If you're one of those people who live by "naangalum sothuku equal ah uppu pottu sapadra aalu thanda" this is not the right place for you. To understand where this cuisine and its roots evolve from, imagine what could be cultivated in a country where the land is frozen for over 8 months every alternate years. This is the culinary opposite to India when it comes to spices. Russia, though huge in size predominantly occupies parts of northern hemisphere and receives way too much snowfall that they could handle. Fun fact: India has been buying Russian aircraft called tuplov for ocean surveillance in the Indian ocean, guess what, there's no air conditioning in the cabin of that aircraft!
Their cuisine predominantly consists of animal protein, diary and very few seasonal vegetables and a few grains that's either imported or grown sparsely. Potatoes are commons and can be seen almost everywhere, from their pancakes to Vodka! So that's why Russian Vodka is so famous and familiar because that's ONLY thing they could cultivate and they gave the world this wonderful spirit.
Spices - Sugar, salt. That's it. There's cheese so if you want, that could count as a spice as well.
About the restaurant- this is located inside the Russian consulate in Chennai. The ambiance is pretty vintage Russian. The ones that you could see from the movie Munich and such. Elaborate sofas lined with white and solid colour upholstery makes the place classy. Blue shades on the walls totally that's contrast with dark blue upholstery is a total translation that screams Russian.
Food - We were served a couple of vegetarian dishes. Being an all veggie table it was the only option. To start off was the Aubergine rolls. Slender slices of eggplant that's filled with walnuts and cream with a cilantro to fill off the gap. A must try.
The mushroom cocotte served with plain toasted bread was a relish as well. Mushrooms were baked withc aramelised onions and cheese lacked a bit of salt but nevertheless good! This was the tipping point, we couldn't handle the food sans spice. Their potato verenikky, or as I'd describe a potato dumplings, the one you forgot to add salt or spices took it to the ultimatum. We helped ourselves with a good drizzle of salt and pepper alongside the cream served. A dish well done sans any flavours. A veg cutlet served with the classic rice serving was a bit deceptive. Mashed potatoes that was batter fried to a cutlet again with tiny salt and no spice took a toll on our buds. The texture of food was fresh and inviting. Rice was the spiciest of all that enhanced the natural sweetness in carrots and rice. Served alongside blanched veggies did make it feel a bit India used yet a wonderful serve.
For those who like the wheat dosa, try the blin. A wheat based dough that wraps around mushrooms and cheese or meat. The vegetarian came with a standard spice dead creamy sauce inside. But if you're lucky try out their meat variants as well.
Off from the main course we jumped rather happily into the desserts with anticipation. Their bakes such as the karchapuri is a weird imitation of a pizza, sans salt ofc. The Napoleon cake is a killer of the lot, the Biscotti finish to replace the sponge cake was a bit of a shock, yet a nice twist. Though not a twist I like yet one I appreciate.
Service was pretty dead that afternoon. I hope it could be sorted and worked out soon enough.
Their cuisine predominantly consists of animal protein, diary and very few seasonal vegetables and a few grains that's either imported or grown sparsely. Potatoes are commons and can be seen almost everywhere, from their pancakes to Vodka! So that's why Russian Vodka is so famous and familiar because that's ONLY thing they could cultivate and they gave the world this wonderful spirit.
Spices - Sugar, salt. That's it. There's cheese so if you want, that could count as a spice as well.
About the restaurant- this is located inside the Russian consulate in Chennai. The ambiance is pretty vintage Russian. The ones that you could see from the movie Munich and such. Elaborate sofas lined with white and solid colour upholstery makes the place classy. Blue shades on the walls totally that's contrast with dark blue upholstery is a total translation that screams Russian.
Food - We were served a couple of vegetarian dishes. Being an all veggie table it was the only option. To start off was the Aubergine rolls. Slender slices of eggplant that's filled with walnuts and cream with a cilantro to fill off the gap. A must try.
The mushroom cocotte served with plain toasted bread was a relish as well. Mushrooms were baked withc aramelised onions and cheese lacked a bit of salt but nevertheless good! This was the tipping point, we couldn't handle the food sans spice. Their potato verenikky, or as I'd describe a potato dumplings, the one you forgot to add salt or spices took it to the ultimatum. We helped ourselves with a good drizzle of salt and pepper alongside the cream served. A dish well done sans any flavours. A veg cutlet served with the classic rice serving was a bit deceptive. Mashed potatoes that was batter fried to a cutlet again with tiny salt and no spice took a toll on our buds. The texture of food was fresh and inviting. Rice was the spiciest of all that enhanced the natural sweetness in carrots and rice. Served alongside blanched veggies did make it feel a bit India used yet a wonderful serve.
For those who like the wheat dosa, try the blin. A wheat based dough that wraps around mushrooms and cheese or meat. The vegetarian came with a standard spice dead creamy sauce inside. But if you're lucky try out their meat variants as well.
Off from the main course we jumped rather happily into the desserts with anticipation. Their bakes such as the karchapuri is a weird imitation of a pizza, sans salt ofc. The Napoleon cake is a killer of the lot, the Biscotti finish to replace the sponge cake was a bit of a shock, yet a nice twist. Though not a twist I like yet one I appreciate.
Service was pretty dead that afternoon. I hope it could be sorted and worked out soon enough.