Dinner in St. Petersburg

[CruisingAlong4Now]

On Jewel of the Seas in June 2021. Will be utilizing private tours in St. Petersburg with family. Thanks to everyone for their wonderful recommendations and reviews of tour companies. 

Separately, I am interested in a special adult dinner in St. Petersburg. Looking for Michelin star quality restaurant in which to dine and also how to facilitate any visa issues associated with evening dining.

Any insight?

[dogs4fun]

57 minutes ago, CruisingAlong4Now said:

On Jewel of the Seas in June 2021. Will be utilizing private tours in St. Petersburg with family. Thanks to everyone for their wonderful recommendations and reviews of tour companies. 

Separately, I am interested in a special adult dinner in St. Petersburg. Looking for Michelin star quality restaurant in which to dine and also how to facilitate any visa issues associated with evening dining.

Any insight?

As I suspect you are already aware, St. Petersburg has no Michelin star restaurants. That does not mean that there aren't excellent restaurants in the city. In what type of cuisine are you interested?

Each member of your group will require a Russian Visa in order to visit a Russian restaurant in the evening DIY (on your own)

OR

you can book a private free content evening with a local company (they will provide the ticket that will allow immigration clearance) and the tour company can make the reservations for you.

For a fine dining experience, we have enjoyed L'Europe. This restaurant is located in the Grand Hotel Europe, offers French & European haute cuisine and boasts a gorgeous Art Nouveau interior. The menu changes regularly but, should you be interested, I have attached the current menu & link to the website.

https://www.belmond.com/hotels/europe/russia/st-petersburg/belmond-grand-hotel-europe/leurope-restaurant

opet_europe_menu.pdf

Edited January 18, 2020 by dogs4fun

[John Bull]

Your independent tour operator can advise on restaurants, and make the booking and transport arrangements - if you book the transport thro them you will not need a visa.

If they do the same as Alla Tours, you'll be collected from the ship (or a hand-over in the city if time's too tight for a return to the ship after the day tour) and taken to the restaurant. Doubtless they'll settle you in & hopefully help with the menu if necessary. Then they'll leave you alone, and return to collect you at a pre-arranged time. 

If the tour operator collects you at the port for the evening, they will doubtless provide you with a suitably-timed tour ticket for the evening to get you thro immigration. If you don't go back to the ship after the day tour you presumably won't need a separate tour ticket.

 

A few things....

- tour operators generally won't accept bookings for just an evening. So you'll probably have to use the one with whom you book the day, altho that kinda makes sense anyway. 

- check whether the restaurant accepts plastic or foreign currency (probably yes to plastic although many low-brow eateries don't, probably no to foreign cash)

- check whether the route back to the ship takes you past the floodlit bridges on the River Neva. If it doesn't, mebbe ask if the driver could go that way.

 

JB 

[CruisingAlong4Now]

thanks for the replies.  I am now convinced it is doable.  it's a long way off, but it gives me something to do whilst waiting.

 

BTW, when I combine your screen names, it looks like an answer from the TV show Jeopardy:  John Bull Dogs4fun. (Hope you both have a sense of humor.)

[dogs4fun]

10 hours ago, CruisingAlong4Now said:

BTW, when I combine your screen names, it looks like an answer from the TV show Jeopardy:  John Bull Dogs4fun. (Hope you both have a sense of humor.)

Bull-dog? Well, as you are obviously aware  ... John Bull doesn't actually exist, kinda like our dear old Uncle Sam. If he was a real person, even tho JB supposedly likes dogs (especially of the Bull variety), I suspect that dogs4fun would be more closely associated with his sister, Peg. 😉

Edited January 19, 2020 by dogs4fun

[John Bull]

9 hours ago, dogs4fun said:

Bull-dog? Well, as you are obviously aware  ... John Bull doesn't actually exist, kinda like our dear old Uncle Sam. If he was a real person, even tho JB supposedly likes dogs (especially of the Bull variety), I suspect that dogs4fun would be more closely associated with his sister, Peg. 😉

 

John Bull doesn't exist????

As Descartes wrote, "je pense, donc je suis"

And if I don't exist, why do you refer to my dear sister Peg?  Gotcha there 

 

BTW, Peg isn't married to son of Sam.

He's your Uncle Sam, not mine. 

 

My dog, Faithful, appears to be out-numbered 4 to 1,

but he's a fearless bulldog so I cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war.

 

JB   

Edited January 19, 2020 by John Bull

[dogs4fun]

11 minutes ago, John Bull said:

As Descartes wrote, "je pense, donc je suis"

Or the Moody Blues ... "je pense, donc je suis, je pense" 

16 minutes ago, John Bull said:

but I cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war.

Good grief -  Shakespeare (I think)? I acquiesce to your superior knowledge of all things English. 😎

 

[John Bull]

1 hour ago, dogs4fun said:

 

Good grief -  Shakespeare (I think)? I acquiesce to your superior knowledge of all things English. 😎

 

 

Mark Anthony, in The Bard's "Julius Caesar",  Act111, scene 1

 

JB 

[CrazyJess]

On 1/18/2020 at 3:48 PM, CruisingAlong4Now said:

I am interested in a special adult dinner in St. Petersburg. Looking for Michelin star quality restaurant in which to dine

 

As dogs4fun mentioned St. Petersburg doesn't have any Michelin star restaurants, still they have good restaurants. You can check this link https://en.ginza.ru/spb All these restaurants belong to one group - Ginza group. The restaurants are different - different cuisine, different price level. But simple fact that a restaurant belongs to Ginza gives quality guarantee. We've been to one of these restaurant Gastronomika https://en.ginza.ru/spb/restaurant/gastronomika. We loved it a lot. Cuisine, service, design, fantastic view - all the things were excellent.

Marivanna, another restaurant of this chain, https://en.ginza.ru/msk/restaurant/marivanna    I haven't been there so no personal experience, but it has excellent reviews on TA. 

[Thejuggler]

I watched Anthony Bourdain last night and on his trip to St Petersburg he went to Cococo.

[dogs4fun]

50 minutes ago, Oliver Hansen said:

Hi! We are looking for a good Georgian restaurant in St. Petersburg. Any ideas? Thanks

Your guide should be able to give you some good recommendations - why not email the company with whom you booked?

Some online recommendations here:

https://mostpetersburg.com/best-georgian-restaurants

https://theculturetrip.com/europe/russia/articles/the-best-places-to-try-georgian-cuisine-in-st-petersburg/

We love Tarkhun (check-out the second link) - just a short distance from the Faberge Museum.

You can find reviews of Tarkhun here:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g298507-d1532340-r116170383-Tarkhun-St_Petersburg_Northwestern_District.html

Edited February 23, 2020 by dogs4fun

[scubacruiserx2]

4 hours ago, Oliver Hansen said:

Hi! We are looking for a good Georgian restaurant in St. Petersburg. Any ideas? Thanks

 

Our Russian friends took  us to this place Suliko

 

 

 

 

We really like this place and it's food .

 

 

 

 

And the menu - so simple that that even we could read it !

 

 

Adjara Khachapuri - break off a piece and dip

 

 

 

The next 2 photos are from the Suliko web site . We ate ours so fast that I didn't have time to photograph it - it was that good !

 

 

Mengrelian Khachapuri

 

 

 

Dolma ( stuffed grape leaves )

 

 

 

 

We didn't have the time needed for Suliko to prepare a quintessential Georgian food - Khinkali . It's ground beef and pork with spices in it's broth , in a dumpling with a handle .

 

 

 

 

 

How to eat it 

 

 

 

 

[Fran2020]

On 1/18/2020 at 4:31 PM, dogs4fun said:

As I suspect you are already aware, St. Petersburg has no Michelin star restaurants. That does not mean that there aren't excellent restaurants in the city. In what type of cuisine are you interested?

Each member of your group will require a Russian Visa in order to visit a Russian restaurant in the evening DIY (on your own)

OR

you can book a private free content evening with a local company (they will provide the ticket that will allow immigration clearance) and the tour company can make the reservations for you.

For a fine dining experience, we have enjoyed L'Europe. This restaurant is located in the Grand Hotel Europe, offers French & European haute cuisine and boasts a gorgeous Art Nouveau interior. The menu changes regularly but, should you be interested, I have attached the current menu & link to the website.

https://www.belmond.com/hotels/europe/russia/st-petersburg/belmond-grand-hotel-europe/leurope-restaurant

opet_europe_menu.pdf 165.45 kB · 9 downloads

Hi Dogs4fun,

have you ever heard of this one? I was looking for a place to taste Russian caviar, this is what the Internet came up with

 

 

[dogs4fun]

2 hours ago, Fran2020 said:

Hi Dogs4fun,

have you ever heard of this one? I was looking for a place to taste Russian caviar, this is what the Internet came up with

 

 

Several years ago my SIL wanted to sample "good" Russian caviar so our Russian friends took us to the Caviar Bar & Restaurant in the Belmond Grand Hotel. My SIL loved the caviar bar.

Locals have told us, repeatedly,  that that best place to purchase quality caviar is at Eliseyev Emporium (the gorgeous Art Nouveau building is, itself, worth a visit).

I wish I could help but am not a fan of caviar so, unfortunately, I have no experience with Art-Caviar (I didn't partake of the caviar at the Belmond).  However, after some research, I believe that you can't go wrong with Art-Caviar.

I am a fan of the "in your pocket" guides and Art-Caviar receives very favorable reviews there and elsewhere:

https://www.inyourpocket.com/st-petersburg-en/art-caviar_158414v

I also found this site informative:

https://mostpetersburg.com/caviar

Good luck - hope you will report back on your experience.

[Fran2020]

Wow thank you for the useful links, took a brief look already and yes, will report back once we finally get there!

[Lagerta]

Getting back to the original post I agree with the recommendation to visit COCOCO as I was impressed by their unusual interpretation of traditional russian cuisine. Another interesting place is Banshiki, Teplo is a good choice for dinner too. I also know that Four Seasons has great restaurants and bars. Besides that you may go to one of roof-view restaurants such as Mansarda or Terraza.  Oh and there is restaurant Schastye which is not rooftop, but has a great view of St.Isaac Cathedral. Actually new places appear every year and I suppose there will be more by 2021. 

[Fran2020]

Lagerta, is this the one? https://www.kokoko.spb.ru/en/ As far as I understood they are relocating right now, but by the time we will be able to go (fingers crossed) the new location should be ready