Kharbin

This picture came from the best restaurant I ate in in St. Petersburg: Kharbin, offering Chinese food at 34/2 Zhukovskogo ul.

The first evening in town, I set out with two British guys who were staying in my room at the St. Petersburg International Hostel. My guidebook -- the Lonely Planet -- was excellent in its recommendations, although a few years out of date (2002) so we ended up in a few culinary cul-de-sacs before landing at Kharbin.

One of my dining companions was a vintner who grew his own grapes in England, the other was a younger fellow studying Computer Science. The food was excellent, so good in fact that I returned to the same restaurant on my way back through the city after visiting Petrozavodsk. (That was the meal which nearly caused me to miss my plane back to Stockholm -- only the kindness of the employees at Pulkovo airport saved me from missing the once-daily flight back to Sweden.)