27 Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa

Tel: 920 00 12

Open daily from 11 a.m. until last customer

Menu in English and Russian

Dinner for two with alcohol and dessert 3,950 rubles ($137.83)

Most St. Petersburg restaurants that serve European cuisine understandably attempt to create an elegant, “European” atmosphere. Massimo Sicilia — which, as its name suggests, specializes in Italian cooking — tries a little too hard. “Massimo” is certainly the operative word when it comes to this place’s appearance. Even viewed from outside, the restaurant makes a grandiose impression: the entrance is a tall fake mahogany door enclosed in a fake marble façade. Fake mahogany is also featured on the floors, tables, and the cabinets and shelves that line portions of the walls. The dining room lacks a unifying sense of style. Like the entrance, its proportions seem designed to make you feel small: it’s large and wide, with lots of empty space. However, various quirky touches — such as the small wall shelves stacked with various bottles — appear to be after a cozier, more intimate feel.

It’s also true that the seats at the two-person tables are much too low; my friend and I had to relocate to a four-person table with more normal chairs. Still, even with all these caveats, the place does manage to create an atmosphere. The lighting is excellently judged, bright enough to read the menu and make eye contact without squinting, but also dim enough for a feeling of intimacy. The appealingly eclectic soundtrack, which features everything from tastefully understated jazz to Rodgers and Hammerstein to Love’s “Alone Again Or”, is also a plus. Service is impeccably attentive and endearingly eager-to-please.

The food, though, proved frustratingly uneven. We started with Rabbit cannelloni (320 rubles, $11.20) and Rocket salad with spinach, white beans, and red onion (250 rubles, $8.70). The cannelloni suffered from pasta that was a bit too hard and rubbery, but the rabbit itself was succulent, its flavor blending well with the cheese. The dish was among the more expensive appetizers, but the portion size was correspondingly generous. The salad, though, was a total disappointment: The beans were hard and flavorless, and the whole dish, in addition to being drenched in far too much dressing, seemed to have been sitting in the fridge for a little too long.

The main courses were also, at best, a mixed success. The Lamb knuckle, stewed for 48 hours, with beans and leeks (720 rubles, $25.10) was one of the most expensive items on the menu, but the meat itself was superb. It was seasoned to just the right degree of saltiness, and wonderfully tender. The beans, though decent enough on their own, had a hard texture which didn’t match the softness of the meat, and the leeks advertised as part of the dish on the menu were a no-show. The Risotto with ceps and white wine (420 rubles, $14.70) was an interesting case. Much about the dish was excellent: the white wine and cheese complemented each other well, and the ceps were marvelously smooth. But it’s the rice that makes or breaks a risotto, and the rice in this dish was a bust. It was tough and chewy, bearing little resemblance to the smooth, creamy substance that forms the basis of any decent risotto.

Perhaps because we weren’t entirely satisfied with our appetizers and main courses, my friend and I held out hope that the restaurant would deliver when it came to dessert, which is often the best part of an Italian meal. We were also eager to give the place one more chance, since our waiter had showered us with complementary hors d’oeuvres over the course of the meal (which were, however, as uneven in quality as the food we paid for). Alas, the desserts were as hit-and-miss as everything else. The Panna Cotta with vanilla sauce and fresh berries (260 rubles, $9.00) was very good, its flavor mild but pleasant. The Tiramisu (220 rubles, $7.70), though, was an even bigger disappointment than the risotto. The custard was bland, the texture thick and mushy, and, like the salad appetizer, it had clearly come straight from many, many hours in the fridge.

The overall experience, then, was about as mixed as eating out gets. One wants to be generous and emphasize the positives, but it’s difficult to work up much enthusiasm for an Italian restaurant that can’t deliver staples like risotto and tiramisu. We left the place feeling very conscious that we weren’t anywhere close to the Mediterranean.