Kachka — Restaurant in Portland

Wow! Kachka came highly recommended to me and boy, did it meet expectations and more! I felt like every dish was better than the last (except for the bread and butter).

The atmosphere is interesting. Its industrial/modern, yet has a certain Russian home feel to it. There's also a constant stream of electro music playing which gives a modern vibe. We were able to get a table of 4 without reservation at 6:15pm...we were however given a caveat to finish and depart by 8pm because of existing reservations. No problem.

Our meal began with the Norweigan mackerel and tvorog which is a Russian cheese with a consistency between cottage cheese and mascarpone. It also comes with garnishes of onion and sprouts. Overall, the dish was easy on the palate. It had the right brininess/smokiness on the fish tempered by the creaminess from the cheese.

Next came the famed salted herring under a fur coat which is a 7 layered "salad" meant to be consumed like a layered cake. This dish was soooo good! Everything paired perfectly together. The eggs added a nice richness, beets and carrots gave a nice sweetness, mayo added a little creaminess, salted herring added a nice bite, and it was all brought together with the starchy potatoes.

Then came our dumplings. We had them both ways ordering the traditional meat dumplings boiled and the soured cherry variety pan fried. Both were absolutely delicious in their own ways. The meat dumplings had probably one of the most flavorful fillings I've ever had the pleasure of consuming in any ethnic dumpling. And the sour cherry was just on another level as far as memorable goes. I can't even describe it - I absolutely loved the latter! Each of these come with about 24 quarter sized dumplings.

Following up this dish was the kahchapuri which is a russian cheese calzone of sorts served piping hot and with 2 varieties of dipping sauce - one savory (spice heavy), one sweeter (made with soured plums). Both were good and our table was divided on which was our favorite of the two.

At this point, we felt like the dishes were pretty small and opted to add bread and butter to help fill us up. Wrong move. For $5, you essentially get 2 pieces of bread with house butter and sea salt....and a giant scallion. Oh, bread isn't even toasted. Highway robbery! Least memorable dish of the night, sadly.

But it's okay, we rebounded. Our meal was completed with a lamb skewer and the stewed rabbit which came with some potato cakes. The rabbit is a 100% must order! It was soooo tender! And it paired wonderfully with garlic and more soured cherries (sour cherries are legit my favorite thing at the moment). Yes, it's not a big portion, but it was made so well that its size was a moot point.

All in all, excellent meal! We finished just in time too...at 7:55pm. ;)

100% would return if I'm ever back...

I used to LOVE this place, it was my absolute favorite restaurant when it first opened. I don't live in Portland so I was so excited to go back for my birthday and booked a reservation to celebrate. First off the food was very subpar, I'm not sure what happened but things that blew my mind (like retired rolling into the back of my head good) were now just mediocre or even "kind gross". But the worst part was our waiter. I ordered the "ruskie experience" where you get many small plates to fill your table. My waiter asked if I had any food restrictions, and I stated I could not eat cilantro but figured there probably wasn't much cilantro since it was Russian food. As the food started coming out, the third dish definitely had cilantro in it to my surprise. I asked the waiter and she stated that she didn't think there was any but if there was "it's just a little bit". (Note that I have the "cilantro gene" so any amount can render the dish inedible to me), she was very dismissive of me. Out came more dishes and at least three or four more had cilantro on them. I asked a different waiter if that was cilantro and she looked at me worried and told me she didn't know but would go find out from the kitchen. When she came back she apologized and started that it was "it was an herb mix but it was primarily cilantro". I let my actual waiter know and she kind of apologized but acted more like "what do you want me to do about it?" And my husband saw her talking about us from a far like I was an obnoxious customer or something. So then my main dish comes out and I specially had picked a dish that had morel mushrooms on it with dumplings, and the morels were completely missing. It was $24 or so, vs just the regular dumplings that were $14. I understand not all the extra cost was morels but I'm pretty sure the majority of it was. I wanted to inform our waiter but she specially kept avoiding our table until we just ended up eating the dish because we were hungry. When I finally was able to talk to her I informed her of the mistake, staying I understand we'd need to pay for it since we ate it but that we were very disappointed. Again she did say sorry but more like "what do you want me to do about it" but did say she would talk to her manager. In the end I did get a free shot of vodka for my birthday, and the manager took off $4 for missing morels..but honestly it was not nearly enough for a meal that I could not eat half of the food, despite me pre warning them I couldn't eat cilantro and a main dish that was much worse than the $14 alternative I wish I had ordered. All in all, it really put a damper on my birthday and made me feel like I never wanted to return, which is so disappointing to lose a favorite restaurant. It may be worse then...

If I could give more than 5 stars I would. First off, the decor when we walked in was so beautiful and thoughtfully decorated. The food, drinks, and service here are phenomenal. Our server, Derek, was the best server I've ever had at any restaurant, and I say that as a former weekend server. I highly recommend requesting him by name. He walked us through the entire menu, and his knowledgeability is really impressive, to the point that even the hostess commented on how above and beyond he goes in learning about Eastern European culture, food, and pronunciation of various dishes. My boyfriend and I were both completely blown away by this restaurant, it was one of the best meals each of us have ever had. We started with the Heirloom Tomato Salat (per Derek's recommendation), it was really unique and the dressing was super flavorful. Afterwards, we had the Siberian Pelmeni which was equally delicious and unique. For mains, we had the Rabbit in a clay pot, and afterwards we had the Halibut skewers. Both were absolutely delicious, but if I had to pick a favorite out of the two I would choose the Rabbit. Compared to other rabbit that I've tried at other restaurants, this was exceptionally better because the cut allowed for us to pull much more meat off the bone without having to deal with as many small bones as I've experienced at other restaurants. The back of house definitely knows what they're doing. For dessert, we had a buckwheat ice cream covered in a ganache and served with sour cherry sauce, which was also DELICIOUS and equally as unique as everything else we tried. Additionally, their Moscow Mules are phenomenal, and alongside dessert we both had the Chaikhana cocktail, which was honestly one of the best cocktails I've ever had. I don't write reviews that often, but this restaurant stood out so much to both of us that I felt inclined to ask for Derek's name to write this review because of how great of an overall experience this was. Every time my boyfriend and I go out from now on when he's in town, we're going to come here and request Derek by name as our server. 10/10 recommend this place, everything was absolutely delicious. Derek...