The Most Confusing Lunch I've Ever Had

When I got that second bowl of miso soup, I definitely knew something was up.

My hotel in St. Petersburg, Russia was very convenient to the main attractions of this beautiful city. Each morning I would head down the street to explore, always passing by a sushi restaurant that advertised with a menu on the wall, enclosed in a glass case.

I love sushi and stopped at one point to take a look at that menu. It highlighted several items as part of a lunch special during the times of 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. I decided that later that day I would stop in for lunch after my exploration.

I finished up my sightseeing for the day around 2:15 pm. Still enough time to make the lunch at the sushi place.

I went inside and was given a menu which looked a little different from the one posted outside. Going to the section with the lunch specials I saw that those specials were only offered until 2:00 pm.

I missed it.

Must have been an old menu outside. But I was already in the restaurant so I decided to just stay.

However, I was a little nervous about how much this would cost me. I had already experienced the ridiculously high prices in some restaurants around Moscow and St. Petersburg, so I wanted to make sure I didn’t get blindsided in this place.

I noticed a menu item that had 8 pieces of sushi. The price was equivalent to around $30 USD (in 2007 US dollars). Steep, but actually fairly reasonable compared to some of the meals I had recently experienced, like the pasta and garlic bread with one glass of wine that cost me $70 at an Italian restaurant in Moscow.

It looked like the sushi included a soft drink as well. So when I placed the order, I told the waiter I would like a Coca-Cola.

A short time later the waiter arrived with my drink, but it was actually two glass bottles of Coke. They were kind of small, so I figured maybe they ran out of the normal size bottle and were giving me two smaller size bottles instead. Nothing unusual.

Then the waiter brought me two small bowls of salad. Hmm. Why two? I was feeling a little puzzled.

This was quickly followed by two small bowls of miso soup. My jaw dropped slightly in disbelief and confusion.

OK, what’s going on here? I started wondering. Why am I getting two of everything?

I glanced around to the other tables nearby me to see if anyone else was getting double items. It didn’t appear to be the case.

Did the waiter not understand what I was asking for? Was this a case of “lost in translation” in the days before Google Translate?

I laughed to myself and thought, there’s no way they’re going to give me double sushi.

Well, I was wrong.

The waiter arrived carrying two trays containing a total of 16 pieces of sushi and placed them in front of me.

For a moment I just stared at it, not believing what I was seeing.

Now, I was hungry and I knew I could eat all of the sushi. But what was troubling me was how much this was going to cost me. I had seen the price for 8 pieces of sushi was around $30. Did this mean my lunch bill was now going to be $60, or maybe even more?

I stopped thinking about that for a while and just enjoyed the sushi. It was quite good.

Finally, I was done and the moment of truth arrived. I signaled to the waiter that I was ready for the bill.

After he placed the bill holder in front of me, I just stared at it for a moment before slowly opening it to peek at the bill inside. My eyes opened wide in disbelief. The final cost totally shocked me.

The total was $15.

I did a double take, checked my conversion from rubles to US dollars, looked for something I was missing.

Nope. This feast of a meal was only $15.

I was sure there must have been an error or misunderstanding somewhere, so I quickly paid the bill before someone discovered it and bolted out the door.

To this day I have no idea why I got double of everything…for half the price.

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My trip to Russia was full of unusual and awkward situations. Here’s another one I recently wrote about: Well, THAT Was Awkward! My Overnight Train Trip in Russia