The Russian Tea Room — Restaurant in New York

Know to be a fancy place so I dressed UP for it. I thought I overdressed but when I get to the place I realized I underestimated how much ladies took the opportunity to dress for the occasion. Group of 4 for dinner on Saturday. The place is just beside the Carnegie Hall so if you would like to see something fancy after hearing something fancy, this is the place to be.

Complementary bread with options of sourdough or pumpernickel is offered. Both breads are fluffy and light and not dense at all (yeah not a lot of pumpernickel really). Paired greatly with their butter.

Appetizer Dushbara The lamb dumplings with cilantro and vinegar. Chewy and bouncy, and not a lot of strong lambness but a good balance of a herb and the meat. The vinegar offered some acidity.

RTR Red Borscht The beet soup with vegetables and beef rib meat, paired with a beef pirozhok and sour cream. My favorite borscht so far in the city. The soup is more creamy and thick rather than watery. Nice balance of sweet and acidity and beefiness and creaminess (if you add sour cream). It is a heartening soup. The pirozhok, on the other hand, lacks in flavor and texture. It is bone dry and the filling didn’t offer enough humidity to save the dry outer crust.

RTR Okroshka The garlic and almond gazpacho served with cucumbers, eggs, sour cream and dill., Sweeter than I expected. I wouldn’t call this dish refreshing. Very creamy in mouthfeel as everything besides the egg is blended into soup. Rather novel combination to me as I don’t usually paired these things together.

Blinchik The huge crepe with beef and cabbage, onions with pickled vegetables. The red wine reduction with beef can never really go wrong. Everyone at the table likes it (except my vegetarian friend off course). It is tender in texture, the beef is stringy and the fat got all rendered. The pickled vegetables offsets the greasiness.

Entrees Wild mushroom stroganoff Like the name suggested, it is a very mushroom forward creamy egg noodle dish. Not very innovative. The noodles are cooked to have a slight chew. You kinda know what it tasted like before you taste it.

Vegetable Wellington Vegetables wrapped in a puff pastry. Do yourself a favor and please don’t order this. Surprisingly goat cheesy. Very mushy and the pastry is not crispy. There is no textural contrast nor good flavor. All the vegetables flavors are masked under the cream sauce. Not recommended.

Potato Vareniki Ukrainian dumplings filled with potatoes and onions in dill butter and sour cream. The dill adds more to the creaminess from the butter and the potato. It is also a classic flavor dish that doesn’t go wrong.

Dessert Famous tea room blintzes The cheese and cherry blintzes with vanilla ice cream. Cherry is tart. Cheese one is better in flavor. The ice cream is icey not smooth.

Banana Nalysbyky The Ukrainian banana and farmers cheese stuffed crepes. If you like baked bananas you will like this one. Sweet and subtly savory and nutty. Not much textural difference but that’s not necessary with this dish.

Chocolate mousse cake A triple layered mousse cake that is basically what you imagined. So-so flavor.

Medovik Urkanrian honey cake, my personal favorite from the mass. It is NOT like the Malaysian style honey comb cake that I imaged, in fact it is nothing like I imaged. A moist, moderately sweet, topped with a bit of nut for crunchiness and caramel for extra sweetness.

Expect to come here for the style over substance. It is Russian style food with good service but with French pricing and portion. We ate and enjoyed the view and the decor and even the hallway downstairs to the restroom, yet it doesn’t stop us from thinking maybe we need to get pizzas later due to the void in stomach, after...

This restaurant is historically legendary, originally established by Russian Imperial Ballet in 1926. It was visited by Lots of diplomats, artists, celebrities & multiple awards were being held in the gorgeous Ballrooms upstairs, the restaurant has 4 floors altogether. We visited during a Restaurant week & it was an interesting experience. Being New York locals & of Russian heritage we were curious to finally visit & sample their cuisine. We went for a Thursday late dinner after Moulin Rouge musical, the restaurant seemed decadent enough to match the theme. We went with restaurant week special & ordered Boef a la Stroganoff, lamb chops, salmon, scallops, RTR salad , Medovik cake, baked Alaska & chocolate mousse cake for desert & bottle of wine and our bill was 300+. All food was beautifully presented but lamb & salmon were pretty dry, either overcooked or re-heated. Medovik was also not up to par - too dry. I would rate their service, chef & patissier as ‘3’ if not for presentation & nice touches from the manager. The Boef Stroganoff, chocolate desert & scallops were good but not the best we’ve had. We are spoiled New Yorkers & foodies though. We had to wait for at least half hour for the tea after the desert was served & when we inquired if the tea was still coming when we were presented with the bill we were told ‘ I don’t think so’ by the server. Our son glanced at the presented bill & informed the server that we were actually charged for the tea we weren’t served, to which he interestingly responded ‘ did you ask for it?’ Granted it was late but we were disappointed. The teapot did arrive some time even later when we were finished with the dessert half an hour ago. As we were leaving, the manager inquired if we had a good time & actually gave us a quick private tour of the second floor banquet hall. I would give the manager a separate excellent rating which unfortunately isn’t the case with the rest of our experience at this restaurant. Generally, a restaurant of this caliber, with their pricing & setup, sets certain expectations as sharp looking pleasant & white gloved service staff, which were not even closely met. The staff shall presumably be familiar with the theme culture if not a part of it. This restaurant feels like a cold blast from the past, with great selection of beginning of the era Russian artifacts, as beautiful samovar collection, art works & other symbolic wall artistry displayed, with not a single server or any other employee present speaking the language or familiar with culture. The restrooms are in the basement in the room that seem to be previously serving as a gift shop & coat check, currently even more outdated & deserted. There’s a reason why each section in Disney’s Epcot representing a country theme requires employees originating accordingly & speaking the language. Not sure if going for high tea would be a more positive experience because getting the tea was a bit problematic, and getting our waiters attention nearly impossible even though the place was nearly empty. By the way, lots of more modern artifacts are available locally from the St Petersburg & other themed stores on Brighton beach,...

I want to start this review by saying you should try Russian Tea Room for yourself, personally, I was disappointed. I booked a reservation based on an email recommendation I received from the Gershwin Theatre as a place to have dinner prior to seeing Wicked.

At the time of booking I was unaware that it was a pop icon mentioned in several TV shows. The decor is different, not bad, just different. The seating layout is odd, my wife and I sat side by side in a both facing the center of the restaurant which made us feel a little odd.

The staff were very friendly and professional. Our waiter was chatting with the tables on either side of us, but did not attempt small talk with us. He was direct and professional the entire time. The only negative I could say about the staff is that we did not get a choice in bread, while every table around us did.

The food is the reason for my one star review. It was not necessarily bad, but incredibly disappointing for a restaurant at this price point. Ill start with the bread. As previously mentioned we did not get a choice in bread, we were served dinner rolls. The outside was hard enough to break a plate glass window, it took a good bit of finger strength to break the roll open. Once open the inside was alright, but the outside was borderline inedible. After the bread came the cocktails. We ordered the Ivan the Terrible and a Cosmonaut. They were strong but small, slightly more expensive than the average cocktail price but about right for a restaurant in this price point. This was probably the best part of our meal. Next came the entrees, and what made me upset enough to write a one star review three weeks after I had dinner at the Tea Room. I ordered the duck for $52. The Duck as described on the menu was the reason I talked my wife into eating at the Russian Tea Room. Now I have had duck from other restaurants on 2 or 3 occasions and have always received a duck breast. Now shame on me for not asking the server before ordering but I did not expect to receive one Duck leg and a one inch cube of duck meat. I would have expected it to say drumstick or leg but this really made me angry for a $52 plate. The flavor wasn’t bad, except for the cabbage slaw that was so over sweet I couldn't finish it. In the end I walked out hungry. I wish my wife’s plate was better, but it wasn't. She ordered the Cod that had a layer of breading thicker than the fillet on each side and did not compliment the fish. The fillet itself was good, but she discarded most of the breading. For dessert we ordered creme brulee. This dish is supposed to come with carmelized sugar on top, instead it came with a blackened, disgusting glaze that we had to pick off. I really am not trying to be picky here, but the sugar top was dark black and gross.

In the end we paid over $200 for a dinner and we walked out still hungry. I encourage you to try this restaurant, and hopefully you have a better experience than we did, but if you don't make sure you have a place you can get food after. I personally do not plan to go back and I would not reccommend The Russian Tea Room...