Lui

The project occupies a building whose foundation is recognized as a federal heritage site, just steps from GES-2. The name — both an Italian and French pronoun for "he" — nods to the geography of the kitchen: Italy, France, Spain and Greece as the main culinary centers of the Mediterranean.

Our guide's team finds Lui's summer terrace at sunset one of the best in the city: the view of the embankment and the lively atmosphere make it a place worth returning to.

The interior was designed by Saint Petersburg designer Evgenia Uzhegova, a graduate of Parsons School of Design. The space is conceived as an open plan modeled on a large Mediterranean villa: aged ceiling beams, natural materials, live plants, white tablecloths and burning candles. The walls are painted with olive trees whose roots reach into Moscow soil while their crowns reach toward the vaulted ceilings of old chambers. At the back of the room is a secluded VIP room and a grand piano; at the center of attention is an open wood-fired pizza oven with a metal work counter.

At the stove is young Italian chef Claudio Pirovano, trained under the Michelin-starred Sicilian Nino Graziano, having worked at La Bottega Siciliana since 2012. His approach to authentic recipes is methodical: he compares making pasta to yoga. The menu features Mediterranean sardines, Greek tiropita with truffle, seafood fritto misto, artichoke carpaccio, a Tuscan legume soup with kale, butterflied baked sea bass with olives and capers, orzo with shrimp and crab, bucatini with lamb, Neapolitan pizza with anchovies and stracciatella, cannoli and yogurt ice cream.

The wood-fired pizza deserves particular attention: a charred edge, the right texture — close, by guests' accounts, to the ideal Italian version. The sea bass, baked with lemon oil, white wine, garlic and olives, comes out juicy and full of character. A complimentary bread with two spreads (anchovy-olive and sun-dried tomato) sets the right tone from the first minutes. The wine and cocktail lists are composed in the same spirit: precise, with nothing extraneous.

Our undercover guests rated it 9 out of 10 for dinner, for flawless cooking, mature service, and an atmosphere that's hard to find fault with. Lui works equally well for a business lunch and an evening date — and delivers reliably in both cases.