12 Chairs Restaurant

Established over 20 years ago, 12 Chairs Restaurant & Cafe was originally known as Russia European Restaurant servicing mainly Russian speaking community offering homemade quality Russian and Eastern European famous dishes.

The name “12 Chairs” comes from a classic satirical novel by the Odessan Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov, released in 1928, where a former member of the nobility learns that his family jewellery had been hidden from the Bolsheviks in one of the twelve chairs from the family’s dining room set. Those chairs, along with all other personal property, had been expropriated by the government after the Russian Revolution. He becomes a treasure hunter, with a con-man Ostap Bender partners him as he does not possess Bender’s charm and is not as street-smart. They set off to track down the chairs. The two “comrades” find the chair set which is put up for auction, but fail to buy it and afterwards find out that the set has been split up and sold individually. Through the process of elimination, the two finally discover the location of the 12th and last chair, the one hopefully containing the treasure. To avoid splitting the loot, he murders Ostap. He then discovers that the jewels have already been found and that they have been spent on erecting a new public building, and as a result goes insane.

Today, 12 Chairs Restaurant & Cafe became an iconic restaurant for many in Russian and Polish communities as rather than simply serving meals, we offer an unforgettable experience, especially on Saturday nights with live music and other entertainment. We cater to the needs of the people from all walks of life. We offer authentic and traditional Russian, Polish and Eastern European dishes to our customers. With 2 function rooms fully equipped with the latest Audio Visual equipment, we can cater for many private and corporate functions. Our understanding of clientele and flexibility are what makes us unique and appealing to many customers.

Recently, we introduced a new menu to our family oriented restaurant. We started serving traditional and authentic Israeli and Middle Eastern dishes from Tuesday to Friday from lunch and dinner. All our dishes are prepared by professional chefs from Israel. Our signature dishes are lamb shashlyk which is cooked to perfection and melts in your mouth, chicken schnitzel which is generously served with Israeli salad and hummus, and in-house made falafel. Since the introduction of the Israeli and Middle Eastern menu, 12 Chairs Restaurant has already earned lots of credits with locals.

12 Chairs Restaurant & Cafe is conveniently located in the heart of Caulfield, not far from Caulfield Park and public transport.