Steamy Russian Samovar

Russian Beer 

Last fall, our Russian friend took us out for a traditional Russian dinner at Russian Samovar. No blog entry appeared, because, well...things got a bit out of hand with all the vodka and beer. This time, we swore not to repeat history. We went back and forth on whether we should order beer this time, but as you can see, beer won out.

Mushrooms & Potatoes, Olivier Salad, and Bliny

Last time we tried the herring and meat platters, but weren't won over, so this time we ordered our favorites. Foreground Right: Olivier Salad is basically the Russian version of potato salad and is therefore delicious. Background: Bliny is a mixture of salmon, capers, crumbled egg yolk, diced red onion, minced egg white, and caviar rolled into a crepe. Soooo good. Foreground Left: some good old fashioned fried potatoes and mushrooms.

Beef & Cabbage Pirozhoks

This time we tried the pirozhoks which are beef or cabbage mixtures in a puff pastry. As stated before on this site, I don't believe I've had anything wrapped in puff pastry that I didn't like.

Dancing

We let our appetizers settle as we danced and enjoyed the live music. I love the feel of the place with it's flowery tablecloths and fringed lamps. It's one of those rare places that makes you miss smoking in restaurants, since it would really fit with the ambience. When The Mr invited me out to dance with something to the effect of 'Come on, let's go' our new waiter friend intervened to show him how to "properly" ask a lady to dance. This was a hilariously welcome intervention at this point, as we had been building up a rapport with him over the course of the evening. It worked like a charm!

Chicken Kiev & Braised Rabbit

After a while we had worked up an appetite for our main course and out came our Chicken Kiev and Braised Rabbit. The quality continued in their entrees.

We had a fair share of vodka

But how can we forget the vodkas! So many amazing infused flavors to try: Garlic, Apple Cinnamon, Coriander, Cherry, Ginger, Chocolate, and Red Pepper...just to name a few. This time, according to our Russian friend, we did things right by drinking our vodka with fatty foods over the course of time and didn't get into trouble.

Honey Cake, Raspberry Napoleon, and Special Tea

Since we were in much better shape than last time, we stuck around for dessert and were so glad we did! The Russian Tea is served with lemon and cherry preserves that you put in to sweeten. The Honey Cake was very good, but the Raspberry Napoleon completely stole the show!