Pelmenya — Restaurant in Palace District

Half a block off the main drag on Nevsky, this restaurant has a casually hip, modern vibe and a nice selection of dumplings. I had the assorted vegetarian Khanum (sheets of pasta rolled with filling) and my wife had the Manti (seems to be Siberian variant on the Korean "mandu") which were meaty steamed dumplings like big pot stickers. Both were good, as was the mango/passionfruit mouse dessert cake.

We also ordered the pickled shiitake mushrooms and Russian/Georgian/Korean sauerkraut dish - the mushrooms were nice, and the Russian/Georgian sauerkraut was nice as well, but the "korean" sauerkraut was more like cabbage given the yellow pickled daikon treatment - not really surprising since Russian food is extremely mild when it comes to spice/heat. I otherwise avoided the "dim sum" and stuck to the Russian themed stuff.

Prices were slightly high for Russia, but about average by SF Bay Area standards (

We tried this place based on tripadvisor reviews. Noone in our group spoke Russian, but there was an English version of the menu and some of the waitresses could speak a little English. They were able to tell us which pelmenya were spicy, for members of our group that ddn't like spicy food. The pumpkin cram soups were excellent as well as the Pelmenyi. There are meat and veggie choices for the Pelmenyi. Ordering larger portions results in savings so recommend doing like tapas. I ordered the cheapest Russian beer which was fine, and a friend a german beer on tap, which was a bit more expensive. Total for our group was about 9 euros per person. The person ordering the large German beer paid about 13. We all left very full and satisfied. We went late on a Sunday in September and had to wait about 5 minutes for a table. As the wait staff was very friendly we left a tip. Also paid with...

The best thing about this restaurant is that it's affordable. I had a full meal for about 660 rub. I ordered the vegetable platter with Russian pelmeni 15pc and Georgian fried beef khinkali 3pc. The pelmeni was very good, especially when eaten with sour cream. The khinkali was too salty and didn't taste as good. It also had a very strong flavor in general that I didn't find particularly agreeable. The food came out very quickly, and the staff was helpful and friendly. They also spoke English, which was a big plus for me. I would go there again if I...