Features

St Petersburg: Imperial dining

30 Mar 2015 by GrahamSmith
Marc Bennetts samples the delights of Russia’s second city – from posh pancakes to horseradish vodka When eating out in St Petersburg, you are guaranteed a picturesque walk to your meal. From traditional Russian cuisine in the impressive historical centre to cosy canal-side eateries, the evocative Tsarist-era architecture only adds to the occasion. The rouble’s recent collapse now means even the city’s most luxurious restaurants are also suddenly a lot more affordable. Here are five places to visit. PALKIN Founded in 1785, this sumptuously decorated restaurant on Nevsky Prospekt has seen some famous visitors over the years, including the writers Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Nikolai Gogol. Frequented by a mixture of business people, wealthy locals and tourists from the nearby top-end hotels, Palkin serves high-quality, “Imperial” Russian food. Unusual fish dishes include Karelian trout poached in champagne and lemon (1,690 roubles/£18) and black cod with beetroot risotto and scallops (1,200 roubles/£13). To really splash out, try the black caviar and wheat pancakes (6,840 roubles/£71). Open 12pm-11.30pm daily. 47 Nevsky Prospekt; tel +7 812 703 5371; palkin.ru BAKLAZHAN Baklazhan serves good-quality, good-value food from across Central Asia and the Caucasus region. Located on the first floor of a busy shopping centre, a short walk from Nevsky Prospekt, the specialties in this bright and friendly restaurant include aubergine-based salads (baklazhan means “aubergine” in Russian) and Georgian food. Try the lobio (fried red beans with herbs and spices – 369 roubles/£4) or the adjarian khachapuri, a steaming hot cheese pastry with a raw egg in the middle (449 roubles/£5). The latter Georgian delicacy is a lot tastier than it sounds. Open 10am-11pm daily. 30 Ligovsky Prospekt; tel +7 812 677 7372; en.ginza.ru/spb/restaurant/baklajan GOGOL St Petersburg is justifiably proud of its literary traditions, and the Gogol restaurant, just off Nevsky Prospekt, seeks to recreate the atmosphere of a 19th-century writer’s apartment, as well as his dining habits. Consisting of a number of tasteful rooms, Gogol serves some great traditional Russian dishes, from freshly salted fillet of wild Siberian whitefish served with a shot of horseradish vodka (420 roubles/£4) to chicken Kiev stuffed with foie gras, nuts and herbs (690 roubles/£7). Gogol is popular both with tourists looking to get off the beaten trail and well-off locals. Open daily 11am-11pm (12am Fri-Sat). 8 Malaya Morskaya Street; tel +7 812 312 6097; eng.restaurant-gogol.ru IDIOT Named after the novel by Dostoyevsky, the Idiot restaurant has remained popular since opening in 1997. It serves tasty, good-value traditional Russian food, with plenty of meat-free options, including ukha (fish soup – 320 roubles/£3) and pelmeni (dumplings with mushrooms – 390 roubles/£4). Overflowing book shelves and working gramophones add to the atmosphere. A favourite with the city’s artists and intellectuals, and a good place to meet English speakers, it’s within walking distance of St Isaac’s Cathedral and the State Hermitage Museum. Open 11pm-1am daily. 82 Naberezhnaya Reki Moyki; tel +7 812 315 1675; idiot-spb.com TANDOOR If you are seized by the need for a quality curry while in St Petersburg, don’t despair. Tandoor, founded in the late 1990s, is a veteran of the city’s restaurant scene and offers tasty, well-priced Indian food in an elegant setting just around the corner from the Hermitage. Bengali fish curry (600 roubles/£6) and rogan josh (700 roubles/£7) are among the menu’s many highlights. One word of warning – Tandoor’s curries are made mild for Russian taste buds, which are largely unaccustomed to the delights of Indian cooking. So if you want your curry spicy, let the friendly staff know. Open 11am-12am (1am at weekends). 10 Admiralteysky Prospect; tel +7 812 312 3886; tandoor-spb.ru
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