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Me2
Citizen
Username: Me2
Post Number: 2
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 3:50 pm: |     |
Any good Russian restaurants in the area (Central Jersey)? Friend visiting from Moscow next week... hoped to surprise him! |
algebra2
Citizen
Username: Algebra2
Post Number: 1591
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 4:14 pm: | |
found two on njo.com -- one in Spotswood and one in West Orange. West Orange had a link to a recent Star Ledger Article ...
Slavyanskyi Bazaar
Friday, December 26, 2003
By Peter Genovese
Ark Luskin wants nothing more than to bring a little Moscow to this side of the Hudson. His restaurant, Slavyanskyi Bazaar, is named after a legendary Moscow restaurant.
“Every famous person had a dinner there,” Luskin explained. “It was five minutes from the Kremlin, in downtown Moscow.”
Luskin, who emigrated from the former Soviet Union in 1979, ran a consulting business in this country for 20 years before deciding to open his own restaurant with partner Alex Skalrud. Their intent is not just to showcase Russian food, but European food in general.
“Nearly every family in this area has roots in Europe,” Luskin said. “And everybody wants food like their grandmother made. So we have French food, we have Italian food, we have Russian food, we have Ukrainian food, we have a little bit of everything. That is why we say we (offer) international (cuisine), not just Russian.”
The restaurant is on Northfield Avenue, right across from South Mountain Arena in a space formerly occupied by Casa Nostra, an Italian restaurant. Luskin and Skalrud gave the restaurant a complete makeover, with renovations to the kitchen and roof and a new color scheme. You’re still in New Jersey, but the look and especially the menu may transport you, at least temporarily, to the real Moscow.
The restaurant can get lively on the weekend, when there is live entertainment. We paid a visit on a quiet Thursday. The piped-in music was eclectic, to say the least: traditional Russian melodies, soundtrack music from films of the ’70s, “I Will Survive” from Gloria Gaynor, and — my companion, Lisa, was quick to point out — the pan flute instrumental from “Kill Bill.”
The assorted pickles ($6) are not just pickles but pickled cucumbers, tomatoes and cabbage, plus grapes. The tomatoes had a nice sweet-tart taste, but the grapes might have been past their expiration date. Two good soups: the Ukrainian borscht ($5), thick and red, and the amber fish soup ($9), with potatoes and hearty chunks of sturgeon. A recommended appetizer: rasstegai (market price, we paid $11.99), salmon and sturgeon pies in puff pastry. Lisa, a vegetarian, went with the so-so linguine primavera ($11.95), with sauteed vegetables in a heavy lemon-garlic sauce.
Meat lovers will find plenty to keep themselves busy. The chalahach ($23.95), rack of lamb cooked on skewers, was nicely done, although the homemade potatoes, greasy and overcooked, were forgettable. Other entrees include beef stroganoff, the restaurant’s most popular dish ($17.95); filet mignon Tsar (filet of beef tenderloin with sour cherry and /red wine sauce, $21.95); chicken Tabaka (pan-fried Cornish hen, $11.95) and roasted quails (on bed of wild mushroom-saffron rice with merlot sauce, $16.95).
Seafood dishes include seared scallops with raspberry sauce ($17.95); Russian coulibiac (salmon and sturgeon with spinach, rice and egg baked in puff pastry, $16.95); and trout Bazaar (pan fried trout with lemon-butter sauce, $15.95).
Other appetizers include Greek salad (vegetables marinated in olive oil and vinegar and topped with cured beef and feta, $6); eel teriyaki (smoked filet of eel with teriyaki sauce and fresh fruit, $11) and crawfish-tail salad (marinated crawfish meat in homemade green-herbed mayonnaise, $9.95).
“We are the new kids on the block,” Luskin said. “Nobody has this kind of food in the area.”
There's always Firebird in NYC which is supposed to be fabulous and expensive ... |
Joan
Citizen
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 2392
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 4:53 pm: | |
Harpo posted a recommendation for Emerald in Millburn. She described it as Russian restaurant with almosphere. Check out the attic for her comments and those of others regarding this nearby restaurant. |
Jason & John
Citizen
Username: Johnh91011
Post Number: 105
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 4:55 pm: | |
Emerald closed a few months ago |
spw784
Citizen
Username: Spw784
Post Number: 460
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 11:33 pm: | |
Isn't Emerald now the Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins ... if so, it's been gone more than a FEW months...maybe a year? |
Me2
Citizen
Username: Me2
Post Number: 3
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 30, 2004 - 8:08 am: | |
Thanks to all for the feedback. Thanks to Algebra2 for the article! We will try Slavyanskyi Bazaar if my friend is game. |
shh
Citizen
Username: Shh
Post Number: 908
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 30, 2004 - 8:51 am: | |
Actually, my husband and I went to Firebird two years ago for a pre-theater dinner. They have a fixed price dinner, that was not outrageously expensive, but it was fabulous! I don't know too much aboout Russian food, but we had blini and caviar as appetizers (mmmmmm!) then you had a choice of entree and dessert with coffee or tea. I believe it was less than $40 p/p. I know you can get details on their website. The dessert I chose was chocolate souffle, and I still think it was the best I've ever had. It was a very nice dinner.
If you choose your meal a la carte, I assume it could get quite expensive there, but the ambience and the service were more in line with an upscale French restaurant than what you'd expect for pre-theater. |
bookgal
Citizen
Username: Bookgal
Post Number: 472
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 30, 2004 - 10:18 am: | |
Your friend will probably be most at home at the Samovar (Russian Samovar). I think it is on 52nd or 54th Street in the city. Full of Russian emigres, great poetry readings, staff is predominantly Russian. |
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