It's offered by lots of restaurants in Russia now and it has no Russian translation - they use the English phrase 'business lunch'. You get three courses - salad, soup and main - served up in less than half an hour. There will be a few choices for each course, so for the main you might choose chicken or beef or fish with rice or potatoes. It's speedy, fresh, light and a new-ish Russian institution.

Popular in restaurants in central Moscow and in other city centres

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An engaging city, this one; a real junction for eastern and western Russia. We hit a cold snap in mid-Feburary and it was well below zero, but we had a great combination of snow and bright sun which really suited Ekat (as locals call it).
Main sites include the Church of the Blood, controversial and expensive, very recently built on the site where the Romanov family are thought to have died in July 1918. Walk through the exhibition space into the main interior of the church, which is a very tall open, bright space. It's an eyeful of icons and colour, and depending on the time of day you may hear the chanting of Russian Orthodox priests echoing around the tower.
Walking tours are great as the city is quite compact and full of interesting sites. Wear layers if it's winter! One pair of gloves might not be enough.
Ekaterinburg is a business and travel hub and has a growing number of very good Russian and Japanese restaurants as well as English and Scottish pubs and a microbrewery (with eating place) called Tinkoff.

BA flies direct to Ekaterinburg from London. The airport is 15km from the city centre and has domestic and international terminals, linking Ekat to most major cities across Russia.
Ekaterinburg used to be called Sverdlovsk and sometimes you still see the old name written on signs.

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The memorial site for the Battle of Stalingrad. It's a hill just outside the city and it's probably the eeriest, most moving place I've ever seen. You follow the path up the hill through trees and statues, then through a pantheon with an eternal flame and the inscribed names of 7200 soldiers who died here (only a handful of the total number). At the top is the statue of Mother Russia, 72m tall with an 11m stone sword. It's the immense scale that is so stunning, plus the way it speaks to you about power as well as tragedy. We were all silent by the time we reached the top. I've seen no memorial on that scale anywhere else in Europe. The other thing that struck me is how special the memorial is to the city of Volgograd, because so much of the city was destroyed. Because the statue is so tall, you can see it from many points in the city - if you arrive by train from the east, you can't miss it.

3km north of the city centre
Take the tram to the Mamaev Kurgan stop or a taxi to Mamaev Kurgan
I think there are also guided tours available - the hotels in the centre of Volgograd will have information

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