THE DISH: Gloriously green

Prekrasnaya Zelyonaya//41 Mokhovaya Ulitsa//Tel. 273 5118//Open 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.//Menu in Russian and English//Credit cards not accepted//Dinner for two 1,110 rubles ($34)

By Luisa Schulz

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: July 25, 2012 (Issue # 1719)

A veggie restaurant in Petersburg is still a surprise in itself, although the ranks are gradually swelling with the relatively recent addition of Rada and K to the several branches of Troitsky Most around town and the ever-popular Botanika café.

Prekrasnaya Zelyonaya, however, holds far more surprises than just vegetarian food, and from the very moment customers enter: Stepping down into the basement, it takes a moment to realize that behind the first room, the venue zigzags around the bar into another angular backroom. A particular treat is a very small third room behind a curtain, with one table for two. On the downside, those back corners are so heavy with a sweet, greasy cake-like smell that they are somewhat stifling.

The restaurant is named after Coline Serreau’s 1996 film about a journey to Earth from a utopian green planet, but its interior has little in common with that planet’s bucolic setting. It is instead a coquettish array of granny lamps, sofas and potted plants, with framed embroideries on green flowery wallpaper, plus cat figurines on the piano — a design probably meant to make diners feel at home, but this is in fact unlikely to work except for anyone who previously lived in Victorian Britain.

The menu, on the other hand, almost resembles a botanic dictionary, from cauliflower to persimmon. The restaurant, which initially served “vegetarian and fish” — for many, an oxymoron — now confines itself to ovo-lacto-vegetarian options, while skillfully avoiding the typical meat substitute clichés. Also appetizing are the prices, all undeniably fair (170 to 280 rubles, or $5.25 to $8.60, for a main). Here, however, we encountered a negative surprise: Not one, not two, but three of the options we first attempted to order were not available on the day of our visit. Vegans might also have cause for complaint, as there are only soups and two other dishes suitable for them. The soymilk option, though written in bold on the menu, was unavailable. But there were also pleasant surprises: Upon an anxious enquiry as to whether the buckwheat noodles just brought were really vegan, the waitress, generally attentive and smiling, returned to the kitchen and fetched the empty noodle packet to check.

The dishes arrived in quite an unorderly fashion — plates before cutlery, main before starter, dishes for the two guests at different times — but were imaginative compositions. The vegan Waldorf salad (180 rubles, $5.50) with its long slices of cucumber, apple and orange was a symphony of colors, though slightly cacophonous in taste, and surprised with some exotic kumquats. Just like the buckwheat noodles with eggplant and tomato (190 rubles, $5.80), it was almost unseasoned, which perfectly brought out the freshness of the ingredients.

A particular delight was the mushroom julienne (190 rubles), which came in a lovely arrangement, the creamy mushroom stew in a little bowl hidden under Parmesan, with two dunes of potato mash, laced with strips of melting balsamic and pesto, at its side. Only in the pumpkin soup (180 rubles) was the purism of the dishes a bit of a letdown — with its typically viscous substance and mild pumpkin taste, it did not take well to being left unseasoned and tasted more like baby food than haute cuisine. A bonus was the dessert kovrizhka (lenten honey cake priced at 100 rubles or $3), which, though slightly too greasy and syrupy, yielded surprises of dried apricots baked into it and a mint leaf that ideally agreed with the cocoa and balanced out the sweetness of the cake.

Almost the entire meal was exquisitely accompanied by live piano music, as both an instrument and sheet music for works by composers as varied as Yann Tiersen, Brahms and Frank Sinatra were readily available. And for hungry pianists, there is a 20-percent discount on all dishes.

It is worth bearing in mind that Prekrasnaya Zelyonaya does not accept credit cards. Otherwise, even payment is a pleasant surprise: The check comes in an old-fashioned coffee box, sublimating the payment process. The cafe is an intriguing and unorthodox venue that enriches the local vegetarian landscape, even if it doesn’t quite live up to the utopian standards of its name.