Has anyone ever eaten at a St. Petersburg restaurant called Rzvesky? We are taking a tour w/Red October and they recommended it for dinner. Thanks!

The place is called Porutchik Rzhevsky - it is more like a cafe. I wouldn't say it's the best place for a dinner during a short stay in St. Petersburg, there are definitely better options.

So what would the better options be and how expensive?

There are a LOT of restaurants in Saint Petersburg- what types of foods are you interested in?

I always recommend to visitors that they try a good Georgian restaurant- the food is delicious, and under-represented in the US.

I am not really a "foodie", but do like good food. But I'm not into paying a lot of money for it. Prefer restaurants where locals eat,altho I imagine the locals in Russia don't eat out much, perhaps I'm wrong. It would be great to have a main course for the equivalent of $10 or less, but perhaps that is just not realistic.

How much is a Coke in a restaurant? How much is a beer? a glass of the house wine?

We will be in both St. Petersburg and Moscow and I hear Moscow is particularly expensive.

Georgian food sounds interesting, so if you have a specific restaurant to suggest, I would be happy to hear about it -- also approximate location would be helpful.

What about street food? Safe? Good?

I can't generalize as to the dining out habits of people outside of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, as this is where I have spent most of my "Russian" time.

I can tell you, though, that my Russian friends eat out - a lot- they love dining out, trying new places, and really enjoying the company of friends while eating. My friends are fairly successful young adults, and I know for example that their parents don't eat out as much.

Moscow and Piter are chock full of cafes these days- you can plan on light meals, snacks, good coffee and teas, even some fresh fruit smoothies in these places, for not too much money.

I just tried to pull open menu.ru in English- I can tell you that it gives great, specific information in Russian but I can't quite get it to do the same in English (there is a button that is supposed to transfer the site to English).

I'm a vegetarian, and one of my favorite Saint Petersburg places is the "Idiot" bar and restaurant- it isn't too expensive, lots of veg choices.

I also like Tinkoff- its a brew pub, and they have a nice menu with some good sushi. Anywhere near Nevski Prospekt you can get a good meal.

In Moscow, my favorite Georgian place is Mama Zoya's (metro Frunzenskaya).


A good, not fancy but decent option is MuMu- you will see them throughout Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Very inexpensive, cafeteria-style- real Russian food. Yolki Palki is another good, inexpensive chain.

Prices for sodas, wines, beers differ greatly between places- in some places you can get a Coke for 1.50, others closer to 6.00.

I would HIGHLY recommend the ice cream available (pre packaged) at the street vendors. Russian ice cream is rich and inexpensive. There are many little kiosk chains which are fine- with hot dogs and blini, etc... the chances of someone there speaking English are slim though!

Let me know if I can help with anything else...

Thanks, Katya, for this great reply. I'm printing it out NOW!

Sadko restaurant at the Grand Hotel Europe St Petersburg has a lunch buffet at a reasonable price, you can have the chance to try Russian food amongst other choices. Demidov is also a good Georgian restaurant also in St Petersburg, not too expensive.

In Moscow, the choices are also numerous. In addition to the ones already suggested, I recommend Noah's Ark (Armenian restaurant)-U Pirosmani - Georgian restaurant with great views of Novodevichy, Shesh-Besh which is a better version of Yolki Palki (and there's nothing wrong with Yolki Palki) and is cooking from the Caucasus (eg grilled lamb/chicken over charcoal served on lavash type flatbread with relishes) they have a good salad bar and is very reasonable, this is a chain restaurant so you will find over Moscow, lastly Starlite Diner, open 24hours and they serve very good burgers etc, popular with expats, very reasonably priced, been in Moscow for quite a few years.

It's a personal choice of course but for reasons of hygiene, I would not recommend eating from street vendors, especially diary and meat products, unless standards have increased in the last few years.

Are you including the ice cream that Katya mentions above in your suggestion to not eat street food?