For a long time Saint Petersburg, a maritime city, didn't have any restaurant specializing in sea cuisine. But at last this injustice was repressed and in Marata Street a new restaurant appeared. The doors of the rather modest from outside establishment open into the paradise for gourmets. The name of the restaurant (Matrosskaya Tishina - Sailor's silence) doesn't have anything in common with a notorious Moscow prison; it is metaphorical and symbolizes silence and peace of mind that you can feel sitting on the shore listening the waves lapping.
The interior of the fish restaurant Matrosskaya Tishina was marked by the Salon Magazine as one of the most stylish restaurant designs in the city. Igor Drankevich and Michael Oborin, the members of the Union of Artists of Russia, designed rather ascetic interior that is not overcrowded with the details. For the decor, the original fishing trawler, cut into sections in docks of Kronstadt and reconstructed in the restaurant itself, was used. Fishing nets, simple tables hanging on the chains, aluminum lamps, authentic navigation devices and stuffed sea creatures sustain the marine theme, stated in the name of the restaurant and its menu.
It should be mentioned that nowadays it is the only restaurant specializing in the raw seafood dishes in the city. Matrosskaya Tishina boasts the pool with the live trout and sterlet where the customers are free to choose any fish and the chef will cook it especially for you.
It goes without saying that the first class restaurant doesn't treat its guests with dishes from frozen products. Fresh fish, mussels, mollusks, oysters, shrimps, green crabs and other exotic inhabitants of the sea are delivered to the restaurant twice a week from all oceans of the world. Although the cuisine in the restaurant is French, the chef pays tributes to the traditional Russian dishes. The guests are offered Russian fish soup (ucha) from several sorts of fish or sterlet cooked in different ways. Seasonally the menu includes bream, pikes and smelt that is considered to be non-official symbol of Saint Petersburg.
The spatiality of the house is ice plateau with seafood. You'll find a part of the ocean floor with all kinds of oysters, mussels, lobsters, crabs and shrimps served on the ice. Sometimes the restaurant organizes festivals of oysters or of some exotic cuisines, for example, of Sri-Lanka Island.
The chef of the Matrosskaya Tishina Restaurant doesn't strive to create absolutely new gustatory senses; on the contrary, he upholds the traditions of the exquisite French cuisine. The owner of the restaurant is proud of the fact that the menu and wine list of his establishment corresponds to the best sea-fashion restaurants in Europe. And indeed, if not for the typical landscape of Saint Petersburg it may seem that you are somewhere in Paris.
Luxurious wine list includes the best wine sorts representing the world famous brands that are considered to be the ideal accompaniments to fish dishes. The choice of white wines is especially rich, but there is also an extensive collection of red wines and strong drinks.
The French chef of the restaurant is Serge Ferie, well known not only in Saint Petersburg but in Europe as well. He worked in the best restaurants of London, Paris and Singapore. But at long last he has chosen the Matrosskaya Tishina where he has been creating the masterpieces of culinary art for several years.
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