At the end of May my husband with his business partners and I visited summer restaurant "Russkaya Rybalka" located on Krestovsky Island. It is built in the style of a fisherman's hut and looks like a wooden building standing on piles in the Southern Pond. This restaurant was chosen for its uniqueness that can stun the guests and for its quiet setting where we could have a conversation.
The uniqueness of the restaurant lies in that you are welcome to catch your dinner yourself in the lake by the restaurant. The slogan at the entrance says - "The best fish is the fish you catch yourself".
At first, the menu itself surprised our guests – it looked like a newspaper and no one guessed to look into it. Several newspapers were lying at our tables not catching our attention. When the waiter has approached us to take our orders, we said that we wanted to have the menu at first. He smiled mysteriously and replied that the menues were right in front of us the whole time. We were open-mouthed with astonishment and our Moscow partners asked to take this menu-newspaper to Moscow as a souvenir.
As a starter we all ordered a vegetable salad. As a second course we were offered to catch the fish ourselves and then it would be fried, baked or smoked according to our wishes by chef. The chef claimed that he knew hundreds of recipes for fish dishes and he used his own spices, which gave each fish a special flavour.
One of our guests had caught a big trout on his first attempt and we decided to have it smoked. While the chef was working on our catch, we enjoyed the comfortable and relaxing atmosphere of the restaurant. Personnel was well trained, friendly, and courteous without being overbearing. Music was calm and not irritating.
In less than an hour, our smoked trout was brought out. It looked scrumptuous. It turned out to be exquisite and delicious. We were more than happy with our tasty food and impeccable service and didn't even...