Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Restaurants Taste of Russia Opens in Cool Springs
Posted by Carrington Fox on Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 5:50 AM
Cool Springs is a long way from Mother Russia, but the sprawling suburb recently welcomed a menu fit for a Romanov. Taste of Russia offers a repertoire of Russian cuisine, as well as traditional items from the Ukraine and Poland. Open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily and 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Sundays, Taste of Russia serves borsch, beef stroganoff, Kiev cutlets and dumplings stuffed with cabbage, potatoes and farmer's cheese. Don't miss the list of flavored vodkas, including cranberry, citron and honey pepper.
Taste of Russia is located at 101 Shingle Way, off Caruthers Parkway (phone: 472-1432). As always, if you get there before we do, please report back on Bites.
Comments (11)
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Oh, this is great news. There was a Russian restaurant in downtown Memphis for years that I loved and I miss (it's been closed for a while). Mmm...dumplings!
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I don't know about fit for a Romanov--it looks decidedly more proletarian--but certainly good for a cold day when you want to weight your stomach down so heavily with food and vodka that you don't care about your station in life. Sounds perfect for the economy.
Lesley: Was that Samovar? I liked that place too—bring on the dancing girls and the hussars!
I agree with Turgenev, that it's not for the Romanovs. Although I'm not sure about weighing your stomachs down - most portions were small, even by Russian/European standards.
The food is fantastic. The portions are small, true, but are so inexpensive that many can be treated as a-la-carte...allowing one to mix and match and try many things for under $10.
I recommend the garlic home fried potatoes as a side...DELICIOUS!!!
If you think "eew beet stew" when you hear Borsch...THINK AGAIN. There is plenty of beef in this brothy vegetable beef soup very, very light on the beets.
Very good...ochen harosho.
Save room for desert. The Cake Napoleon melts in your mouth, and the blini (crepes filled with white farmer cheese) with preserves (try the sour cherry) are an unusual treat for the American palette.
5 of us ate there last Sunday, and shared tastes of everything. It's all good! No one left hungry, and we only paid $51.
I am looking forward to returning for another meal soon!
My wife and I tried Taste of Russia for the first time tonight. We found the food excellent and in just the right amount for a reasonable price. We were satisfied but not overstuffed: wine, a beer, appetizer (potato pancakes with a mushroom sauce), Kiev cutlet with vegetable salad, and Zrazi (Ukrainian style beef) with grilled vegetables. We will definitely be going back to try something different from the menu!
we waited for 2 hours on a saturday night to get our order.. the food came out at different times and then my friend just found out that his credit card was charged $220.00 when his bill was $20.00.
don't get me wrong, the food is good but kind of skimpy and certainly was not worth $200.00
Actually...just an interesting piece of history...the last of the Romanovs ate borscht pretty regularly. They were dedicated to living less lavishly than their predecessors. In fact, they even took unheated baths. So...maybe they would like this place. :)
I tried the place this weekend and was pleasantly surprised. Loved the dinner and the dessert. Would not have known it was there if I didn't get lost. two thumbs up from me.
I live in Odessa Ukraine, and a lot of the food on the menu is fairly authentic, good restaurant decent selection, not bad for a bunch of Uzbekis :)
The Shashlik was good but I think they should have kept the real Russian and Ukrainian names for the dishes and actually educated their guest a bit on culture as well as Americans are so ignorant to Russia and the CIS in general.
So many misconceptions about the people, the cuisine and the general status of living.
