ABOUT TOWN

Junk food devotees of St Petersburg need despair no longer when they get a craving for greasy fast food in the middle of the night.

There's the 24-hour chicken shop on the corner of Second Krasnoarmeiskaya Ulitsa and Moskovsky Prospect.

Situated a fowl's walk across the road from Metro Tekhnologichesky Institut, it offers chicken thighs, rib sections and legs.

The chicken pieces are 9,000 roubles and are battered and deep-fried. Quality is a bit random, but the food usually tastes considerably better than it looks.

Other food on offer includes cold peas (2,500 roubles), frightening-looking sausages (3,000), bread (1,500), various salads depending on the establishment's mood and resources, and fried onions (3,000).

The latter are a real treat. Cooked in butter so that they are sweet and brown, it is worth going into the place for the onions alone.

Coke and coffee are available (2,300 and 3,500 roubles respectively), as are a variety of juices and spirits at the bar.

Next to the bar is an ice-cream counter.