Page 60 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guide - St. Petersburg

58 ❯❯ The Top 10 of Everything

Russian Restaurants

Literary Café
Idiot
1 4
MAP L3 • Nevskiy prospekt 18
When Idiot first opened,
its vegetarian menu proved an • 312 6057 • Open 11am–11pm Sun–
imme diate hit with the local expat Thu, 11am–1am Fri & Sat • ₽₽
community. It serves meat-free Centrally located, this café is famous
versions of Russian food, from as the place where the national poet
borsch to pelmeni (see p76). Pushkin (see p40) met his love rival
before setting off for the duel in
which he would lose his life. The
café, it must be said, has made the
most of this historical hook, and its
food, while perfectly edible, is not as
memorable as the ideal setting.
Russian Empire
5
Containing four separate dining
rooms, and set in what was once a
part of the Stroganov Palace (see p13),
Russian Empire is a throwback to the
time of the tsars. With 19th-century
armagnacs and delicious food served
Traditional interior of Na Zdorovie! on Versace porcelain plates, this
restaurant offers perhaps the most
Na Zdorovie!
2 extra vagant dining experience in
the whole of Russia (see p76).
MAP B1 • Bolshoy prospekt
13/4 • 232 4039 • Open noon–
Kvartirka
11pm • ₽ 6
Serving fresh, deli cious Russian food MAP E4 • Nevskiy prospekt 51
at reasonable prices, Na Zdorovie! • 315 5561 • Open noon–1am • ₽
(“To your health!”) needs no After a day’s shopping, head to this
gimmicks to recommend it. The kind cosy Soviet-themed café, where
of place where you feel obliged to hearty Russian fare is served with a
down a shot of vodka or two, this rather un-Soviet smile. The café also
res taurant is somewhat out of specializes in a samovar tea service
the way, but worth a visit if you (see p60), which is accompanied by
are in the area. The pan cakes are a mouth watering assortment of
particularly tasty here. There is live Russian pastries and jams.
gypsy and Russian folk
music in the evenings. PETROGRADSKAYA VYBORGSKAYA
STORONA Gorkovskaya STORONA
Russkiy Kitsch
3 BOLSHOY PR KAMENNOOSTROVSK IY PR Most Liteynyy
Most
With its ironic
NAB KUTUZOVA
images of Soviet leaders Sportivnaya KRON VERKSKAYA NAB Troitskiy
and menus bound in the N A B M A K A ROVA Birzhevoy Neva
Most
ideological works of DVORTSOVAYA NAB
Lenin, Russkiy Kitsch VASILEVSKIY Dvortsovyy TSENTRALNYY NAB REKI FONTANKI LITEYNYY PROSPEKT
OSTROV
reduces the one-time Most DVORTSOVAYA RAYON SADOVAYA UL
Soviet “threat” to a PL
surreal dining expe rience. Admiralteyskaya NEVSKIY PROSPEKT Gostinyy Dvor
Mayakovskaya
The food, an eclec tic ANGLIYSKAYA NAB Nevskiy
mix of Russian, Prospekt
European and Asian, 0 km 1 Sadovaya
is very good (see p92). 0 mile 1 Vladimirskaya
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