Masha and the Bear Russian Cafe — Restaurant in Aurora

Anya was awesome! It was our first time trying Russian food, so we had no idea what we were getting into. I found a groupon for this place and recognized the name as the kids show my niece and nephew watch. We came in with no expectations for food, since we were mainly there for the kids, but whoa, how unexpected! All the food was amazing!

Borscht: I normally hate beets, so the fact that I absolutely LOVED this red-toned sour soup is amazing. I'm still confused on how they got me to crave this soup, but boy, was it delicious! And served in cute, tiny Dutch ovens, picture-perfect!

Beef stroganov: oh my. Oh my goodness. I think we ate this is record time. The kids loved it (and they're picky, so we were shocked). My niece had a large plate of it and she scraped the plate clean. My nephew had four plates of it and ended up with a clean plate. Wow. That creamy garlic sauce is amazing. The beef was tender, I love green onions, this was the perfect dish.

Vareniki and Pelmeni: meat dumplings and potato dumplings. Boiled, I believe, served with sour cream and a red sauce that I enjoyed. At this point, we were stuffed. But the desserts looked so pretty and enticing..

My sister loved the mousse cake. The kids enjoyed their oreo macarons. And I liked the slice of meringue cake the best. The peach cookie was pretty, the filling was pretty sweet. We had to box the desserts up since we were way too full to finish.

The kids enjoyed playing in the play area and watching Masha and the Bear playing on the TV inside. We also got them the chocolate eggs with figurines inside, which they're currently still playing with. What an...

I brought my boyfriend here so he could try food from my childhood. We ordered Okroshka (cold vegetable soup on a buttermilk base), and it was a big hit. The Olivier salad, which is probably my favorite dish of all time, was also very good. The compote (a boiled fruit/berry drink) was nice as well. I was dissapointed with the dumplings though. The pelmeni taste exactly like the frozen kind you can get at the russian store, and the vareniki had so little filling, which was plain mashed potatoes. We also got the honey cake (medovik), it was alright. I have to keep in mind that every cook makes things their own way, so I try not to judge too much. We came here right during lunchtime, and the restaurant was empty. That's usually not a good sign. I have a few suggestions. Not only sell the food, but the experience as well. Very few Americans will/have ever gone to Eastern Europe. Spice up the decor with a more traditional style. Ditch the french bistro decor and music. At least turn on Lubeh. Seeing the deli sandwich, ceasar salad, and brown rice with quinoa on the menu made laugh. We have russian alternatives! Butterbrod with cured meat, serving a small portion of Olivier salad (or vinigette salad), and adding svekolnik would be nice. Please add perogis to the menu! Its one of the few things Americans have actually heard about. Maybe even cheburek. Add something special to the food to attract russians in the community. I know my mom never took me to russian restaurants because "mom's restaurant" is at home. Maybe have Russian karaoke on...

We have dined with Masha And The Bear numerous times and each time the food quality and order accuracy are progressively worse. We usually go for the staple of beef stroganov and this evening we added on dessert, the Chocolate Mousse Cake. Our stroganov arrived lule warm like it had been sitting around, the beef was not fresh nor was the sauce. While traditional serving in Russia is to place the stroganov atop a bed of mashed Potatoes, we prefer the Americanized style on pasta. Our request for this was completely ignored this time. Last time it was acknowledged but out of the four servings we ordered, some came on spaghetti and some on angel hair pasta. No consistency in the recipe or servings has been a common theme at this place. To make matters worse during this experience the Chocolate Mousse Cake was hard as a rock, the cake layers were crusty and inedible. The "mousse" on top was rock hard almost like fudge candy and again inedible. It would not surprise me if the cake we were served was at least a week old. I hope the owners see the numerous complaints that are very similar to ours on Google, Yelp, GrubHub and other places and will change their ways. When we first started dining here the food was delicious and well worth the $$$ price level. When you're forking out over $250+ for a 2 course meal for four you just expect fresh, delicious food the way you've asked for it to...