Vladimir eats like a merchant town: a Soviet blini counter that never closed, an 1855 terraced garden growing the Vladimirskaya cherry, Opolye dairy from the black-earth fields north of the city, and gingerbread pressed in carved wooden boards. Three days, twelve tables.
Vladimir's working market: two floors of Opolye dairy and tvorog, salted milk-cap mushrooms in jars, buckwheat honey from Suzdal apiaries, and Vladimirsky Standart smoked sausage cut to order. Open daily 08:00-18:00.
A legendary self-service pancake canteen that has fed Vladimir since Soviet times. Thin blini come with tvorog, minced meat, apple or condensed milk, ordered at a tiled counter and eaten standing at high tables with a glass of kompot.
A small private museum where printed pryanik is pressed in carved pear-wood boards. The visit ends with tea from a samovar and a tasting of honey, mint and cherry gingerbread; you can stamp and take home your own board-printed pryanik.
Terraced hillside garden laid out in the 1850s on a south-facing slope, the historic home of the Vladimirskaya cherry that once supplied Moscow. Cherry trees, apple varieties and a bronze cherry monument; the kiosk sells cherry jam and nalivka.
The city's best-known breakfast room, on the main street a few steps from the Golden Gate. Syrniki with local smetana, buckwheat porridge, salmon on rye and properly pulled espresso; breakfast is served until 12:00 every day.
Russian merchant-house cooking in a 19th-century building: solyanka in a clay pot, pelmeni with beef and pork, duck with baked apples and Vladimir cherry sauce. The business lunch runs on weekdays from 12:00 to 16:00.
A terrace dining room above the Klyazma escarpment where the food is built around the river valley view: pike-perch from the Klyazma, forest-mushroom julienne, and a cherry tart with the local vishnya. Reservations are worth making.
A folk-tale themed Russian tavern with carved wood, painted stoves and full-size fairy-tale figures. The menu is old-Russian: mushroom soup in a bread bowl, buckwheat with liver, pickled vegetables, mors and cherry nalivka by the carafe.
The bakery chain born in Vladimir Oblast and still baked on site through the morning. Rye and Borodinsky loaves, cabbage and apple pirozhki, poppy rolls and slices of honey cake, all sold by weight from open trays from 07:00.
Vladimir's cobbled pedestrian street, lined with kvas barrels in summer, cheburek and pirozhok windows, a chocolate workshop and an ice cream kiosk. Buskers, craft stalls and benches with a drop-away view over the Klyazma valley.
The flagship counter of the Vladimir Oblast meat producer that supplies half the region: cold-smoked servelat, dry-cured sausage sticks, pork rulet and jellied meat, all cut and vacuum-packed for the train back to Moscow.
The city's busiest gastropub: twenty-odd taps that mix Russian craft brewers with Suzdal medovukha, plus burgers, smoked ribs and pickle plates. Live music several nights a week and a kitchen that runs late into the evening.