Tower of any Old City eatery…