Had dinner with BZ and TY at Summer Palace (The Regent Singapore, 1 Cuscaden Road, Singapore 249715) Saturday night. We weren't feeling very hungry, so we just took a very light meal. Ordered the winter melon soup, the spare ribs in coffee sauce, and Hong Kong kailan with oyster sauce. The soup was good with ample crab meat and dried scallops. The spare ribs turned out to be dissapointing. Though the coffee sauce is fragrant, there was almost no meat on the spare ribs. What I had could be described as two bones with coffee sauce. The kailan was average as well. The ambience of this restaurant is quite good and service is also courteous, although the kitchen is very slow.

My last meal in Saint Petersburg was at Aquarel (Near Birzhevoy Most, entrance from Petrograd Side, St. Petersburg, Russia). This is a three-storey restaurant boat docked on Neva River, and with a nice view of the waters. The cuisine is fusion. The service is friendly and prompt. I had a ginger glazed salmon belly with soba in miso soup. I was actually quite nice, except that the soup was luke warm and not hot when it came. Otherwise, it would have been nice.

The one thing I didn't like about this restaurant is that everytime a hydrofoil passes by, the restaurant would rock with the powerful waves, and it makes me sea-sick.

The other drawback is that this restaurant is expensive! But otherwise, this is one of my nicest meal in Saint Petersburg.

Was still craving for Oriental food, so I headed to Golden Dragon (61 Kronverksky Prospect, St. Petersburg, Russia) which was near the hotel I was staying in. I went in, looked through their menu for 10 minutes, and left the place without ordering anything. The menu is more Vietnamese than Chinese, and they don't look at all appetizing (there were pictures). Even simple items like sweet and sour pork looked horrible in the picture. I should have known better when I walked in and I was the only one in the whole restaurant. Give this place a miss!

After more than a week in Russia, I was craving for Oriental food. Came across Evrasia Japanese Restaurant while walking along Bolshoy Prospect and went in immediately for dinner. I had a sushi set and unagi (eel) and egg roll. The food is only average. But I was happy to get my Oriental meal!

EG and I weren't feeling hungry on Sunday night after our tour of Peterhof, so we headed down to Nevsky Prospect for some light fair. We came accross Coffee House, which seems a rather nice cafe, and decided to give it a try. I had a banana-split capuccino and a slice of berry cake, while EG had a beer and the same cake I took. I find the cake nice, but EG didn't like it. My coffee is not as good as I had hoped, and the price here is just sky-high. To give you an idea, my capuccino costs RUR125 (about USD4.50) for a regular!

Second day of our Saint Petersburg tour last Sunday took us to Peterhof. EG and I had lunch at Restaurant Great Orangery, which is one of our worst experience in Saint Petersburg. First, we had a reservation, but we were pushed around from one hall to another, without anyone willing to serve us. Second, our food took a long time to come, and we had to wait between dishes. Third, the food quality is bad. My beef was tough and tasteless. Service is almost non-existent here!

Had dinner with EG at Tinkoff Microbrewery and Restaurant (7 Kazanskaya ul., St. Petersburg, Russia) last Saturday night. This restaurant serves an interesting selection of house-brewed beers and pub fairs (American and Japanese). I tried their unfiltered beers (golden and white nights) which were both good. I prefer the golden unfiltered beer, although the white nights is more expensive, being a seasonal brew.

EG had a mixed platter which came with sausages, grilled pork, and sauerkraut, which he said is not nice. I had a katsu don (Japanese pork chip on rice) and a pizza magharita to share. The katsu don is very salty and the pizza ordinary. This is certainly not a place for good food. It is only a place where you want to hang around for some beer.

Had lunch with EG on Saturday at The Hermitage Restaurant (8 Palace Square, Saint Petersburg, Russia). This restaurant is located in the left wing of the General Staff Building, facing The Hermitage. We took the set lunch, which is part of our tour package. The set lunch came with garden salad, borsch soup, chicken cutlet, and tiramisu. I don't care much for borsch, but the rest of the items are quite good. Service here is good also.

AV took us to dinner with the families of some of OpenWay's staff at Cafe Stolle (50, 1 Syezdovskaya, Vasilyevsky Ostrov, Saint Petersburg, Russia). Cafe Stolle is supposedly famous for their pies, both savoury and sweet. They already ran out of savoury pies when we reached there at about 7:30pm, and were left with three sweet pies. We immediately made reservation for those sweet pies for our dessert.

As main course, I had chicken baked in cheese and pineapple, which is a little bland. However, we were there for the pies, and they did not disappoint. I tried all the three different pies - blackberry, cherry, and cheese, all of which were excellent, but I especially liked the blackberry one.

Price is also very reasonable here and it has a relaxing and laid-back ambience.

AV brought EG, KW, RG, W, and myself to Mountain Eagle (Gorniy Orel) situated by the Saint Petersburg Zoo because KW commented that the food there was very good. This restaurant serves Georgian cuisine, which is dominated by different sorts of bread and shish-kebab. We had fried cheese, two kinds of bread (one that looks and tastes like a cheese pizza, and one that looks and tastes like the Indian bread naan). We also had an assortment of lamb, pork, and chicken shish-kebab. The food were all quite nice and the price reasonable.

Stayed at Apart-Hotel Kronverk (9 Blokhin Street, Saint Petersburg, Russia) during this 10-day trip to Saint Petersburg. This hotel is supposedly in the four-star category, but neither look nor operate like one. Kronverk is small and without facilities. The hotel is infested with mosquitoes. Everyone who stays here complains of mosquitoes, so requesting for change of room does not help.

The plus points are that the hotel is located very near Peter and Paul's Fortress and the rooms are equipped with free (but very slow) Internet access.

At USD110 per night, I think it is rather steep for the quality (or lack thereof). I will try to look for alternatives the next time round.

AV took EG, KW, RG, and myself to Na Zdorovie (Boshoy Prospekt, 13, Petropavlovskaya Storona, Saint Petersburg, Russia) for dinner on the first day of our arrival in Saint Petersburg. This is a restaurant serving traditional Russian cuisine in an authentic interior. We started with some appetizers comprising blinis (Russian pancakes) with carviar, jellied beef, smoked salmon, and marinated herring to go along with some vodka. I had chicken Kiev as main course after that. The food is rather well-prepared, but I do not fancy Russian food. What I enjoyed most is the blinis with carviar.

Had dinner last night with A, W, EG, KW, and RG at an interesting restaurant by the name of Restaurant! The restaurant is situated in the former administration building of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The place is rustic, spacious, and charming.

As is typical for a Russian meal, we first ordered some starters to go together with the vodka. This restaurant distills their own vodka and we had a taste of their horse raddish flavoured and craneberry flavoured vodka. The taste between the two are rather similar, with the craneberry flavoured one substantially sweeter. For starters, we had marinated herring, salted mushrooms, pickled mushrooms, jellied beef, cold pork fat, and blinis with carviar. I skipped the herring as I did not fancy it. I also did not try the salted and pickled mushrooms, but EG and KW tried them and found them so salty that they couldn't take a second serving. The jellied beef is rather nice. The cold pork fat is very interesting. It is actually frozen pork fat (and I do mean pure pork fat) that is sliced very thinly. You eat it by spreading it on bread. The pork fat is like butter and literally melts in your mouth. But what stole the show is the blinis (Russian pancake, but is actually more like a crepe) with carviar. We had both red carviar and black carviar. The red carviar is from salmon, while the more expensive black carviar is from sturgeon. I liked them both.

I also tried the famous Russian drink kvass for the first time here. Kvass is a drink made by fermenting bread, but does not have any alcohol content. It was quite sweet, and I found it to be a cross between root beer and ginger ale in taste.

After the starters, none of us had any room left for main course. So we had some coffee and left the restaurant closed to midnight.

As is usual in Russia, dinner came up to be very expensive. We spent 10,000 RUR, equivalent to USD360, for the six of us!

Arrived in Russia's Saint Petersburg two hours ago from Singapore. Just checked-in to the hotel and blogging from my room, which is equipped with free (narrowband) Internet!

The journey was tiring and I think I will catch a nap after writing this entry, in order to prepare for tonight's events.

Will definitely write more about my encounters when I'm in a better shape.