When you hear the word "pub," you might think of a dark, cozy, wood-beamed little room with dark beer on tap and plain but hearty food.
The Rose Pub, while not small and dark, is cozy and has plenty of beer -- as well as other drinks -- and the food is pub standard.
My friend and I staggered up and down a dark and slippery Liteiny Prospect trying to find the Rose Pub and had little luck. Its address is on Liteiny, but the front door is actually located around the corner on Furshdtadskaya Ulitsa.
We took a seat in the bar area and pondered the menu. The food section is limited to about eight dishes, but if you want to drink you've come to the right place.
I ordered the steak with peppercorn sauce (54,000 roubles) and my friend ordered the meatballs with creamy sauce (32,000 roubles).
Other options include a salmon salad (35,000 roubles), shrimp on toast (35,000 roubles), deep-fried salmon (42,000 roubles) and smoked salmon on toast (35,000).
Having made the easy decision on what to eat, we pondered the drink list, which took up most of the menu.
The Rose Pub offers a huge variety of draft beer, bottled beer, liquor and spirits, mixed drinks and soft drinks -- at a price.
Shots of whisky can run up to 85,000 roubles, which I thought was a bit extreme, and so stuck with beer.
Also available are Long Island ice tea, rum and Cokes, whisky and Cokes, and so on -- basically, all the mixed drinks one ordered in college and that REALLY messed one up.
Being fans of the local beer Baltika, we started with Baltika 7, the export brew. A mug of Seven costs 15,000 roubles.
The waitress lectured us for sitting in the bar and ordering food -- there is a restaurant area past the bar, and we were told that if we had sat in the restaurant someone would have waited on us, instead of us having to walk up to the bar to order.
She then relented and said she'd bring our food out to us.
As we waited for our meals, we tried not to listen to the Christmas carols being sung in Finnish over the sound system. The bar area has high stools, cushy high benches along the wall and tiny high tables.
By the time our food was brought out, the music had been changed to Michael Jackson. Well, some people in this world like Michael Jackson.
I ordered a bottle of Baltika 5 (Parnas) to go with my meal. It cost 12,000 roubles, nearly three times what the same "Pyatyorka" costs in a kiosk.
The dishes we ordered come with choice of fries, garlic potatoes or rice. I opted for the fries, but my friend's wish for garlic potatoes was denied -- the waitress explained they were out of garlic potatoes, so he got fries as well.
The steak was less well-done than I prefer (I hadn't been asked what I preferred), but the peppercorn sauce was tasty and the fries were good.
My friend seemed pleased with the meatballs, and the "creamy sauce" was a rather intriguing thick white sauce.
The dishes were served with a listless garnish of peppers and cauliflower and didn't look very impressive, but the taste made up for the presentation.
We asked our waitress for two bowls of ice cream (15,000 each) and two more beers.
The ice cream was two scoops of the chocolate variety. One scoop was covered with butterscotch sauce, while the other was covered with chocolate sauce. The dish was garnished with a light cookie and a VERY large paper umbrella, such as one finds in tropical drinks.
We spent a pleasant evening at the Rose Pub, which was fairly full on a weeknight. The pub offers darts, and there is karaoke every Friday.