15 replies to this topic

[Sneakeater]

I guess I've taken on the job of reviewing all the douchebag restaurants. I often end up liking them. This one is good on the food. The rest . . . well it's a matter of taste.

Brasserie Pushkin is a very fancy Russian restaurant on 57th Street, between 5th & 6th (yes, one block over from the Russian Tea Room), owned by a chain of fancy and non-fancy restaurants in Russia. It's a multi-level affair. The interior is very over-the-top. Over-the-top interiors are fine for Russian restaurants. After all, they're Russian. But it's more digestible when there's a touch of whimsy there as well -- as at the original RTR. This is grandiose and ornate, as if you're supposed to take it seriously. I sort of enjoyed it, but others will find it a turn-off.

The prices, unfortunately, go with the decor. This place is expensive. Happily, the food is quite good. I only wish I had eaten at Mari Vanna recently enough to compare them. I suspect Pushkin is better. The almost ironic distressed look of Mari Vanna's interior, however, is far more congenial.

I started with a sturgeon galantine. A bit bland, perhaps, but generally beyond reproach. And then, a dish I've been wanting to try forever: pojarski. This consists of veal and chicken, some ground and some minced, formed together into a cutlet-shaped patty and fried with breading. In the fanciest versions, the meat is put back onto a bone (although not here). It's served, at least here, with a mushroom cream sauce. It's a complete pain in the ass to make.

I very much liked my pojarski here. The meat was extremely light, and the frying was extremely greaseless. What in lesser hands could be an inedible ball of grease was something graceful and quite delicious.

The main dishes are served completely bare. If you want anything with them -- a green vegetable (gulp!), say -- you have to order a side dish. The buckwheat groats with fried onions were perfect. The asparagus (this being a Russian restaurant, with a thick hollandaise) were fine.

We didn't make it to dessert.

Only an idiot would have a cocktail at a place like this, and I am that idiot. What a surprise: too sweet and unbalanced. This place needs a stellar infused vodka list -- but I didn't see one. The wine list was nothing great, but a little better than I'd feared. Mark-ups are predictably high. The sommelier, though, was earnest and likeable.

This is a nice place if, say -- to pull a hypothetical situation out of the air -- you're dating a Russian. The one I took was certainly impressed, which I take to be some kind of testimonial. It would be nice if it were less pretentious (I'm sure my Russian friend wouldn't think that) and also nice if the prices were a little lower (I hear they're opening a lower-priced branch operation somewhere). But this place is not only NOT TERRIBLE, but it's actually rather good. Whoda thunk?

[Wilfrid]

Mari Vanna was good too. Could you go eat at Onegin and tell us about it?

[Sneakeater]

I feel like Onegin just can't possibly be good.

[mitchells]

We didn't make it to dessert.

Shouldn't this be moved to the Bragging thread?

[oakapple]

This place needs a stellar infused vodka list -- but I didn't see one.

I'm pretty sure Mari Vanna has those.

[Sneakeater]

Mari Vanna DEFINITELY has those.

[Sneakeater]

We didn't make it to dessert.

Shouldn't this be moved to the Bragging thread?

We made it to coffee. It was a matter of satiation, not eagerness.

[changeup]

I feel like Onegin just can't possibly be good.

Pretty please?

[Sneakeater]

Speaking of coffee, another rare Russian item they have here is sbiten'. Sbiten' is an uncaffeinated brew that was replaced by tea many centuries ago in Russia and which is hard to find anymore. I wanted to try some -- but I needed the caffeine.

[Suzanne F]

The first time I ever ate at RTR, I had veal pojarski. That was close to 50 years ago. (But yes, I remember the experience although the food was not memorable. I also had lodichka, "little boat," for dessert. Iirc, it was a barquette of chocolate filled with ice cream and cranberry compote. But I could be wrong about the dessert; sweets have never much been my thing.) Anyway, the point is that it's just a croquette (very easy to make), which allows for a lot of hanky-panky (hanko-panko?) but really not a high price. I don't doubt that the one you had was good, but really, it's nothing much.

[Sneakeater]

To me, any cooked food at all is virtually a miracle.

[Suzanne F]

To me, any cooked food at all is virtually a miracle.

I know, I should have stopped myself.

Hey, wanna learn how to roast a chicken? (ah, the good old days)

[Sneakeater]

You know what, Suzanne? They clean the dishes, too!

[Sneakeater]

They even take out the garbage.

[Sneakeater]

It's astonishing, really.