15 Best Restaurants in St. Petersburg, Russia

Dining alcoves that line the mezzanine of a former redbrick textile factory on the Neva are an atmospheric setting for a meal of inspired cuisine accompanied by mellow jazz and lounge music. Portions of expertly prepared sushi and other Asian delights are big enough to share and the cocktails are perfectly calibrated.

The breathtaking surroundings—there's an art-nouveau stained-glass roof, shining parquet floors, and private balconies—are fit for a tsar, as are the prices. The mouthwatering menu includes some dishes inspired by authentic royal recipes, among them beef filet with a bacon and mustard champagne sauce. The chef's tasting menu gets off to a memorable start with a pair of eggshells filled with truffle flavored scrambled egg topped with Osetra caviar. Reserve well ahead, especially in summer.

A refined restaurant with prerevolutionary flair has a tantalizing menu based on a famous 19th-century cookbook, A Gift to Young Housewives, by Yelena Molokhovets. Cooking is elaborate and highly traditional here, along the lines of baked venison fillet in lingonberry and juniper sauce, pan-fried foie gras with orange-flovored brioche, or Astrakhan sturgeon braised in champagne. Waiters show deference to the guests, serving them in a pleasantly ceremonial, but not genuine, manner. With only six tables, this dining experience is as intimate as it is expensive.

Michelin-starred chef Alain Ducasse's Russian outpost has shaken up the city's dining scene with its haute-cuisine interpretation of French classics. Using the best and freshest local produce—as well as specialty items flown in from abroad—the kitchen prepares satisfying and deceptively straightforward variations of such classics as oven-baked duck breast and seared beef fillet. Like the menu, the dining room manages to be ultra-fashionable while staying relaxed and comfortable at the same time.

Inside an opulent mansion connected to the Taleon Imperial Hotel you'll find the usual array of fun for the bodyguard-protected high-society set (cigars and cognac are much in evidence) in a glittering setting, with marble fireplaces and gilded ceilings. The menu is laden with hearty Russian classics with European inspiration, including caviar, consommé with fois gras ravioli, and sea bass with truffle risotto.

This large, bustling, and brightly lit dining room where oil paintings commemorate various Romanovs seems to be lifted right off the pages of War and Peace, and the dining experience is truly royal. A meal might begin with the classic Russian appetizer of layers of herring enclosing a beet vinaigrette and move on to beef Stroganoff or a Pozharskaya cutlet, served with sizzling hot potatoes, made in a copper pan. Despite the grandeur, the atmosphere is pleasantly relaxed and the service is anything but intimidating.

The name evokes the last days of Imperial Russia, and the era is celebrated in low-key, comfortably elegant surroundings where a menu offers a huge selection of Russian favorites served in huge portions. The emphasis is on game and fish; an excellent and traditional meal might begin with mushroom soup or borscht, followed by sturgeon or salmon.

A meal atop the Kempinski Hotel is literally head and shoulders above any other dining experience in St. Petersburg, thanks to a breathtaking, 360-degree panorama. The menu fuses French classics with traditional Russian classics, such as beef Stroganoff. For dessert, there's the coupe Romanoff, an artfully presented concoction of strawberries, vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream. Bellevue welcomes those who just want to stop in for coffee or a drink and take in a view that includes the golden spire of the Admiralty, the top of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, the roof of the Hermitage, and the dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral.

You can enjoy a pot of tea or a glass of champagne, served with bowls of strawberries, in this lovely mezzanine café. You can also order unique chocolates made at the hotel's own factory. Take a peek at the art-nouveau lobby, furnished with stained-glass windows and antique furnishings.

One of the city's few Armenian restaurants is calm and simply decorated, and nicely located along a quiet stretch of the Fontanka around the corner from the Alexandrinsky Theatre. Every element of the dining experience—from the food to the table linens—has been lovingly crafted: the kufta (stone-ground veal sirloin) and stuffed quail are authentic and delicious. Every night, except Sunday, live folk music adds to the atmosphere.

Politicians, businesspeople, and television personalities are regulars at one of the city's busiest and most fashionable venues, where the two large, charmingly cluttered dining rooms are almost always packed. Whether it's a straightforward lasagna or more elegant fare, such as risotto with cuttlefish ink, everything the Italian chef sends out of the kitchen is delicious. The wine list is extensive.

Wine lovers can choose from a huge list of French and Italian vintages, then select a bottle from the adjacent shop. Or, they can settle into the sleek and fashionably eclectic surroundings for an inventive and flavorful meal in which duck with rosemary and honey might be accompanied by black rice with a cappuccino of Mediterranean herbs and an extremely elegant take on borscht.

A legendary restaurant of the same name was established on this spot in 1785. The formal and elegant interior evokes those bygone days, though the present incarnation has become a bit worn around the edges since its Yeltsin-era heyday. You'll still feast like an aristocrat, on such dishes as chicken with morel sauce, venison with pine-nut marmalade, fillet of turbot served with pistachio nuts and curry sauce, and a salad of smoked salmon with fresh oysters and beluga caviar. It's worth a visit for the window seats alone, which look out onto bustling Nevsky prospekt.

Discreet and genteel, this spacious one-room venue could come straight out of one of Chekhov's stories and is the perfect place to try various vodkas and home-brewed liqueurs. Alcoholic sampling requires sustenance, and a menu offers many traditional choices, with an emphasis on fish dishes. A starter group platter features four types of smoked fish—including omul (cisco, a kind of whitefish) from Lake Baikal and sig, a whitefish from Russia's far east. A memorable main course is fried pike-perch from Lake Ladoga, served with mashed potatoes.

What was for many years the best restaurant in St. Petersburg has been surpassed in recent years, but with open brickwork walls, ornate decor, and immaculately presented tables, the "Old Customs House" still puts on a good show for a memorable night on the town. Meals are exquisitely prepared, with such choices as duck breast, accompanied by pan-fried foie gras with white beans and black truffle, and black-cod fillet on a cushion of saffron and fennel that show just how sophisticated Russian cuisine can be. The wine list is excellent, and the service is friendly as well as top-notch.