8 Best Restaurants in City Center, St. Petersburg

At this soothing place to take a break with a good view of Nevsky prospekt, you can enjoy coffee, ice cream, and scrumptious cakes, or a whole range of traditional Russian and European dishes. Out of the Russian menu try borscht (beetroot soup) with sour cream or pickled herring and mushrooms. In summer Abrikosov offers an open terrace.

Starbucks clones have sprung up on almost every corner in St. Petersburg, and many belong to the Coffeehouse chain. At any you can grab a good and inexpensive lunch with soup, salad, and coffee or tea, and a full range of reasonably well-made coffee drink is available.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.