The best restaurants and bars in Brighton Beach

While the name might not be exactly correct (you can’t technically see the ocean from the restaurant), you are a few blocks from the actual beach at this casual but convivial cafe serving Russian favorites like Ukranian borscht, beef stroganoff and pierogis.

Pastries are the name of the game at the old-school bakery that sits right on the main strip. It’s jam-packed with powdery, oversized cakes, hazelnut meringues, rum balls and glazed brioches filled with rose petal jam.

Start the party early at the boardwalk restaurant and bar with glitzy shows (think Vegas, or cruise ship) and a prix fixe Russian meal that the website dubs “expensive but worth it.” After you’ve filled your belly with chicken liver pâté, beef tongue and plenty of vodka, get up and start grooving with all the other diners on the dance floor.

Located steps from Brighton Beach, this restaurant serves Russian cuisine and a variety of internationally-influenced dishes like beef or chicken stroganoff, herring with potatoes and Ukrainian borscht. Live music on weekends will occassionally inspire diners to get up from their chairs to bust a move.

Uzbeki, Korean and European dishes collide at this casual locale that might be a little less tense than actually dining with your in-laws. For a taste of all the nations, try the oil-laced seaweed salad, meat crepes with sour cream and Russian-style potato salad with bologna.

Specializing in hard-to-find halal cuisine from the Uyghur and Uzbek people, this Brighton Beach spot is one of the only places in New York to find elusive lagman noodles. The dish, influenced by both Chinese and Uzbeki cuisine, is a rich stew of lamb broth and meat, potatoes, vegetables and long, chewy noodles. Wash it all down with a fizzy Borjomi, a popular brand of Georgian mineral water.

Decked out in exposed brick walls, warm lighting and stained-glass doors, this restaurant almost feels like a Georgian castle instead of a beachside restaurant. Listen to live music while you nosh on authentic Georgian fare.