*dimsumdolly* - the different morsels of the life of a foodie

The Horrible Russian Restaurant

On Saturday night, my friends and I went to this Russian restaurant (Sorry, I've forgotten the name of it) along one of those two-storey shophouses at Arab Street, just opposite Golden Landmark.

We were initially excited at the prospect of trying something new but the whole dining experience proved to be extremely disappointing for the following reasons:

1) Bad service: The only waitress, an attractive raven-haired lady from Kazakhastan, took ages to come and take our order. The place was terribly short-handed. She just couldn't manage all the customers who were seated on both floors of the restaurant.

She acted coy and flirty towards everyone in a bid to try to appease people. At first we thought it was cute. Then after awhile, it got irritating. It was as if she thought that just 'cos she was coy and flirty, she could get away with bad service. At one point, she deftly took away our jug of water to serve another table and never brought it back.

2) Bad food: The borsch was bland and it tasted gross with the sour cream. My three other friends who ordered it didn't like it. I, however, opted for this pork soup with pickled vegetables. It was alright...better tasting than the borsch but not mind-blowing. I think I can make better soups.

The food took ages to come. We had ordered some beef dumplings. After an eternity, the waitress came to tell us the kitchen had run out of beef to make our beef dumplings. So we settled for the vegetarian one instead as we couldn't go for the pork option because one of my friends was Muslim.

When it eventually came, the vegetarian dumplings resembled Chinese dumplings. It was filled with cabbage inside and with sour cream topping at the side. But the dumplings' flavour was bland and unappetising.

The two mains we ordered were chicken dishes. One consisted of three sticks of herb chicken kebabs served with potato slices and some diced carrots. The other was a small piece of roasted chicken with some diced vegetables at the side. The kebabs tasted pretty good with the herb marinate. The other chicken dish was just OK. But the appearance of both dishes didn't whet my appetite with its rather uninspired presentations and boring plain crockery in which it was served on.

3) Sorely lacking in ambience: The decor was spartan and the cream coloured walls pretty plain. The tables and chairs had an old Eastern European feel which was a throwback to the 70s.

4) Compulsory tips: We were charged tips in the bill in addition to the 10% service charge! Ridiculous! Pissed off you know! Especially when there was NO service to begin with!

So my first initiation to Russian food wasn't the most pleasant of experiences. Judging from what was on the menu and what was served, Russian food isn't the most exciting thing on earth either. But I will not dismiss the cuisine altogether as I'm sure this is far from the best.

My rating for this restaurant:
Food: 2/5
Service: 1/5
Price: 2/5
Ambience: 2/5

In other words, forget about it!

Posted by DSD at May 4, 2005 1:32 PM