Russian in Chicagoland?

I've been looking for a comprehensive list of all restaurants in the chicagoland area that dish up traditional Russian Fare.

Suggestions and links would be appreciated.

We'll come back and post deep links and addresses, but for the moment, try the Search feature (upper right) for Russian Tea Time, Zhivago, and Chaihanna (Uzbek but with some standard Russian dishes as well).

Having spent some time in Russia, including in rural communities in the Transbaikal, I can happily state that Old Believer cuisine is pretty similar from Poland all the way to Tarbagatay, so you might also find dead-ringer comfort food in some of our Polish restaurants, most notably Podhalanka.

Depending upon precisely what items are being sought, it would (or would not) be a good idea to search for Ukrainian restaurants, of which Chicago has a bunch, a lot, and a plethora. Plug that into the search engine as well. And don't forget that we also have a couple of scattered Georgian and Armenian restaurants. Kazakh, Belarussian, Turkmen, Tajik, Azerbaijani, and Kirghiz, not so much. Though if we drift Moldavia-ward, we do have Romanian... But that's another bunch of threads. "Russia" covers a lot of territory, literally, figuratively, geographically, culinarily, metaphorically, and otherwise. There's even a posting on the Events Board for an upcoming LTH dinner/happening at Zhivago.

I appreciate the responses thus far, and would agree "russian" incorporates a large number of possibilities.

Let me explain in more detail what I'm looking for.

My wife and I hail from Denver, CO. She is Russian (Odessa and St. Petersberg). In Denver, where there is a large russian community that is very localized, there are a number of traditional russian restaurants. We, to our surprise, have not come across any traditional russian restaurants that offer much of the same food she grew up enjoying at home and at a number of the restaurants in Denver.

Russian Tea Room does not embrace many of the traditional "people" food, but highlights the higher life of russian indulgences.

Zhivago, while decorated nicely, has become so Americanized that its difficult to truly call this a Russian restaurant. It would be more appropriate to call it Russian inspired.

What I'm looking for, which may not exist, is a list so that I can do the research thereafter on my own. If it's not out there, fair enough. Any suggestions or insight would be appreciated.

Can you tell us some dishes you're looking for? We may be able to direct you to an appropriate source.

I asked a Russian woman I know about the many Russians in Chicago and the dearth of Russian restaurants. She told me that Russians cook Russian food at home, and when they go out, they choose other cuisines. She added that many Russian-Americans live in the Northwest suburbs and that there are usually some small home-cooking places there that only the locals know about. I can't guide you, but failing that, you might want to try take-out from Eurostyle Deli on Oakton in Skokie.

Josephine wrote:I asked a Russian woman I know about the many Russians in Chicago and the dearth of Russian restaurants. She told me that Russians cook Russian food at home, and when they go out, they choose other cuisines. She added that many Russian-Americans live in the Northwest suburbs and that there are usually some small home-cooking places there that only the locals know about. I can't guide you, but failing that, you might want to try take-out from Eurostyle Deli on Oakton in Skokie.

That's the feeling I'm getting.

@Cilantro - I will ask my wife when she gets up this morning.

If your wife is willing to go for Georgian food instead of Slavic, a little-known secret is that Turkish Cuisine and Bakery is owned by a couple,of which the wife is actually Georgian. If you give them advance warning, they are able to whip up all sorts of yummy Georgian delicacies. (And for some, like khachapuri, they don't even really need advance notice - as one might guess by geography, Turkish food and Georgian food have much in common.) Plus if you go on a Saturday night, you will feel like you are in the FSU - the place is totally taken over by former Soviets.

This is a brief list of some of the dishes she mentioned.

Excuse my attempt at spelling some of these.

Soup - Borscht

Salad - Cheese Salad (egg and cheese) , Russian Potato Salad (potatoes, peas, egg, chicken, dill), Beet Salad, Pickled Cabbage

Appetizers - Sliced meets (kielbasa etc.), pickled tomatoes, sliced cheese, russian rye bread, marinated mushrooms, liver pate, cavier, salted fish

Main Dishes - Gulupsie (stuffed cabbage leaves), zharkoya (beef stew), pelimini (stuffed dumplings), blintzes, potato latkes, chicken kiev, batochki (chicken/pork with an egg batter)

Dessert - Napolean Cake, Cream Puffs

I can make a few recommendations; hopefully, others can add to these.

Borscht, potato latkes, golubtsi, blintzes, and bitki are all available at various Polish places around town. My favorite, Zascianek, is alas closed. There are many other worthy options, such as Smak Tak.

A few caveats:

1) Borscht is not always available at Smak Tak; it was at Zascianek and probably is at other places. Also, the Polish version is a bit different from what your wife may be used to, in that the potatoes, cabbage, etc. of the traditional Russian/Ukrainian version are replaced by stuffed dumplings. A more than fair trade, if you ask me.

2) The Polish (i.e., the original) name for golubtsi is "gołąbki" and I can't imagine a Polish restaurant worth its salt that doesn't offer them. Smak Tak actually adds smoked pork to the filling, which I find a bit off-putting.

3) The blintzes offered at Polish restaurants are usually of the sweet, cheese-filled variety. They are also usually much, much better than the Russian version. Should your wife desire meat-filled blinchiki as well, Chaihanna has both on the menu.

Russian Tea Time seems like the kind of place no self-respecting Russian would be caught dead in. However, I'll be damned if they don't make the best pelmeni I've ever had. You owe it to your wife to let her sample these, if she hasn't already. They have many of the other dishes you asked about, mostly hit-or-miss. However, the pelmeni are outstanding. Perfectly serviceable frozen pelmeni can also be purchased at Argo Bakery on Devon.

I have not seen salat olivye or vinigret offered locally, but perhaps others have. Napoleon is available at Chaihanna (probably other places too), as is rather nice plov.

Russian-style meats, cheeses, pickles, salads, and other zakuski are sold at various delis (e.g., Farmer's Best Market in Niles, Village Market Place in Skokie, many others).

If I can think of other suggestions, I'll update this post. One additional thing to try would be for your wife to ask folks at one of the several Russian businesses on Devon for advice. (The owner of Argo is particularly knowledgeable.) However, it is certainly true that Chicago does not have much in the way of Russian food.

Walaw wrote:This is a brief list of some of the dishes she mentioned.


Soup - Borscht

Salad - Cheese Salad (egg and cheese) , Russian Potato Salad (potatoes, peas, egg, chicken, dill), Beet Salad, Pickled Cabbage

Appetizers - Sliced meets (kielbasa etc.), pickled tomatoes, sliced cheese, russian rye bread, marinated mushrooms, liver pate, cavier, salted fish

Main Dishes - Gulupsie (stuffed cabbage leaves), zharkoya (beef stew), pelimini (stuffed dumplings), blintzes, potato latkes, chicken kiev, batochki (chicken/pork with an egg batter)

Dessert - Napolean Cake, Cream Puffs

I grew up in a Russian community around Boston and know what you mean about the dearth of traditional Russian restaurants around here.

The only place I know of in the Chicagoland area that comes close to the places I grew up going to is LaMirage in Rolling Meadows. I've been there for one Russian wedding and several Russian birthdays, partys, etc. In fact, It's the only place the folks I know in the Russian community here have large events.

It's about as close to home as I've been able to find in Chicago. They serve everything you listed above--or at least they did every time I've been there. The caveat is that I've only been there for parties, but food is always served in the standard progression of courses (with everything you listed above), with food overflowing the table to the point that you often can't find a place to put your knife or fork (also what I grew up with). It's always been very good, not the "best" I've ever had by any means, but certainly not anything to complain about. That said, if forced to complain I wasn't a fan of the borscht the one time I did have it there.

I have no idea what it's like to go there for a dinner for two (as opposed to a party for 300 with free flowing food, drink and Russian music), but if you're looking for what I think you're looking for, It may be your best shot.

Here's a link to their website:

http://www.lamiragechicago.com/index.html

Quick edit: I just looked at their website for the first time after I made this post--I have never eaten anything there that was even remotely like what's listed on their menu page which is decidedly NOT Russian (at least things like "Grilled Tuna & Wassabi Salad" wasn't "Russian" last I checked). If you look at their banquet packages, those start to look Russian again. Again, no idea if you can get that kind of fare for a table for 2 or 4 or whatever.

This list may be somewhat helpful.

It doesn't include Sh. Rustaveli, a Georgian restaurant in Skokie.

There are also a number of Russian delis and groceries that can provide some of the dishes desired as carryout options, including:

Three Sisters Delicatessen
2854 W. Devon Ave.
Chicago
773/973-1919

Greenwood Market
8716 W. Golf Road
Niles
847/803-0013

Odessa Market
1241 W. Dundee Road, Buffalo Grove
6313 Woodward Ave., Downers Grove
2054 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago
6247 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago
773/775-7700

Shtram's Deli
341 E. Dundee Road
Wheeling
847/520-5272

Arcadia Deli
Arlington Club Commons
27 Huntington Lane (at Dundee Road)
Wheeling
847/279-8975

cilantro wrote:Russian Tea Time seems like the kind of place no self-respecting Russian would be caught dead in. However, I'll be damned if they don't make the best pelmeni I've ever had.

I just saw this and was rankling at the first sentence, but was placated by the second, with which I completely agree.

I do know a number of Russians that go to RTT, and have eaten at several Russian-language events there. The cuisine (or expectation) mismatch is that the culinary alignment is wealthy, recent southwestern Jewish Russian, and many in the Russian immigrant community in Chicago are either apathetic eastern or central Orthodox Christian Russian, or long-ago-immigrated Jews associating more with the culinary traditions of the diaspora than a particular region of Russia. The owner and chef has tried to incorporate some resonant dishses for all Russian patrons, but the strength, ambience, and overall "message" that comes across to Russians is in the upscale Uzbek and modern southwestern Russian dishes.

So there is not much peasant food on the menu, but what they have chosen they mostly do well, and some Russians do go there. All of the communities can enjoy the lingua franca and, in conversations I've experienced, be glad that they're here (and wryly share some stories about the Soviet era). The crowd is certainly weighted, though, to American fine arts patrons, no doubt.

Thank you for all the great responses

This recent Crain's article about Russian Tea Time disturbed me. It reads as snooty and xenophobic. Anyway, it's on my mind because I'm headed to RTT tomorrow for the first time in a little less than a year. I like the place a lot, with its cozy warmth and welcoming service. Dishes with an Uzbeki slant shine as brightly as at GNR Chaihanna, imo. The rest of the menu, perhaps not so much.

I feel compelled to defend Russian Tea Time, as I have been a regular there, if you call 3 to 5 visits a year for the past 20 years a regular.

I find, as a pre-symphony dinner, the restaurant is warm and welcoming. I come from Eastern European ancestry, and I find the pelmini, beet salad, and carrot salad to be the most authentic that I have tasted since moving to Chicago in 1979.

I also disagree with the Crain's reviewer on the Chicken Croquettes "Pozharski", which I find satisfying, almost comfort food. The vegetarian Uzbeki items are also very good; you won't find Mashkitchiri (mung bean stew) anywhere else, and the Chick Pea stew (Nukhat) is seasoned properly, and satisfying.

I've never been treated poorly there, although they may recognize me by now. I've also done business over lunch there, and more than a few deals were sealed over good chopped liver!

I also appreciate their house-blend tea, which is just wonderful. And it never hurts that the owner, Klara, often is working the front.

There are certainly items I would agree need improvement - alcohol pricing is absurd, and over the years, the entree pricing has moved from average to somewhat expensive.

Even so, Tea Time is dependable and reasonably authentic while catering to a diverse crowd. On the whole, the food is very tasty, and I still recommend them.

rfleisch1 wrote:I feel compelled to defend Russian Tea Time, as I have been a regular there, if you call 3 to 5 visits a year for the past 20 years a regular.

I find, as a pre-symphony dinner, the restaurant is warm and welcoming. I come from Eastern European ancestry, and I find the pelmini, beet salad, and carrot salad to be the most authentic that I have tasted since moving to Chicago in 1979.

I also disagree with the Crain's reviewer on the Chicken Croquettes "Pozharski", which I find satisfying, almost comfort food. The vegetarian Uzbeki items are also very good; you won't find Mashkitchiri (mung bean stew) anywhere else, and the Chick Pea stew (Nukhat) is seasoned properly, and satisfying.

I've never been treated poorly there, although they may recognize me by now. I've also done business over lunch there, and more than a few deals were sealed over good chopped liver!

I also appreciate their house-blend tea, which is just wonderful. And it never hurts that the owner, Klara, often is working the front.

There are certainly items I would agree need improvement - alcohol pricing is absurd, and over the years, the entree pricing has moved from average to somewhat expensive.

Even so, Tea Time is dependable and reasonably authentic while catering to a diverse crowd. On the whole, the food is very tasty, and I still recommend them.

Service can be extremely prickly and self-righteous (I'm a regular diner, usually in groups, which may be part of our issue), but as you'll see above, I'm a continuing fan. The homemade dumplings, salads, and teas just can't be beat, and with a vast range of menu prices and portion sizes, you can assemble anything from a good-value snack to a ridiculous splurgefeast.

Wanted to bump up this thread. I was just Internet surfing and saw a photo of a Russian dessert called "medovik," which appears to be a honey cake composed of many layers with sour cream filling, and it looked divine. I decided that I must make it my mission to seek it out in Chicagoland before resorting to making it on my own. Any ideas for great Russian restaurants -- or bakeries? Thanks!

Oh how I miss you, Rene Gourment...

I have reason to be in Northbrook much of late, and I'm using the opportunity to visit the Wheeling Fresh Farms often--man I'm dying to to a taste-off amongst the 10 or so sour creams on offer. Anyway, today, I decided to also go across the street to Shtram's (address above). Very interesting place, with one BIG problem.

The centerpiece of this store is a huge serving vessel like one finds in certain Korean groceries in New York. Insteaf of rice pudding and mixed greens this one contained a huge assortment of Russian foods, one side being hot stuff, the other salads. The problem, nary a Roman letter to be found. All Cryllic all the time. Aside from a few things I could just recognize, I was lost.

Oddly enough, the one area of translated items, the various sweet and savory pastries, at least some had signs of "meat" "cabbage"
"spinanch" "cheburky", etc.

Perhaps it's some shared ancestral connections, but Russian food seems, well interesting, I guess, to me. Except it also so seems so damn complicated between the language and the exorbitant prices of Russian Restaurants. And there's one connected to Shtram, Deka.

Any input or experiences with any of this?

Something like this might help.

boudreaulicious wrote:Something like this might help.

I got nowhere with this link.

Regards,

not sure why the link doesn't work but found a better example anyway. No idea if it's any good--but something like this would certainly help if it does what it says it does.

If you have time and are curious about specific items, post photos (and/or photos of the signs) and I can take a crack at them. But I am not around here all the time, so you might want to PM me, too.

Eva Luna, M.A., Russian & East European Studies