Critics’ choice: Three paths back to Russia’s glorious past

Korchma Taras Bulba New York City

New York City now has a great place to go when you want to pretend that Ukraine is a nation full of happy, generous-spirited peasants, said Julia Moskin in The New York Times. The first U.S. outlet of a chain that’s particularly popular in Moscow, SoHo’s Korchma Taras Bulba is a faux Ukrainian korchma, or tavern, where the servers wear flowing knickers and embroidered bodices and the vodka flows all night. But the marrow-warming food is “good enough to make the shtick palatable,” and the room’s “pleasant sense of unreality” is nicely complemented by actual friendliness. Main courses, including the chewy beef stroganoff, mostly disappoint, so build a meal instead around the soups, smoked fish, and “expertly made” dumplings. Actually, the best way to start is with a plate of salo—salt-cured pork belly that’s dusted with black pepper and served with black bread and mustard. Another dish I’d go back for is the holodets—shredded pork and beef in a jellied consommé. Every visit starts and ends with vodka, of course—the most welcome shot of which is offered free, after you’ve paid your bill. Nice touch, peasants. 357 W. Broadway, (212) 510-7510

Mari Vanna Los Angeles

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Now imagine what a similar restaurant might look like on acid, said Jonathan Gold in the Los Angeles Times. Beverly Grove’s Mari Vanna is the first West Coast outlet of a small chain of Russian-themed restaurants, all of them expensive and all so thoroughly decked out in Soviet-era nostalgia that “it is hard not to feel as if your perceptions have been altered.” Except for the very pricey caviar, the food pays a purist’s homage to Russian home-cooking traditions, executed with real care: “If you are looking for Herring Under a Fur Coat—a molded salad of chopped herring, potatoes, and grated beets—you will find it here.” You’ll enjoy it, too. But the show’s the thing at Mari Vanna. “From the artfully peeling wallpaper to the porcelain sparrows that serve as salt shakers, from the riot of embroidered cushions to the half-hidden cosmonaut portraits,” the place looks like a Russian fever dream. An accordionist plays in the corner, and occasionally the glamorous diners in their flashy suits or couture dresses will clap politely. Then you take a bite of your stuffed cabbage, and it’s weirdly transporting, “tasting distinctly of home.” 8475 Melrose Place, (323) 655-1977

Rus Uz Arlington, Va.

Novelty alone makes Rus Uz worth a visit, said Todd Kliman in Washingtonian. But the Washington metro area’s only Russian-Uzbek restaurant also offers an ongoing lesson in “all the lip-smacking things that can be done with dough and meat.” Uzbek chef Bakhtiyor Rakhmatullaev doesn’t exactly make any light dishes, but it’s a measure of his skill that a platter of his palm-size dumplings stuffed with peppery lamb and topped with sour cream won’t sink you in your chair. The breast of chicken in his chicken Kiev is “crispier than the Colonel’s” and he’s even better with plov—a pile of fluffy rice studded with diced lamb, carrots, chickpeas, and raisins. It’s “the dish that speaks most sweetly to the Uzbek soul.” 1000 N. Randolph St., (571) 312-4086