Ruta Ukrainian Restaurant — Restaurant in Washington

Overall I Just wanted to say that I was very much excited to try the new restaurant. I really wanted to like it. Overall grade: C-, will come back there only if a very close friend insists.

📍 Location: It's located near the capital northeast of washington dc. The neighborhood is reasonably pretty and clean.. Parking is extremely limited.

🪑 The ambience of the establishment greatly resembles a soviet-era eatery with small plastic tables elbow-to-elbow and paintings of our leaders or, in this case, ukrainian royalty on the walls. The furniture is dusty pink grandmother color that clashed is with just about anything people wear. there the portraits of supposedly ukrainian royalty not much to look at. The plates served for entrees are actually dessert plates.

🫂 When I say tables are elbow to elbow that's what I mean. It's literally a row of plastic tables against the wall and whether you like it or not you are in for a communal dining Experience. A couple sitting next to me was practically whispering and I still couldn't avoid listening in.

⏰️ It took fourteen minutes for the waitress to approach me and ask me for my order. She was very sweet and cute and apologized. Previously when I fled out asked her why it took such a long time. She responded that she did not notice me there. She brought me a shot of cranberry vodka as an apology. Vodka was actually pretty terrible, very diluted and tasted like syrup more than an adult drink. Not one person there looked professional. Half of the staff had their hair down. Even people in the kitchen. Water boy and man were less than friendly.

📄 The menu was unclear about half of the dishes. Agree with the other review that they need to get Restaurant 101 consulting for their menu and coursing order

🎶 Ukrainian music was OK. Didn't love it.

🍛 The dish I ordered was stuffed cabbage leaves and it was pretty deisn't but seemed on a much smaller side than what i'm used to and slightly overseasoned. The family to the left of me ordered a dish that I was actually considering which was burrata and beets, And I'm so glad that the dish was brought out before. I ordered it because it was literally Five slices of beats and a piece of cheese. Also they got The dumplings . Just four random dumplings thrown on a plate with a little shower cream. The couple to the right of me ordered polenta Which seems questionable.. The guys certainly didn't seem excited eating it. The girl ordered chicken kiev Which I was also considering. Again it was tiny and bred out On a small dessert plate. I think on top of a piece of bread but it might be wrong on that. They're honeycake Did not look like honeycake, With thick layers of cream.

🎤 Have you ever cringed at a birthday song? Well I did today. How can one screw up a birthday song beats me, But apparently That waitress is Is waiting to be discovered opera singer. She was loud. She was off beat. I thought I was going to die. Cringe cringe...

Wow! Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! Where to begin? Backstory: I am from the region, from the border of Ukraine, where the southern regions share much of the same food with Ukraine's cuisine. Additionally, I am also a trained chef in a much former life)) and worked in a few restaurants in a few cities, including a yearlong stint in Kiev! So I think I have a good idea of how these dishes should be prepared and their quality. Ruta excelled on every single point. No, seriously, this was insanely good. My review won't do it justice.

We decided to try a bit of everything - svekol'niy salad, draniki, and soleniya for the first course. Oh man! Everything was just excellent. Especially the draniki. Draniki in Ukraine differ just a little bit - they are more savory and a finer grate. This was like butter in your mouth. Wow!

Then I had kotleta po kievskii and my wife had golubtsi. Both of these dishes are much harder to make perfectly than meets the eye vs. homestyle. And once again, 11/10. Kotleta did not squirt hot oil, it was juicy as chicken can get and the bone was exquisitely wrapped (also a craftwork of its own!). The golubtsi got the mince mix impeccably. Was blown away by both dishes.

We were so stuffed after this, but we couldn't pass up on desserts after loving everything else. So we got a plate of vareniki and a slice of Kiev tort. The Kiev tort seemed made in-house, which would be the biggest feat, as it is notoriously hard to make even in commercial facilities. The vareniki were, I am serious here, better than any I had in Ukraine. The dough was of just ideal consistency, thickness, and the tvorog inside was nothing like what you get in America.

I am overjoyed that Ruta opened shop here. I really hope everyone gets to try it and dispel all the slander about Eastern European food. It is easily one of my favorite restaurants in DC area for the time being. I will certainly be back - many, many times.

My only recommendations is to add a beef version of the borsch as well. It was the reason I did not get it. Oh, but the pampushka on the other table...

The food was good!

The service was bizarre. There were precisely two tables of customers of 3 and 4 dining when we arrived, so there were many other tables, but the host seated us right next to the table of 3 in the corner of the room, and it felt cramped. We were very close to the next table. Also, it was directly next to the window, and it was cold. There were about 5-6 waitress girls in a similar outfit, but it took them half an hour to receive the order. When they finally received the order, the staff did not look at me once, but she kept looking at my partner and smiling. Then, after even more waiting, the food finally came out, and it was quite a small dish. But it wasn’t bad. The food wasn’t warm. It was cold outside, and we were sitting next to the window. Inside, it wasn’t particularly warm either, but they gave us icy water, so I was shivering. I wanted to ask for hot water, and I kept looking for the staff, but even after making eye contact multiple times, they turned around and went away, even though they weren’t busy. I had no idea what was going on. I looked at the kitchen, and a guy with an apron who wasn’t doing anything looked at me, so I raised my hand, but he didn’t respond, so I waved my arm big at him as if I was saying hi to a person across a big street. But he did not budge. After I finished my meal, one staff member came over, so I asked for hot water, and she said okay, and then another staff member came and poured cold water. So I asked again, and she said you need to order tea; otherwise, we don’t have hot water. The dishes were small, so we ordered desserts. It was also small but pretty good. We spent two hours there, most of the time waiting and trying to get their attention.

For an expensive sit-down restaurant, I would expect them to have much better service by the staff, use real cloth napkins, and have hot water available...