Russian and Eastern European Reccomendations

[kare_raisu]

First of all Robert please dont post any searches.

I am interested in some up to date info on dining options re. the above. Russian deli reccomendations?

[rworange]

Which Russian Deli recs. I remember going off on a rant somewhere about the joint in Campbell, but I don't remember where or when. Are you looking for something specifically or just want to know what's out there.

Hope you get some new responses. The Eastern European dining scene is sort of static. I have been meaning to get over to Russian Renaissnace in SF as I read a while ago ... probably close to a year now ... that there were some changes there.

[Glencora]

That's still there? With all the huge, creepy dolls in lacy clothing? I haven't been since I was a kid, but the place gave me nightmares.

[rworange]

yeaaah ... looking over on Yelp it seems they re-opened in August of this year ... though I had heard of some ownership change long before that ... hmmm ... it seems they are serving amuse-bouches now ... how do you say that in Russian?

They did a remodel and they have caviar samplers and vodka samplers

Anyway, I spoke too soon ... seems there's a new Russian joint ... I'm not even going to pretend about where this info came from

Sadko

2229 Clement St
(between 23rd Ave & 24th Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94121
[phone]
Hours:

Tue-Thu 12:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m.
Fri-Sun 12:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m.

[Robert Lauriston]

You want restaurants rather than just plain delis with no seating?

Holy Land in Berkeley makes good stuffed cabbage. With the exception of occasional specials and matzoh-ball soup, everything else on the menu is Middle Eastern.

Has anyone tried Xenia in Alamo? Sorry about the wrong link, that's really broken right now.

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Campbell & Co
15 Railroad Ave, Danville, CA 94526

[Robert Lauriston]

Trying again:

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Xenia Bistro
115 Alamo Plz, Alamo, CA 94507

[Melanie Wong]

Yep, I've been to Xenia, more than a year ago. Highly disappointed to find nothing Rumanian on the menu. And, no homemade sausages of any kind! Not worthy of the son of a sausage maker. We ended up ordering pizza, iirc, and it was nothing special, despite the wood oven and JK's high praise. Our waitress was a complete ditz.

Edited to add: Now I'm remembering ordering the goulash soup that was pretty good. Said to be grandma's recipe except made with chicken because the locals don't like red meat and especially not pork. Sad, so sad.

[rworange]

Here the Jonathan Kauffman review
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/2005-04...

Too bad, it was starting to interest me.

[rworange]

Robert, any scoop on Russian Rennaisance? Found this 2001 review on SFWeekly ...
http://www.sfweekly.com/2001-02-07/dining/back-in-the-u-s-s-r/full

However from the work-in-progress website there's this info (gotta click on reservations to get it).
http://russianrenaissance.com/

"Simon Wright is the Chef/Owner of the restaurant. He has trained in Europe´s top Hotels and Michelin Star Restaurants. Simon changes the menu monthly in order to utilise the best ingredients available.

Creghan Molloy Wright is the Maitre´d/Owner of the restaurant. The service is professional and welcoming. The waiting staff have an excellent understanding of the wines available, sourced from New Zealand, Australia and France.

The wine list changes regularly to complement the menu and vintage changes.

Fine Russian names, eh? Anyway, these guys been sending out press releases? See ... if the original review had some background info about the chef/owner ... I wouldn't have to ask :-)

[Robert Lauriston]

Looks like that couple moved to New Zealand and took their Web bios with them:

http://www.thefrenchcafe.co.nz/pages/...

[kare_raisu]

either..interested in cold russian salads as well.

[Robert Lauriston]

The only other Eastern European restaurants I've heard of that haven't gone out of business are Old Krakow (very mixed reports here) and Chopin Cafe.

Britt-Marie's has some Eastern European dishes.

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Old Krakow Polish Restaurant - closing June 15, moving
385 W Portal Ave, San Francisco, CA 94127

Chopin Cafe
1574 Palos Verdes Mall, Walnut Creek, CA 94597

Britt-Marie's
1369 Solano Ave, Albany, CA 94706

[rworange]

Are you actualy able to add Places records? If so, please post on site talk about how.

[pane]

I like the selection at Europa Express out on Irving. My family is Polish, not Russian, so the food tastes a bit different than what is home-cooking to me, but still I like this place a lot. Often the staff at the deli counter does not speak English, but you can point and get what you want, even if you can't ask specifics about ingredients and preparation.

It's not letting me link, so I'll just type in that this is at 1342 Irving, between 14th and 15th, nearish the Andronico's.

[rworange]

Here's a sorta Czech place in Santa Rosa that hasn't been mentioned in a while. The website still works, so I assume it is still in business

Marbles Cafe
http://sterba.com/sro/marbles/
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/21082

[Robert Lauriston]

Oh yeah, there's also Cafe Prague in SF.

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Cafe Prague
424 Merchant St, San Francisco, CA 94111

[Eat_Nopal]

I believe that site was taken over by Red Rose Cafe.

[chocolateninja]

Unfortunately Marbles Cafe is no more. As EN said, it was taken over by The Red Rose Cafe (most definitely NOT Russian or Eastern European food). This thread makes me miss Moosetta's Piroshki's in Sonoma. *pout* I wish it hadn't gone out of business.

Here's a link to the Check Please Bay Area reviews of Old Krakow (from Nov 2005, so a bit dated): http://blogs.kqed.org/food/?p=26

[Eat_Nopal]

Howabout the little snack stand across the street from Howarth Park (next to Mary's)... I am intrigued by the sign advertising Piroshkis (or was it Perogies)... haven't stopped there yet.

[kare_raisu]

Is this by the rialto mary's?

[Eat_Nopal]

Yup.... I can't remember the name but it references the park somehow.... maybe Lakefront Deli or something of that nature.

[katya]

What about Katia's in San Francisco. Are they still around? My friends know I love Russian food (hence my Chowhound alias) so they kidnapped me one year on my birthday and took me here. Love their chicken dish (similar to Chicken Kiev but not stuffed) their mushroom cutlet, and their desserts. There preparations are so much lighter and tastier than other Russian restaurants.

Russian Family Bistro in San Bruno was the last Russian restaurant I checked out. Their food was only mediocre (I had the stroganoff over kasha). They do have a deli next door.

[epicurious_sf]

Personally, I've had good experience at Katia's - the pelmeni and blini were quite good.

I've also enjoyed Old Krakow, though I suppose that I can side with some of the criticism that many of the dishes are heavy on salt. But then, we're not talking weight-watcher's food here. Of note are the many selections of Polish beer which I've never seen in the US.

[Robert Lauriston]

I like Old Krakow's mushroom pierogi, "sourdough soup" (white borscht), and bigos, but some other reports here found those dishes wanting.

[Maya]

Cinderella Bakery and Cafe is definitely one to try. I'vebeen going there since I was 4 years old. I think the food is more authentic than Katia's, though I had a particularly bad experience at Katia's. The service at Cinderella is definitely Soviet-style. You've just got to laugh at their surliness. Especially when they are serving awesome borsch, brown bread, pelemeni and fresh dill along with their surliness.

[rworange]

Here's my Google map of every known-to-me Eastern European restaurant and deli.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF...

This was kind of interesting since I thought I had been to almost every Eastern European joint in the Bay Area. However, if you look at that map, the green balloons are all the places I missed.

There's a lot of places called Euro-something that I sort of compressed into fewer places.

I forget there's two places called Tratkir in SF.

Also, Europa Express has been high on my list to try ... turns out it is one of my favorite places that I've been calling Quality Market ... though I think that WAS the name since there are other references to it on the web. I wonder if ownership changed.

[Robert Lauriston]

Isn't Euromix Russian? Nice store.

[rworange]

Yeaaah ... It's one of those places like Winmart that has so many general Eastern European items, I couldn't decide. Since you get there more than I do, I gave Russian star billing. Added Cafe Prague and Xenia which I forgot about ... though it sounds like from Melanie's post I probably shouldn't have bothered with Xenia Thanks

[katya]

That map is really cool! I could have used it when I made a map of all SF Russian businesses for my Honors Thesis ten years ago. (It was about where the 1970s-present wave of Russian immigrants settled and why and how they were different from previous waves.)

There are only two places I could think of that you could add to your map.
One is Transilvania, a Romanian restaurant in Los Gatos.
The other is Russian Bear (if it still exists), a Russian restaurant in SF on Clement.

[Robert Lauriston]

Transilvania's Web site:

http://www.transilvanialg.com/

A different business claims Russian Bear's old address:

http://www.livingimg.com/info/?type=a...

[rworange]

Seems to be a bad luck location. That place is gone to be replaced by House of Banquets, a Chinese dim sum joint ... somewhere between the above place and Russian Bear there was another Chinese joint
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/415024

What you gotta appreaciate about Russian Bear is there are people out there on the web still bitching about it years after it closed ... memorably bad, I guess.

Thanks, I knew I forgot something. I added Transilvania, a place I want to try actually.

It's interesting with the Asian joints replacing the Russian joints, the Russian population seems to be on the upswing in the Richmond with Sadko replacing an Asian business. Then there's the 2nd Europa Express. Sadko moved to the top of my Russian places to try edging out Russian Rennaisance.

Kind of ironic there's no Russians in the Russian River area, eh?

[katya]

There's Fort Ross near where the Russian River meets the ocean but not much else. Not many Russians on Russian Hill either.

Once upon a time the big Russian neighborhood was in the Western Addition (where the Russian Center was) and to a lesser extent Potrero Hill with some adherents to a Russian Shaker-like religion (still some old Russians in both places). Then they got more upwardly mobile and moved to the Richmond District in the 60s. What I find fascinating is that I read that Clement Street was primarily a Russian street in the early 60s. You'd never know it today. I'm not sure how the main street of Russian commerce moved to Geary.

[rworange]

Probably has to do with the Church on Geary. There are quite a few Russian delis and restaurants near that.

[poulet_roti]

Can you comment on anything you had at Sadko or experiences? I just walked by there this afternoon and peaked in the door and thought the place looked pretty good.

[rworange]

Haven't been yet. Probably will be the first place I go next time I'm in the City.

[rworange]

OK, finally went to Sadko and liked it very much on my first visit
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/446194

It was Russian day in SF for me ... not that I didn't try to get brunch at Julius Castle and almost went to Enricos ... blast from the past day in SF will have to wait. Turns out brunch is only on Sunday at JC ... but gee that view was terrific on this sunny day.

ANYWAY, I was really impressed with Europa Express on Irving. It once was Quality Market that had some baked goods (a terrific strudel) and a little Deil. Quality Market was mainly a bad liquor store/deli.

Europa Express cleaned up the joint and it is all Russian now with an expanded deli and baked goods section and a good produce section, dairy section, etc.

I bought mainly deli items for dinner tommorrow, but took a few small bites to try out some stuff while it was fresh. Europa Express has the best piroshki I've ever had ... ever. It made me re-conisider the piroski as more than either hockey pucks or greasy flavorless turnovers. i can hardly wait to eat it tommorrow. Darn fine strudel too ... I had ... get this ... FRESH PEACH STRUDEL ... so good, so good.Will write more about it tommorrow.

Peeked into the new Russian Rennaisance which now bills itself as California-Russian ... and there are a lot of fresh, local ingrediants. Love that the borsht comes with baby piroshki.

What truly cracked me up though ... and I'm standing in the street reading the menu and involuntarily giggling ... at lunch the burger is called the "Sputnick" ... burger, sourkraut, pickle, guyere and Russian dressing (so called secret sauce, eh?)

It looks very nice and modern inside too. Did appreciate though the small black sign that says 'bar' and has a white outline of a girl bathing in a martini glass. There's live jazz at night.

[kare_raisu]

Fantastic report. Awesome to hear.

[Robert Lauriston]

Sabra Grill in SF has Hungarian goulash and chicken schnitzel on its menu. Like Holy Land, most of the menu is Middle Eastern.

[LikeFrogButOOOH]

Has anyone been to Cafe Europe in Santa Rosa recently? I kept meaning to go because it seems to have a real Eastern European bent, rare in those parts, but never got around to it.

[Eat_Nopal]

Its actually German... my wife's family has been enjoying it for a long time. The proprietor is a German immigrant who really cares about the food... but he is a very traditional guy... so don't expect any contemporary German cuisine.

He does a real nice job with Beef Stroganoff & I remember the various Sausage dishes executed competently. Also had some nice bottles of German wines. Its been a couple of years... but its the type of place that stays even for a long time.

[LikeFrogButOOOH]

Glad to hear it. German restaurants are another variety I don't notice a great deal of in Santa Rosa. I will have to try their Stroganoff as soon as possible.