SF: Cafe Sadko – Georgian Russian … kvass, stuffed kishka, Karski rack of lamb, kharco and stuffed cabbage.

[rworange]

Didn’t have the lamb, just thought it sounded interesting … prepared in the tradition of Karski region of the Caucasian mountains.

I also regret I didn’t choose the poppy seed blini for dessert. I never heard of poppy seed blini before. They also had meat, farmers cheese and red caviar/sour cream blinis

What I did have: kharco, stuffed cabbage, cherry vareniki, kvass and a drink called compote

KHARCO: A Georgian soup with lamb, rice and cilantro. This is a peppery spicy soup. It is in a light red broth with a few tender, flavorful small pieces of lamb, rice, a few juniper berries, a bay leaf and a carrot here and there. It is sprinkled on top with fresh chopped cilantro. I liked it a lot

GOLUBTSKY (stuffed cabbage): These were close to perfect for me. They are the savory version rather than sweet version. It was the filling that impressed me the most … a fine grind where rice and meat become one. The cabbage was soft and lightly dressed with thin tomato sauce. They had what I’m going to call ‘breath of golubtsky’. That indescribable taste when they are done perfectly. They could have had more cabbage, but the delicate covering was nice. I may like these more than the stuffed cabbage at Chopin. Calls for a return trip to Chopin.

CHERRY VARENIKI: I’m suspecting I’m not such a fan of vareniki, a boiled dumpling that is stuffed in this case with whole cherries. This was one of the better versions I’ve had, but it left me wishing I ordered the poppy seed blini.

KVAS – they make it in-house. The menu made me chuckle because they called it Russian root beer. Bad Kvass is like a horror story
http://www.chow.com/mongol_rally/3577
However, good kvass, like Sadko makes, tastes similar to sparkling apple juice. It is made from bread. Never … never … buy bottled kvass which falls into the horror story category. This was quite good and nothing like root beer.

COMPOTE – This is a honey flavored drink with raisins, apricots and prunes on the bottom. It was good, but I preferred the kvass.

There’s also an ok, but forgettable bread basket of sliced honey wheat. I noticed the table next to me was served sliced French bread.

There’s a $9.95 lunch special Tues – Friday with a choice of soup and a choice of golubtsky, cutlet, or pan-fried seared whitefish, coffee or tea.

It is a modern, nice restaurant with gold table cloths and napkins, light wood floors and chairs. Think Café Katie rather than Cinderella. Even though it is a nice mid-scale restaurant, they have a tv near the front window playing Russian cable. Some sort of Russian Star search was playing from what I can guess. You haven’t lived till you hear “don’t worry be happy” in Russian. The guy in drag in a white wedding dress on the show had both me and the next table giggling.

Tables were served by two Russian guys. I’m guessing the other guy was one of the owners from the talk I could decipher at the next table. They were asking about his mother and other stuff like that. The guy who served me was nice in a reserved Russian way and warmed up when I got enthusiastic about the food. He was great when asked which of a couple of choices to order. He steered me to the soup and stuffed cabbage. Should have asked which was the better dessert. They also have tiramisu. They have a few non Russian dishes like that and the fried calamari which I’m guessing is an attempt to appeal to non Russians … or there’s some Italian in there.

The rest of the menu.

Other soups:
Borsht, mushroom soup with potato or barley and solyanka, a Georgian soup with chopped meat and sausage

Entrees come with a choice of buckwheat, rice or French fries. Some of the more interesting …

Chicken Tabaka – whole chicken roasted under weight to distribute heat evenly
Potato Zrazi – peasant dish of potato patties stuffed with meat
Base Swai fillets - pan-fried whitefish
Pork shaslick – marinated cubes of pork roasted over an open flame grill
Chicken bitoque – chicken breast roast over an open flame grill
Seafood bowl – Oven-baked shrimp, mussels and scallops over mashed potatoes baked and served in a claypot with silky smooth cream sauce. The table next to me ordered this and it looked excellent though the claypot turned out to be a white soufflé dish.
Fishermans bowl – fish and vegetables baked in the oven and served in a claypot with cream sauce. So, uh, you supposed those KFC bowls have some sort of Georgian Russian influence?
Homemade cutlet – ground chicken patties
Cutlet Odessa – ground chicken stuffed with mushrooms

The next table had some sort of cutlet – it was large, golden and looked very good

Other entrees: Beef stroganoff, schnitzel, pork chops in garlic sauce, lukya kebab (grilled ground lamb),

Dumplings include: chicken pellemi, beef and veal hinkali, potato vareniki

Some of the more interesting appetizers:
Stuffed kishka – stuffed chicken with horseradish sauce
Whole smoked chicken or smoked duck (special order
)Herring – table next to me ordered this and it looked good
Garlic potatoes – roasted in garlic butter. The table next to me ordered those and they looked great
Salad Olivier – not a fan of this usually, but the next table also got that and it looked appealing.
Summer salad – cucumbers, radishes, onion in sour cream

Other appetizers: Smoked fish plate, Fried calamari, Meat platter, Marinated eggplant, Pickled seasonal vegetables, Marinated mushrooms, Crab salad, Greek salad

I’ll link in the first reply since doing it in the OP currently doesn’t link back to the report

[rworange]

Link

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Cafe Sadko
2229 Clement St, San Francisco, CA 94121

[susancinsf]

oohhh.....savory stuffed cabbage! Not sure I've ever had a Georgian version, but I loved, loved, LOVED the Serbian version my Serbian cousins in law steered me to in San Diego: but can't find it in bay area! (My Serbian assistant at work even brought me back a canned version from her last trip home to try, but I haven't gotten up the nerve yet....). Anyway, your description makes this sound very similar, and I am going to go check it out soon; and try those garlic potatoes!

Your comment about the calamari amused and reminded me: the three restaurants where I ate out this week: China Village in Albany, Roti in West Portal, and Passionfish (seafood) in Pacific Grove, all had a version of calamari on the menu, and I ended up ordering it all three times. Guess I was in a squid mood or on a roll or something....anyway; Roti's version was the loser, which I guess is no more than I deserve for ordering it at an Indian restaurant (?) and of the other two, a VERY slight edge, but indeed very slight, to Passionfish, only because they fried the tentacles as is, whereas CV version was uniformly, precisely pieces cut of squid...remarkably similar coating technique on both of the later two however, with a very light batter, and absolutely delicious in both cases!

but I digress...

Thanks for the report!

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China Village
1335 Solano Ave, Albany, CA 94706

Roti Indian Bistro
53 West Portal, San Francisco, CA 94127

[augustiner]

the other day i was rushing with a friend to set up my birthday at baker beach when we realized that we were starving, and wouldn't be able to wait long enough to get the grill going. we randomly pulled over on clement street so my friend could get coffee, and we decided to walk a block or two in search of food.

almost walked into a not so inviting sandwich shop, when we spotted sadko, or rather the vague "european food" or such printed under the name on the awning. vague enough to make us cross the street to check it out. we read the menu in the window after spotting the cyrillic writing, and decided to get "blintzes" to go. i quote blintzes because my quick research today indicated that these are, as you wrote in this post, blinis, or blinichkas or something similar. what's correct?

entering the restaurant, we saw a large party of smartly dressed people dining at joined up long tables. the smells were enticing but elusive to me, since i have almost no experience with russian food. felt a bit of a shiver walking in, because everyone turned and stared at us briefly, and i felt we were intruding on something important and private. but the elder man working (an owner?) led us to the counter and we ordered one serving of meat blintzes and one made with cheese, sweetened, in the manner i'm most familiar with. familiar, but previously unimpressed by (college cafeterias, etc).

we were told that it would take fifteen minutes, which i took as a good sign, since i can imagine many places making these in bulk ahead of time. made to order blintzes? yes please. went across the street to a market by the 4 star theater to buy some peanuts, and when we came back, they were ready.

i've never had a blintz like this, and probably have never had a proper one, but these were wrapped in the familiar enough soft, crepe-like wrapper, but with much more flavor, and they had been crisped as well. such a contrast in textures in such a thin skin. i'm not sure what meat was used, because we were so ravenous, we didn't focus on the menu, but it was tender, soft, finely ground and nicely seasoned pale meat. my friend thought chicken, but i was thinking pork or veal, because they were richer tasting to me than poultry. i don't think it was poultry.

the cheese versions were more familiar, but so much better than i've had before. the sweetened, soft, slightly grainy cheese made me think of ricotta, a cheese that seems to have first cousins all over the world.

these were fresh and super hot, and the perfect pick me up for two starving people on the go. i almost felt bad about ordering take-out, since the space seemed rather nice and almost elegant, maybe because of the large party of dressed up folk. we told the man who helped us (seemed like an owner) that we'd be back for dinner some time, and i intend to. it smelled so good in there.

mind you, my experience with cuisines east of germany and west of korea is sadly lacking, but i haven't been able to stop thinking about those blintzes ever since. don't know if they represent the best of that style, but...mmm. i thought i'd have nothing to report from my birthday beach thread, but i'm glad i was wrong. anyone else? there isn't really that much specifically about sadko that i've found here. and though i was pretty proud of the LA style or flanken kalbi ribs i marinated and grilled at the beach, they were eclipsed by blintzes, all day and night and today as well.

[rworange]

Thanks for reporting. Glad to hear they had business, I've been fretting about this place since I haven't seen any reports and haven't had a chance to get back. Since I am familiar with Eastern European, based on the stuffed cabbage and kvas, I'd say this is a good place.

Will have to try those blintzes.