AVA Bistro

AVA Bistro at New Holland became AVA Team's first project in St. Petersburg, and at the same time the format that fits the island best — an island where gastronomy has long lived alongside the city's walking rhythm. The team of Anton Pinsky, Vitaly Istomin and Artem Losev brought here not a grand restaurant script but a contemporary city café, equally suited to a late breakfast, a long lunch, an aperitif at the bar, or dinner without a special occasion. The space opened in House 12: the historic shell of the former 18th-century warehouses isn't hidden here but, on the contrary, made part of the overall composition — with a marble bar, warm wooden texture, an open kitchen, a display case of fresh pastries, and a wine cabinet that works as a full-fledged interior accent.

Our restaurant guide's team finds AVA Bistro in St. Petersburg reads especially well in the first half of the day.

The menu holds to AVA Team's signature logic: recognizable ingredients and comfortable genres assembled with more precision than you'd expect from a "city café" format. Beef tartare with parmesan sits alongside a Kamchatka crab salad, a scallop-and-truffle risotto, scallops with raclette, shrimp doughnuts and the AVA burger. A separate strong line is breakfast, served every day: from draniki with roast beef and a Benedict with mortadella to signature variations with poached egg, edamame, salmon and toast. Plus its own bakery, which gives the place not just a restaurant function but an almost neighborhood one: you can stop in for bread, a croissant or a cream tartlet without settling in for a long meal.

The bar and the wine list don't compete with the kitchen for attention but support the overall pace. Head bartender Anton Pyzhik put together a cocktail selection without excess theatrics — clear-flavored and contemporary in presentation — and sommelier Gabriel San made wine part of the everyday choice rather than a separate ritual. Our secret guests gave the dinner 7 out of 10 — for a strong daytime script, successful pastries, and a few precise hits on the main menu, but without the sense that the St. Petersburg version of AVA has already shown its full potential. Still, for New Holland, it remains one of the most convenient spots when you want a restaurant-level meal without the feeling of a special outing.