Food Stores in St. Petersburg

For cigarettes, snacks, drinks, and basic foodstuffs like bread, milk, and tea, look for a produkty shop. They also sell such popular local treats as rye bread, vatrushka (a kind of pastry), pelmeni (dumplings), smoked salmon, salted herring, and pickles. If you want to find a broad range of foreign food, there are well-stocked supermarkets in any large shopping mall. These stores are usually open daily, until at least 8 pm.

Black caviar, which once reigned as the food gift of choice in Russia, is hard to find in the shops these days. Its harvest and sale was banned for several years owing to massive sturgeon poaching. Due to conservation measures, caviar sales are expected to resume only fitfully and with very limited amounts.

Supermarkets with branches all over the city include Pyatyorochka (there's a figure 5 in its logo), Perekryostok ("Crossroads"; look for a cross), Lenta (featuring a daisy), and Diksi (a red disc on a yellow square with "Diksi" written in black). French-style markets include Mega, O'Key, and Giant. There's also a Finnish chain called Prisma (a red-orange-yellow triangle on a green square). If you see a red-and-white logo that reads Maksidom on what appears to be a superstore, don't go in looking for food—it's a home-improvement and furniture chain that competes with IKEA.

Nevsky prospekt itself doesn't have many food shops, but a short walk down its cross streets will usually yield one. Vladimirsky Passage on Vladimirskaya prospekt just a few minute's walk from Nevsky is a good bet, as it contains one of the city's best supermarkets in its basement. Large shopping centers around ploshchad Vosstania, such as Stockmann and Galeria, also have vast supermarkets. As farming in Russia is a very small industry, don't expect to see any private butcher shops, upscale organic fruit shops, or the like.