The St. Petersburg of Foodies: The Holy Trinity of Russian cuisine

When traveling abroad, one of the most important things to explore is the local cuisine. Especially if you are a foodie like us. St. Petersburg has a great variety of delicious tastes, foods and drinks, sweet and sour, hot and cold. We couldn’t be more excited to introduce some of our personal favorites to you. The theme of this post is The Holy Trinity of Russian Cuisine, meaning the three most efficient aces Russia has to offer to fight against hunger: Pies, Blinis and Dumplings! Here you can see our French-Finnish gourmand duo doing important research for the blog.

Our favorite pies: Пироговый дворик (Pirogovyi Dvorik)

Here you can find one of the best quality-price ratios in SPB especially during lunch time. The lunches include 2−4 dishes and tea or "mors" (a Russian-style juice) for the reasonable price of only around 250 rubles.

From the name of this restaurant chain most of you probably understood that their specialties are the tasty salty and sweet pies. There is an impressive selection of them with different fillings from meat and potatoes to berries and apples. Moreover, salads here meet the solid Russian standard, and especially soups are delicious.

Ordering in Pirogovyi Dvorik is very easy, as their menu has pictures of all the dishes. For non-russian speakers, this might be helpful. After ordering at the cashier, just take a seat and relax while waiting for the waiter to bring your meal!

We fell in love with this tasty creamy mushroom soup.

Here are a few examples of the pie selection from Pirogovyi Dvorik.

Our favorite blinis: Теремок (Teremok)

There is one restaurant that has a special place in our hearts. Of course we are talking about Teremok, the awesome Russian-style fast food restaurant that was also referred to in this blog post by Cristina Fierro.

Teremok is a little like the Russian McDonald’s, only a thousand times better. The art of making national dishes into fast food amazes us, how can it be so delicious and on your tray in only a few minutes?

The specialty of Teremok is without a doubt their blinis, and they cook them right in front of you. Once again the variety of different salty and sweet fillings is overwhelming. Teremok also has some reasonably priced lunch menus with soups, salads and drinks to go with your blinis.

Delicious blinis in Teremok. Note the pretty plates with the national ornaments in different colors.

Our favorite dumplings: Момо (Momo)

Our third tip for you is our favorite place to have a nice plate of dumplings. Momo is not a big chain, so you have to make your way to the Petrogradskaya island to visit this restaurant. It is located conveniently next to the Petrogradskaya metro station.

In Russia there are a lot of different kinds of dumplings, and we believe Momo has most of them on their menu. Here dumplings come in all shapes and sizes. There are pelmenis, varenikis, mantys, and even the Georgian, Italian and Chinese variants khinkali, ravioli and dim sum. Also fillings vary from different kinds of meat, potatoes and mushrooms to spinach and tvorog, a Russian sweet cottage cheese. Oh so greasy and oh so tasty!

Chinese dumplings called dim sum.

Maultaschen, a German version of dumplings with a nice touch of smetana, Russian sour cream.

These three examples are only a fragment of all the culinary experiences the northern capital of Russia has to offer. You can be sure that we will not waste a single chance to taste something new during our summer internship!

co-authored with Constance Gatefait