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The Russian Tea Room: See it, but eat before you go.Feb 17 '01 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line You'll enjoy the sights, if not the food. Do ask to be seated on the second floor, or at least take a spin through on the elevator after your meal. Does the Russian Tea Room conjure up images of tourists and septuagenarians lunching over tea? You wouldn't be entirely wrong. I took the opportunity to enjoy lunch there during Restaurant Week--a $20.01 3-course prix fixe menu for the year 2001--with a friend visiting from Europe and another local. A good deal of the waitstaff are indeed Russian, and the decor is unbelievable; the food, however, is a different story. First, the decor: the first thing I remember seeing upon entering was red everywhere. Red tables, chairs, carpet, waiters' outfits, you name it. I think I even had a red sweater on. On top of the red, you will also immediately notice gold and green. There is also an ice sculpture separating the eating area from the bar and waiting area, 20 foot-high ceilings (of Tiffany stained glass, as I understand it), mirrored walls and plenty of other glitzy accoutrements. When I asked my Belgian friend what he thought, he said, "It's beau-tee-ful" and I agreed...beautiful in an overdone way. Note that this is only the first floor, where we were seated; there is also a second floor with a piano player (which we saw briefly during an ill-fated elevator ride from the coat room), where perhaps the more in-the-know folks ask to be seated. The food we selected did not have as dramatic an effect. From the prix fixe menu, we tried both borscht and a "Russian Caesar Salad" for starters. The Russian Caesar Salad was a bland plate of mostly iceberg lettuce with....well, Russian dressing. I'm not entirely sure what constituted the "Caesar" part--and I don't think our waiter knew, either--but it was merely acceptable. I tried the borscht someone else ordered and found it slightly better--but only slightly. The three of us ordered beef stroganoff as our entrees. Our Belgian companion only finished his because he was quite hungry; he otherwise declared it not to be stroganoff at all, and he has eaten beef stroganoff in Russia. Although I haven't experience Russian cuisine in Russia, I suspected he was right: it was simply a very average cut of beef smothered in gravy. I'm not entirely sure what beef stroganoff is, but I'm almost 100% certain it does not in any way resemble the steak with gravy we received. No one was pleased with it, although my dining companions both liked the mushrooms that came with it. I abhor mushrooms, and so perhaps missed the only decent portion of the entree. Finally, for dessert, two of us selected cheesecake, and one selected an apple tart. I did not try the tart, but it looked basic enough; the cheesecake was rich, as cheesecake usually is, but otherwise unremarkable. We also each had a glass of red wine, which was acceptable and reasonably priced (for Manhattan) at around $9. Overall, the experience was fun, primarily because we looked forward to dining in what is, arguably, a relatively famous restaurant and seeing the types of folks who frequent such a place. The service was friendly and casual and the decor is indeed remarkable, but the bland, poorly-prepared food does not make this restaurant anything more than a one-shot destination when touring New York.  |
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