Arriving in St Petersburg alone is easy; finding someone to spend the evening with is the hard part. By day three the tour is over, the bars on Rubinstein Street are full of groups you cannot join, and your longest conversation is with a waiter. Since 2025 the city has had a format that solves this mechanically: dinner with strangers. Here is how the Convium service works, what an evening really costs, who it suits, and what to do instead if 1,500 rubles for an introduction feels like too much.
Quick answer
What it is. Convium (convium.ru) seats 4–6 people who do not know each other at one table in a St Petersburg restaurant, around a theme for the evening. The group is matched from a questionnaire: interests, age, preferences.
Price. Participation costs 1,500 ₽; the first dinner is 1,000 ₽ with the promo code ОСЕНЬ30. Food and drinks are paid separately, on the restaurant's bill.
How to join. Register on the website, fill in the questionnaire, pick a date and pay. Tables are formed one day before the dinner, and you get the venue by message. Cancel 24 hours or more in advance for a full refund.
The one rule. You cannot come with a friend: only people who have never met sit together.
How the dinner works
You choose an evening on the site — each has a theme, from "travel" or "films" to simply "new in town". After payment you are on the list; the day before, the organisers assemble tables from the questionnaires and send the restaurant address and time. At the venue a host or a table sign meets you, and the rest is an ordinary dinner for five or six, with more "where are you from" than usual. The menu and the bill belong to the restaurant; the Convium fee only covers matching and the reservation.
Venues are in the centre, mostly on the Petrograd Side and around Nevsky Prospekt, so everyone can reach them by metro. A dinner runs two to three hours. Group chats afterwards are up to the participants.
Who it is for
The format works for visitors staying a week or two who want one proper evening of conversation. It also works for newcomers to the city, with a caveat the most-liked comment under the service's video puts well: "Meeting people is not the problem, meeting them a second and third time is." A dinner gives you the first contact; the rest is up to you.
It does not work for groups: the strangers-only rule is strict. It is not dating either — tables are mixed by gender and age, and the theme comes from the questionnaire, not from a search for a partner. And the second most popular comment is simply "the prices ☠️": with a dinner in a decent restaurant the evening costs 3,500–5,000 ₽ per person.
