Yana
Eating on the go is so typical of any big city dweller trying to be everywhere at once. Even though locals are said to be slow, they're opening more and more take out places for those in a hurry.
Buro
Zhukovsky Street burger place was opened by three friends with no restaurant business experience just for fun. Buro is a next door cafe for locals but passers by are also welcome. In this little space you can see a guy from next door wearing flip flops, a mother with a kid, a couple on a date and loud folks longing for a snack between bar hopping and arrive by night.
The place is famous for its burgers and they're cool. Their classic is the lamb and coriander burger (290 roubles) or the vegetarian one with beetroot and goat cheese. You can choose the bun – tomato, spinach, rye, chiabatta, four grain or iceberg salad. Any take away goes with a ten percent discount. Their drinks are also good – interesting lemonades (tangerine-cucumber), classic and signature cocktails and homemade liquors on barberry caramels, tangerine peels, and everything the bartender had at hand. Before going have a note that every second Monday the owners host an intellectual quiz and Thursdays 10 pm is movie time so you will hardly be able to have a quiet burger chat.
Pita's
Gorokhovaya Street is getting more and more quick snack joints and the latest is Pita's – the kingdom of perfect shawarma. On the one hand, it is the same good old street food for 190 roubles but on the other has more interesting ingredients and is safe. You can try cinnamon shawarma with mint and bilberry sauce, a flat falafel wrap with pickled beetroot and brynza feta cheese or even banana. The place is far from being cozy with its low ceiling an neon signs so get the food and head to the nearby park to enjoy it in the sun.
ObedBufet
The fifth floor of Stockmann has a very untypical Ginza restaurant: not a fancy venue but an affordable buffet to have a bite during a shopping break. They have gathered all popular food: salads, soups, grill, pizza, wok, sushi and desserts. You can eat in or take out. They also offer packed picnic sets: cheese platter, celery and carrot sticks with sauce and fruit salad. For healthy eaters, they have homemade kefir with ginger and coconut and mors berry drink. The place is quiet during the day but after 9 pm lines get huge as food is sold with a 50-percent discount.
Shawarma King
After a falafel kiosk in Sennaya Market made such a splash, its owners expanded the business and rented this place on Zagorodny Passageway,22 . The kitchen is the realm of Khamza Abu Hijla, Jordanian national who owns the place. The menu is the same falafel variations costing from 70 to 120 roubles, plus other Mediterranean stuff that you better eat in – tabbouleh, fatteh hummus and lentils soup. The interior is simple but nice and nonessential. A must visit to check if this falafel is really the best in town.