going on a bender with ostap

by Peter Morley

Published: March 30, 2001 (Issue # 657)

Ostap Bender, the creation of Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov in their novels "The Twelve Chairs" and "The Golden Calf," is one of the most popular heroes in Soviet literature, and now St. Petersburg has a restaurant named in his honor. They even have a statue of the man outside the door. I suspect that this will become quite a tourist attraction - when we arrived for lunch this week a boy was taking a photo of his mum with Ostap.

Beyond the statue, though, references to Ostap more or less vanish. Inside, the restaurant is tastefully decorated in an art nouveau style, with two dining areas, one done largely in green and one in blue, to the left and right of the entrance respectively. We went for a window seat and sat back with the menu.

The first thing to say about Zolotoi Ostap is that it is not cheap. Prices for starters begin at 75 rubles and go up to 850 (for a shrimp dish), while main courses start at around 170 rubles and go up to 790 (this being for a fondue, which, to be fair, does serve two to four people). In terms of choice, the menu includes Russian, French, Italian, and even Hungarian as well as couple of Asian dishes. Drinks are also pricey - we passed on the champagne at 10,700 rubles, and went instead for beer. Unfortunately, The St. Petersburg Times Botchkarov Index failed as they don't stock it, so we had a couple of Baltikas at 60 rubles each.

We both went for starters and main courses, and my companion fitted soup in as well. For starters, I had Braise à la Niçoise (110 rubles), which consisted of marinaded eggplant strips wrapped around peppers, and the usual salad garnishes, while my friend had the Baeren salad (90 rubles), including bacon, tomato, olives and an anchovy sauce, which was pronounced without being intrusive. Both entrées hit the spot - the vegetables were ultra-fresh and crisp, and having proper Iceberg lettuce was a particular treat.

I then had a few minutes off to nibble at the complimentary bread rolls and garlic butter, while my companion got through a modest-sized bowl of French onion soup with cheese (95 rubles), which got a big thumbs-up for not letting the cheese swamp the onion flavors, a common failing here (according to my soupophile friend).

Then the main courses arrived. I had ordered Assol (285 rubles), a salmon steak with a béarnaise-type sauce, and my friend went for the Farsi steak (280 rubles), which consisted of a pork fillet stuffed with bacon, mushrooms and a hint of blue cheese. Both of us also ordered dauphinoise potatoes at 70 rubles. The salmon came with a crayfish sitting beside it (at least we think it was a crayfish) and was absolutely superb - firm yet also tender, with some interesting flavors from the smoking process. The Farsi was also highly praised as being very juicy and generally delicious. The one problem we had was with the broccoli which came with these courses, which unfortunately was overcooked and soggy. The carrots, however, were great.

After which, I had a coffee, and we pondered if there was anything we could criticize Zolotoi Ostap for. The biggest gripe (and it was only a very small one) was the background music which was playing when we came in, and this got better before we left anyway (as we walked out the door we heard the start of "My Way," a vast improvement on the earlier efforts). That, and the broccoli, aside, Zolotoi Ostap can only be highly recommended. If you have the money, that is.

Zolotoi Ostap, 4 Italianskaya Ulitsa. Open daily, 11 a.m.-1 a.m. Tel: 314-68-13. Credit cards accepted. Meal for two with alcohol: 1,160 rubles ($40).