3 Best Restaurants in Petrograd Side, St. Petersburg

Wicker furniture, handwoven napkins, and a birdcage with canaries and finches add to the flavor of an early-20th-century Russian country house, and the menu also lovingly re-creates Russian recipes of yesteryear. Emerging from the family-run kitchen are such carefully prepared dishes as roasted venison with warm fruit, Spanish garlic, and port wine sauce and Caspian sturgeon fillet with salmon roe, leek cream, and morel mushroom sauce. Libations include a nice selection of fruit liqueurs.

Mirrored walls, red and mahogany furnishings, and tables topped with paper provide an authentic bistro ambience, a perfect setting for a classic French meal of onion soup, steak and bordelaise sauce, and crème brûlée. Fine wines are available by the glass, and attentive servers will help you with your choice. Seating is limited to only 25 people, so it's advisable to come early for dinner or take advantage of the excellent lunch, served from noon to 4 pm.

A lot of thought was put into creating this busy and authentic Georgian restaurant, which evokes the atmosphere of old Tbilisi, the capital of Russia's southern neighbor. There may be political tensions between the nations these days, but Russians' love affair with Georgian cuisine, from lobio (bean salad) and grilled meat and fish shashlyks (shish kebabs) to lavash (flat bread) and khatchapuri (cheese-filled bread), remains passionate. Tbiliso satisfies this appetite and then some, with servers in national costume and a Georgian choir to serenade diners. If you visit only one Georgian restaurant in St. Petersburg, make it this one.