Korona Altaya

This is a review of their restaurant only - the one 'bout the hotel's coming (and it'll be quite positive). Me and three of my friends dined at that place in September. Having checked in we were just lazy to go anywhere else - and made a huge mistake. The restaurant was situated on a nice open-air terrace with magnificent views of the Katun' river, mountains and taiga. It'd just stopped raining and our waitress Anna diligently wiped our table dry - but not chairs. We ordered Lactarius Resimus pickled in salt (edible mushrooms - a delicacy in Russia and especially in Siberia), a goulash soup with Altai wapiti heart (local specialty), pasta carbonara, three 0.5 l Heinekens, three 0.5 l Černovar Černés (dark Czech beer) plus some lemonade and bread. Our Heinekens arrived in no time but were tasteless, warm and without foam. That was the reason we took Czech brew instead. Goulash was cool - I mean not awesome or groovy but of room's temperature - while carbonara appeared forty-five minutes later, also slightly warm. I asked Anna what her hubby would do with her if she prepared pasta for him for forty-five minutes. She proudly answered that she was single. A lucky babe! Buffet breakfasts were mediocre as well. They did not serve free juices, for example, and no plain yoghurt at all. Teaspoons were also missing. When I asked one of the waiters (Anton) to bring some he answered with an acid grin that everything had been taken (read stolen) by guests. What scoundrels! In a nutshell, Korona Altaya is a place to stay at but not at all to eat. Keep in mind!