"R" is for Russia

The winter wait finally saw Mr & Ms X trek off to Elsternwick to the Nevski Russian Restaurant in Glenhuntly Road. With only Romanian, Rwandan and Russian to choose from, the choices were somewhat limited, and even though Latvian had been one of our previous visits, the largest country in the world got the nod.

The restaurant is named after the famous main boulevard of Saint Petersburg, Nevsky Prospekt - home of their Chef and apparently a magnificent city full of culture, architecture and history. A warm atmosphere greeted us with the traditional way of combating a freezing Siberian winter - a fake gas fireplace, but the place was buzzing and several tables were actually conversing in the native tongue.

There was even a piano-accordion player strutting his stuff in the

corner. A nice touch.  A waitress with a strong Russian accent showed us to our table and presented us with our menus. Ms X took a while to pick out her international vino...a Barossa Valley favourite. Funny, I'm sure there's a Barossa Valley somewhere in  Australia as well! Mr X supported the Russian cause by selecting a Hebckoe beer, a Pale Lager brewed by Baltika Breweries in St. Petersburg.

Entrées consisted of Piroshki s Myasom, a house-made baked pasty filled with minced beef, and Blinchiki s Myasom, thin crepes filled with minced beef and pan-fried in butter. Again we shared the meals and again had similar opinions of each one. The words "peasant food' were mentioned on the back of the menu, and that's probably what we got. Tasty, simple but probably a bit bland and a bit too expensive for what we got.

Main course arrived soon after. A plate of Golubtsi contained minced beef with herbs, spices & pilaf rice wrapped in cabbage leaves, then oven baked in a tomato & sour cream sauce, and Sibirskie

Pelmeni, which are Siberian meat dumplings filled with beef & pork mince, served with fresh dill and sour cream. (eating the Siberian Dumplings took me way back to my Year 11 literature studies, when we had to read "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich". I'm pretty sure his Siberian Labour Camp Dumplings included fish eyes and stale bread - which might have been slightly more tastier than what we were served up!). We left at least half the dumplings for the next intake of prisoners.

Ms X then decided she needed sweets to soothe her peasant palette and chose Kroshka, an apple & raspberry crumble with vanilla ice-cream. Mr X went for another Hebckoe.

An interesting night, but probably too expensive for the fare that was served up. Russian Fries never arrived and had to be re-ordered (but at least they didn't charge for them), our water finally turned up after entrees and the dumplings were pretty ordinary. A 'close-talking' waitress also added to the disappointment.



SCORES                          Mr X              Ms X

Ambience                            6                     6
Parking                                6                     6
Service                                4                     6
Value                                   3                     5
Food                                    3                     5

TOTAL: 50