St. Petersburg pyshki reviews: in our guests' own words
Pyshki iz Detstva, “Pyshki from Childhood”, serves pyshki, St. Petersburg's hot yeast rings dusted with powdered sugar, in three cafés in the city centre. Our ratings range from 4.7 to 5.0, and Malaya Sadovaya St. holds a 5.0 from 1,100+ ratings on Yandex Maps.
Our guests wrote and spoke in Russian; all the reviews on this page have been translated into English.
Four phrases we remember
These are the words we hear most often as guests leave the café. Each one answers a doubt better than anything we could say about ourselves.
“That's the very same machine.”
People say this if they remember machines like it from the Soviet pyshki cafés. Ours stands by the counter in plain view, so you can see with your own eyes that it is genuine.
“They really are delicious.”
The first reaction after the first pyshka. The key word here is “really”: the guest came in with doubts and leaves convinced.
“I was back in my childhood.”
The smell of hot dough and powdered sugar takes people back to where they first tasted it. We hear this from forty-year-olds and seventy-year-olds alike.
“At last I've remembered that forgotten taste.”
The original 1958 recipe all but disappeared after the 1990s. We have restored it, and our guests recognise it.
The guest we do this work for
Among our regulars is a man of about 70. In Soviet times he worked on a pyshki machine like ours himself, the very same Kyiv-built model that stopped being made in 1991. He knows this machine inside out: how the dough rises, how the oil “seals” the pyshka in a second, what the sound, colour and smell should be. Knowledge like that cannot be faked; it is in his hands.
He crosses the whole city for three pyshki every few days, and every time he says the same thing:
“You make the most delicious pyshki.”
For us, there is no better proof. What matters is that he knows what he is comparing us with: he stood at a machine like this himself half a century ago. And when he recognises the taste he remembers, we know we have restored what we set out to restore.
What guests say out loud at the counter
Written reviews are lovely, yet the warmest words we hear are spoken right by the machine, while a guest stands there with a hot pyshka in hand. These phrases never make it onto any map.
“Shame I can't fit any more in, I want another one!”
“Thank you for such a yummy treat!”
“This really is delicious!”
“May God grant you prosperity!”
We hear that last phrase almost always from the older generation, usually once they recognise a taste they have not had for some thirty years.
Pyshki café ratings and awards
- 5.0
- 1/25 Malaya Sadovaya St., 1,100+ ratings on Yandex Maps
- 5.0
- 2 Moskovsky Prospekt, 177 ratings
- 4.7
- 118 Nevsky Prospekt, 133 ratings
- ×2
- RestaurantGuru Certificate, 2025 and 2026
A few more quotes from real reviews
From Yandex Maps and 2GIS, popular Russian map apps, unedited apart from the translation:
“The most delicious pyshki in St. Petersburg.”
“Amazing, they melt in your mouth.”
“Soft, fluffy, lovely and sweet.”
“Pyshki the size of a bread roll.”
“Super fresh, the veeery same little pyshki.”
“Fluffy fresh dough + real condensed milk just like in childhood = finger-licking good.”
“Tastes just like childhood.”
“Made on a vintage Soviet machine.”
“They make them right there in front of you.”
Read all reviews on Yandex Maps and 2GIS
Read hundreds of reviews and leave your own on the page of any of our three cafés:
- 118 Nevsky Prospekt
- Yandex Maps → 2GIS →
- 1/25 Malaya Sadovaya St.
- Yandex Maps → 2GIS →
- 2 Moskovsky Prospekt
- Yandex Maps → 2GIS →
Try our pyshki and leave your review
If this is your first time here, come to one of our three cafés in central St. Petersburg. Take a pyshka and give it a try, but don't wander far: you'll be back for more. And if you have already visited, tell others about us in your own words. We are glad of every review.
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