Moscow’s sweeping sanctions on European food have sent Russian restaurateurs, retail chains and food producers scrambling for alternative supplies and bracing for Soviet-style shortages.

The tit for tat trade restrictions – a response to US and EU sanctions imposed over Russia’s actions in Ukraine – have hurt farmers in the West for whom Russia is by far the biggest buyer of EU produce. But they will also hit consumers at home, isolating them from world trade to a degree unseen for more than two decades.

Creamy French cheeses, Australian ribeye steak and seafood risottos are heading off the menu at restaurants after the ban of all fish, meat and dairy imports.

“Prices will go up and certain food stuff will disappear,” said Alexei Paperny, whose mid-priced Moscow cafe the Children of Paradise – named after a classic French film – was still packed on Friday evening.

“We’ll do our best to survive... I can’t imagine how some restaurants and cafes can exist under the circumstances.”

He described the year-long ban on products from the US, the EU, Canada, Australia and Norway as “Russian sanctions against Russians” – a frustration shared by many customers at his cafe.

“It would have been fairer if state officials gave up their Mercedes and began driving Russian-made Zhigulis (Ladas),” said a diner who gave his name as Yan, while sipping red wine.

Wealthy with petrodollars while the country’s energy reserves drove a strong economy, Russians have enjoyed a rich choice of eateries since the 1991 Soviet collapse – and ate out with the gusto of a generation that still remembered times when shop windows were bare and the streets were empty after sundown.

Sushi is particularly popular, ubiquitous across the country and even gracing the menu of Italian and French restaurants.

But it’s a fetish some might now have to do without.

For one manager of a chain of Sushi stands the potential impact was more direct.

“We are all worried. We don’t want to lose our jobs,” he said, asking not to be cited for fear of official retaliation over his criticism. “There is no Russian salmon.”