Alyonka Russian Cuisine — Restaurant in Garden City

Alyonka Russian Cuisine⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Elena DeYoung ran Boise’s Russian Food Festival for years before opening Alonkya, which she features the food she grew up eating and cooking in Kazakhstan. Located on the corner of State and Lemp, this cozy restaurant also does lunch and takeout.

My friends and I started with Vegetarian Borscht, a Russian soup made of beets and garden vegetables that is served with sour cream and garlic toast. This was one of our favorite dishes. It was hearty and chock-full of vegetables.

Next, we ordered three appetizers to share:

Shuba Is a traditional Russian salad known as “herring under a fur coat.” Elena’s version is made with smoked salmon. Shubha is a layered salad with smoked salmon, shredded potatoes, carrots, beets and a touch of mayo, topped with grated egg whites and egg yolk.

Baked Pirozhki is a Russian stuffed roll. We chose one with a meat filling that consisted of a mix of beef, chicken and rice, but other options are cabbage or dry fruit chutney.

Smoked Gouda spread served with crackers and pita bread. Well we enjoyed all of the appetizers, this was my personal favorite.

For our entrées, two of us ordered Beef Stroganoff over egg noodles. If you prefer, you can order it over seasoned rice or buckwheat instead. This simple, homemade dish was always my favorite at the Russian Food Festival, so I’m thrilled to see it on Elena’s menu. The beef stroganoff is Swift à la cart. It’s a generous portion that is enough to make two meals for most people.

My other friend ordered Stuffed Red Peppers, Filled with seasoned rice and ground beef. She loved her dish.

For dessert, we ordered two different cakes to share:

Napoleon Cake is a classic Russian cake made a very thin and flaky puff pastry layers with rich cream between the layers. The rich cream is a homemade caramel-like filling made from letting a can of sweetened condensed milk cook over a period of time.

Royal Poppy Seed Ganache Cake Is moist cake layers with a fluffy frosting that is not overly sweet, topped with chocolate ganache and sprinkled with roasted cashews. This cake has a hint of rum which elevates the flavors. Both cakes were delicious but this was everyone’s favorite.

The night we went, our server was Karina who was warm and friendly. She invited us to ask any questions we had about the menu, which was much appreciated. She was also very attentive.

Highly...

I wanted to write a really flowery review commenting on the atmosphere and soviet country decor and lighting and whatnot, but no matter how i drafted it, it all seemed to miss this point:

Alyonka is excellent food. It's just good. Really, really, really dang good food. It's probably the best I've had in years. The color, the texture, the flavor... it's just perfect. Even a month or so removed, i still think about my dinner here. The picture of the borscht is still on my phone. You know how sometimes the bill comes after a meal and you see the price and you're like 'well jeez it wasn't /that/ good'? That doesn't happen here. You get every cent you pay for, and in my opinion, you get even more.

The borscht was excellent- rich and earthy and soul-warming. It came with sour cream (or smetana) and a few slices of lightly toasted sourdough that adds a great foil to the soup. I had a bowl of it, and honestly the night could've ended and i wouldn't have been mad. How good was it? I have a picture of it on my phone at which i occasionally lovingly gaze.

I had the lamb plov, which i can't overstate how delicious it was. Not heavy in oil, but a masterful balance between flavor and lightness. The lamb was cooked to perfection, and the pickles on the side were a nice sour addition to the richness of the dish. There was a tiny shard of bone in the dish, but I will be honest: i did not care. I just set it aside and continued, it doing zero damage to my enjoyment. I will forever be grateful to Elena (the proprietress) for gracing us with this Central Asian treat.

I was lucky enough to share my dinner companion's pelmeni in broth. Dumplings in broth? That's an instant slam dunk at almost any restaurant, but unsurprisingly, Alyonka takes it to planes higher. Savory packets of chewy meat in a broth laced with dill sounds proletariat, but it's a marvel to see how Alyonka evelate the dish into something fit for the tsar's table.

Ok, enough blabbering, im getting hungry. Here's what you need to know:

10/10 food. You're going to pay handsomely (it's about ~100 for 2 with tip), but it's absolutely worth the price. It's worth a trip from out of state. Get the lamb plov....

From the east coast to the west coast, I have never had an experience as incredible as our experience here. I hardly even know where to begin, as the food, wait staff, atmosphere, and everything was just so awesome.

Appetizers wise, we ordered the shuba, which was very good, and was a great start to our meal. The entrees and the desserts were the highlights for sure though.

My wife and I ordered the pelmeni with the broth, as it's a dish that we have tried to make many times, and wanted to see how the pros would do it. It was exceptional, flavored excellently with a really smooth texture. Our friends got the stroganoff, the vareniki, and the shish kebabs. They were equally as impressive, and the portion sizes were just right.

The desserts were out of this world. Similar to the pelmeni, our friend often makes pavlovas, and Alyonka blew us away again. We ended up eating and scraping the plates clean of all five desserts on the menu. The poppyseed ganache cake was my personal favorite, and my wife liked the honey cake the most. All five desserts were incredibly fluffy, creamy, crunchy with nuts, and fruity in all the places they needed to.

The staff were the best part though. Oh my goodness, just...wow.

So incredibly friendly. The waitresses were so fun to talk with, and they gave us excellent recommendations, talked to us, got to know us, and were so pleasant to speak with. The chef/master of desserts was also friendly and came out and talked with us for a while as well.

I've never service so personal as this, and between that, the food, and the nice, small and cozy atmosphere, I honestly can't remember or think of a better restaurant I've had, whether it's west coast, east coast, anywhere. And right here, in little Boise, Idaho. Thanks for...