51 Best Restaurants in St. Petersburg, Russia

The kosher cuisine, served in the spacious basement of St. Petersburg's Great Choral Synagogue, is as popular with a nonreligious crowd as it is with dietary adherents. Such favorites as chicken schnitzel and trout fillet wrapped in grape leaves are served in generous portions and at very reasonable prices. Keep in mind that the restaurant can be difficult to find, since the doorway is discreetly marked, and is often booked for weddings and other events that take place in the synagogue, so call ahead.

Settle into one of the plush booths to enjoy simple Italian fare in friendly and comfortable surroundings. The pastas and pizzas are authentically delicious, as are the more ambitious meat and fish choices. A 15 percent discount for weekday dining between noon and 5 pm makes a meal here, reasonably priced at any time, a real bargain.

An unpretentious dining room decorated with Italian knickknacks and bare wooden tables is a good choice for an inexpensive lunch or post-theater dinner of pasta and salad (it's open until midnight). For an Italian shopping experience, stop at the retail counter to stock up on imported cheeses, cold meats, and coffees.

The city's most authentic Thai cuisine is served in modern black-and-white surroundings with a glass-enclosed terrace on the street that's great for people watching. You can follow up a meal of spring rolls and Bangkok duck with another authentically Thai experience—the building houses a well-known massage spa of the same name.

In summer this dinner cruise has stunning views as it sails along the Neva River, past the rows of colorful palaces lining the banks. The New Island sets sail promptly at 2, 6, 8, and 10:30 pm for 90-minute cruises. Inside, all is simple but refined, as is the menu. The Kamchatka crab salad makes an excellent starter, and is nicely followed with the veal Orloff with baked potatoes and dill or the fried fillet of trout with almonds. The wine list is extensive but pricey.

A legendary restaurant of the same name was established on this spot in 1785. The formal and elegant interior evokes those bygone days, though the present incarnation has become a bit worn around the edges since its Yeltsin-era heyday. You'll still feast like an aristocrat, on such dishes as chicken with morel sauce, venison with pine-nut marmalade, fillet of turbot served with pistachio nuts and curry sauce, and a salad of smoked salmon with fresh oysters and beluga caviar. It's worth a visit for the window seats alone, which look out onto bustling Nevsky prospekt.

A glass of kompot, an infusion of stewed fruit, is served as a welcome drink at this funky café where two dining rooms are furnished with vintage lamps, surrealist paintings, and bizarre curio items. The menu focuses on light fare—hummus, falafels, curries, and sandwiches—and breakfast is available at any hour. On weekdays between noon and 4 pm, you get two meals for the price of one.

The extensive menu includes blini (pancakes) with caviar, homemade pelmeni (meat dumplings), borscht, and vareniki (a Ukrainian dish—dumplings filled with all kinds of stuffing, such as cabbage, cherries, and mushrooms). The name is both a play on Pushkin's name and the Russian word for cannon—which explains the military-theme paintings and the miniature cannon near the entrance.

Discreet and genteel, this spacious one-room venue could come straight out of one of Chekhov's stories and is the perfect place to try various vodkas and home-brewed liqueurs. Alcoholic sampling requires sustenance, and a menu offers many traditional choices, with an emphasis on fish dishes. A starter group platter features four types of smoked fish—including omul (cisco, a kind of whitefish) from Lake Baikal and sig, a whitefish from Russia's far east. A memorable main course is fried pike-perch from Lake Ladoga, served with mashed potatoes.

The gimmick at "Russian Fishing" is that you catch your own dinner. It's set in a charming wooden house overlooking a lake full of trout and beluga sturgeon. Tackle, bait, and expert advice are provided, and your catch is prepared before you on the grill. The place even operates during winter when the lake is frozen solid—the restaurant breaks up the ice so sections are still fishable. There are several other options on the menu as well, including a baked eggplant dish that is memorable.

Ruby red chandeliers and modern interpretations of Russian folkloric motifs provide a perfect prelude to a night at the nearby Marrinsky Theatre. The menu, however, is as down to earth as the surroundings are fanciful, focusing on such popular Russian classics as borscht, breaded veal cutlets, and beef Stroganoff. The wine list is particularly well chosen.

What was for many years the best restaurant in St. Petersburg has been surpassed in recent years, but with open brickwork walls, ornate decor, and immaculately presented tables, the "Old Customs House" still puts on a good show for a memorable night on the town. Meals are exquisitely prepared, with such choices as duck breast, accompanied by pan-fried foie gras with white beans and black truffle, and black-cod fillet on a cushion of saffron and fennel that show just how sophisticated Russian cuisine can be. The wine list is excellent, and the service is friendly as well as top-notch.

This casual eatery combines the best of the old and new: the fashionable surroundings are comfortable, clean, and spacious, while the kitchen turns out an old favorite—fresh-baked traditional pies. Choose from sweet or savory fillings that make the most of seasonal fruit, beef, salmon, cabbage, mushrooms, and rabbit. The salmon is a dream, and the apricot is a suitable follow-up, but all the choices are extremely good. If you have a hard time finding a seat at this popular spot, try the branch just down the street at number 33.

Waiters dressed in traditional costumes and soft embroidered shoes move soundlessly in this comfortable and quiet little place across the street from St. Isaac's Cathedral. Reliable Indian classics such as those served here were hard to find in St. Petersburg before the downfall of the USSR. A generous business lunch is an especially good deal and includes a vegetarian option.

A lot of thought was put into creating this busy and authentic Georgian restaurant, which evokes the atmosphere of old Tbilisi, the capital of Russia's southern neighbor. There may be political tensions between the nations these days, but Russians' love affair with Georgian cuisine, from lobio (bean salad) and grilled meat and fish shashlyks (shish kebabs) to lavash (flat bread) and khatchapuri (cheese-filled bread), remains passionate. Tbiliso satisfies this appetite and then some, with servers in national costume and a Georgian choir to serenade diners. If you visit only one Georgian restaurant in St. Petersburg, make it this one.

The name means "warmth" in Russian and this popular spot does indeed make guests feel warm all over, with a country house atmosphere (a fire blazes and the main dining room is lined with bookshelves) and menu laden with cozy, expertly made classics, such as marinated beets, salted herring, meat pies, and borscht. The signature dish is a warm salad of juicy chicken livers and crispy strips of bacon surrounded by salad leaves, cherry tomatoes, and herby croutons. The three-course-plus-a-drink business lunch is an excellent value, and accordingly popular.

Don't be put off by the spartan setting: the owners penny-pinch only on furnishings and presentation. Cooked in front of your eyes, their famous blinis are deservedly considered to be the best in town. Stuffed with mushrooms, ham, pork, grilled chicken, cream, honey, and a dozen other fillings, they're rich in flavor and never over- or underdone, always tasting just as your Russian mom might have made them. A single blini is so rich and hefty that it may leave you stuffed, so be conservative when you order. Teremok also operates a chain of 137 venues, including 41 street stands.

At the spacious branch of this famed blini chain, the signature dish is cooked right in front of you. New flavors arrive every few months, and other Russian dishes, such as pelmeni and a choice of soups, are also available.

This tiny café (just six tables) is hugely popular with the local Italian community, who reserve well in advance for weekends and evenings. The draw is the best Italian sorbet and gelato in St. Petersburg, with 20 different flavors that rotate every day. The chocolate gelato—bittersweet, smooth, and dizzyingly rich—is renowned. Soups, pastas, and snacks are also served.

Feta cheese delivered directly from Greece transports you directly to sunnier climes, as does much else about this stone and terra-cotta dining room that seems like the banquet hall of an Italian villa. Assorted souvlaki provide a taste of the Greek isles, while spaghetti carbonara and juicy steaks coud emerge from a trattoria kitchen in Florence. The servers are also international, and multilingual, and live folk music from many countries plays on most nights.

The lamb, herbs, and other ingredients here are laudably fresh, and flown in several times a week from Baku, Azerbaijan. It is easy to get lost in the long menu, but much harder to be disappointed in your choice. Juicy kebabs, chops, and khatchapuri (cheese bread) are served in vast portions—a bowl of soup is a meal in itself. Not as appetizing is the music blaring in the three dining rooms, decorated with oriental carpets, pillows, and pottery.