Belaruskaya Gleba

Irkutsk


The lengthy menu may apply to Guinness World Records as the longest list of meat and potato combinations, but that's what Belarusian cuisine is largely about. Folksy interior design and oom-pah-pah music are meant to carry you away to the good old Eastern Europe that celebrated calories instead of rejecting them with a scornful face.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Irkutsk attractions

1. Sculpture Gallery

0.21 MILES

Opened in 2016, this lovely gallery puts in the spotlight Russian and Soviet sculpture previously kept in the city's main art museum and private…

2. Sukachev Regional Art Museum

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The grand old art museum has a valuable though poorly lit collection ranging from Mongolian thangkas (Tibetan Buddhist religious paintings) to Russian…

3. Raising of the Cross Church

0.4 MILES

The 1758 baroque Raising of the Cross Church has a fine interior of gilt-edged icons and examples of intricate brickwork in a rounded style that’s unique…

4. 130 Kvartal

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What does a city boasting some of Siberia’s most impressive original timber architecture do to improve the visitor experience? Yes, that’s right,…

5. Regional Museum

0.5 MILES

Irkutsk’s rapidly ageing Regional Museum occupies a fancy 1880s brick building that formerly housed the Siberian Geographical Society, a club of Victorian…

6. Statue of Tsar Alexander III

0.53 MILES

Adorning the Angara embankment, a recast statue of Alexander III (a copy of the 1904 original) has the only tsar ever to visit Siberia looking as though…

7. Saviour’s Church

0.68 MILES

Constructed in 1706, this is the oldest stone-built church in Eastern Siberia and has remnants of the original murals on its facade. Until the late 1990s…

8. Bogoyavlensky Cathedral

0.74 MILES

This fairytale ensemble of mini onion domes atop restored salmon, white and green towers first appeared on the Irkutsk skyline in 1718, but during the…