2 Best Restaurants in City Center, St. Petersburg

Behind an unassuming facade down a quiet side street off Nevsky prospekt is this warm and comforting room that might transport you to Italy or the South of France, as will the cuisine. Updated versions of classic Mediterranean dishes include some inventive, simply prepared fish dishes, such as tuna with pesto and scallops with figs. The menu varies, as the chef selects from what's freshest at the market.

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.