Coffee Bar Bonch, St Petersburg, Russia

The building that was once home to the St Petersburg University of Telecommunications has now been transformed into a slick coffee shop by the restaurateurs behind King Pong and Zig Zag. Clean lines, neutral tones, raw woods and low-slung soft lighting lend the spacious room a cosy atmosphere, perfect for long coffee-fueled Sunday brunches. Meanwhile quirky details such as a 1952 Siemens telephone behind the serving counter nod to the bar’s previous life. Not to forget the coffee, which Bonch takes seriously: choose your own brew using various filtering methods from Chemex to Hario and La Marzocco, or try a bottle of Cold Brew to accompany a menu comprising roast beef sandwiches with baked peppers and caramalised onion or a smoked turkey salad with camembert, pear and raspberry vinaigrette. We recommend the drunken pear for dessert - perhaps best savoured with a book from the library upstairs.