4 Best Restaurants in Side Trips from St. Petersburg, Russia

This charming little restaurant is on the second floor of an old redbrick pavilion across the lake from the Catherine Palace. Its nostalgic interiors are furnished with antique furniture and a number of partially enclosed seating areas that give you some isolation for a private dinner. The kitchen specializes in European and excellent Russian cuisine. For a genuine Russian dish, go for fish such as baked sturgeon or sterlet, which was very popular at the tsars' tables. You can also try traditional Russian homemade pelmeni, dumplings with various fillings, or different kinds of kotleta, a stuffed and breaded meat dish (also known as Kiev).

The best option on the grounds of the palace itself is in the palace's old oranzhereya, or garden house. A comfortable, quaint spot for a snack and cup of tea, it also serves prix-fixe Continental meals with various kinds of fish and meat, including venison and duck courses, or traditional Russian options such as borscht (beet soup) or solyanka (slightly spicy meat soup with pickles). The restaurant is open from 10 to 6 from May to October.

The former servants' quarters inside Pavlovsk Palace offer cafeteria-style and full-menu service. The European offerings include different kinds of salads and well-prepared trout and pike perch. If you want to go Russian, you can order traditional national dishes, such as pancakes with caviar, or fish or meat in aspic. The savory pies are delicious. You can also order picnic items to eat on the palace's extensive grounds.

This is one of St. Petersburg's most popular restaurants for traditional Russian food, and it's best to make a reservation. Past guests at this wooden restaurant built in the terem (folk or fairy tale) style include the former presidents of France and Russia as well as luminaries of Hollywood and fashion, including Michael Douglas and Georgio Armani. Inside, a stuffed bear greets you with samples of vodka. Traditional Russian fare includes pickled garlic and mushrooms, excellent sturgeon dishes, and cutlets of wild boar, bear, or elk. Among the less expensive mains are pelmeni and golubtsy (a mixture of rice and meat wrapped in cabbage or grape leaves). Drinks to try are kvas (a sweet, lightly fermented drink made from bread or grains) and mors (a sour-sweet cranberry juice). The delicious kids' menu has all kinds of pancakes and dozens of different jams—most of them are made of berries that grow at the restaurant owner's dacha in the Crimea Peninsula of Ukraine.