St. Petersburg for first-time visitors

Best restaurants

St. Petersburg's restaurant map is a long axis with a short spine. Central Avenue carries most of the appetite, running east from the waterfront at 101 7th Street South out past 1752 Central where the numbered blocks give way to the Grand Central District; 4th Street North picks up the slack heading north, from 1052 up to 2220, with a few worthwhile detours west to 2339 9th Street North. What you get on this axis is a working city's dining, not a resort's: a Neapolitan pizzeria and a Thai-Japanese counter within four blocks of each other, three separate Greek kitchens strung across three different postal codes, a crêperie that stays open until 23:00 on weekends, and a diner that opens at 06:00 on weekdays. The list below is for a visitor who wants to eat where St. Pete eats, not where the guidebooks point. It runs from 33701 downtown out to 33712 on Central and up to 33704 on the north end, and it assumes you will walk or drive rather than wait for a table.