Langer's Delicatessen ★ 4.8
Langer's Delicatessen on Alvarado, Westlake, Los Angeles has hand-sliced pastrami since 1947. The #19 with Russian dressing, coleslaw and Swiss is the order.
Try: Hand-sliced pastrami #19 sandwich
Russian cuisine is the food of the world's largest country by area, shaped by extreme winters, an Orthodox fasting calendar that historically dictated half the year's menu, a peasant base of grain (buckwheat, rye, oats, barley) and root vegetables, an aristocratic French-influenced layer added in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the Soviet ingredient politics of the 20th century that reduced and standardized the kitchen but also created several enduring dishes (Olivier salad, herring under a fur coat, Mimosa salad). The post-Soviet generation has been rebuilding Russian fine dining since the late 1990s, and Moscow now hosts a serious tasting-menu scene anchored by White Rabbit (the Vladimir Mukhin restaurant that runs deep on heritage Russian ingredients), Selfie, Twins Garden, and several Michelin-equivalent rooms (Russia has its own La Liste rather than a Michelin guide).
The defining dishes are pelmeni (small meat dumplings, Russian-Siberian origin, distinct from Polish or Ukrainian dumplings in shape and filling), borshch (the sour beet soup, also Ukrainian, with a long Russian tradition), blini (small yeasted buckwheat pancakes, served with caviar, smoked fish, sour cream, or jam), beef stroganoff (the St. Petersburg aristocratic dish of beef in mustard-cream sauce, invented in the 1850s at the Stroganov family table), shchi (the cabbage soup that has been the Russian peasant staple for a millennium), olivier salad (the late-Imperial-era restaurant dish that became the Soviet New Year's table centerpiece), pirog and pirozhki (the savory and sweet stuffed pastries), and the deep smoked-fish and caviar tradition.
The drinking culture is vodka-first. Vodka is drunk in chilled shots, accompanied by zakuski (the small-plate appetizers: pickled cucumber, salted herring, salo, marinated mushrooms, blini with caviar). The Russian feast is not a sit-down course progression but a long table of zakuski with rounds of vodka, followed by a hot soup, a hot main, and a sweet finish. The format is hospitable, slow, and built around the table.
Regional variations
Central Russia (Moscow, the Volga)
The standard Russian canon: pelmeni, borshch, shchi, blini, beef stroganoff, olivier salad, herring under a fur coat. Moscow's modern Russian scene (White Rabbit, Selfie, Twins Garden) takes the regional ingredient base seriously. Caviar and smoked fish from the Caspian were the historic prestige products.
Siberia and the Urals
Pelmeni are the regional flagship (the dish is Siberian in origin, the small frozen dumplings made in bulk for the winter). Stroganina (frozen-fish shavings, eaten raw with salt and pepper). Game (elk, venison, bear) and freshwater fish (omul, muksun, taimen). The deepest cold-weather cooking tradition.
Far East (Vladivostok, Sakhalin)
Russian cooking with Korean, Chinese, and Japanese influence: Korean carrot salad (the Soviet-era Korean-diaspora invention), king crab, salmon and salmon caviar, the Pacific seafood tradition. Vladivostok's restaurant scene leans Asian-Russian fusion.
Caucasus (the Black Sea coast, southern Russia)
Influenced by Georgian, Armenian, and Azerbaijani cooking: khachapuri (the Georgian cheese bread), shashlik (the grilled meat skewer), tkemali sauce, lavash. Adjarian and Caucasian dishes are now Russian-canon-adjacent.
St. Petersburg and the northwest
The historic aristocratic kitchen. Beef stroganoff (invented here), pozharsky cutlets (the chicken croquette named after a Tver innkeeper), the French-influenced 18th-century court cooking that defined elite Russian cuisine. Baltic herring, smoked sprats, and the Finno-Russian crossover (rastegai and kulebyaka pastries).
Defining russian dishes
- Pelmeni
- Small dumplings of unleavened dough filled with ground meat (typically a beef-pork mix or beef-lamb), boiled and served with sour cream, butter, and black pepper, or floating in clear broth. Siberian origin; traditionally made in large batches and frozen for winter.
- Borshch
- Sour beet soup with cabbage, carrot, onion, potato, and often beef or pork, served with a dollop of sour cream and a slice of black bread with garlic. The Russian version is typically meatier than the Ukrainian. UNESCO-listed as Ukrainian heritage in 2022, but the soup runs deep in Russian tradition too.
- Beef Stroganoff
- Strips of beef in a mustard-cream sauce with onion and mushroom, served over noodles or rice. Invented in 1850s St. Petersburg at the Stroganov family kitchen. The international Stroganoff is heavier on cream; the Russian original is mustard-led.
- Blini
- Small yeasted buckwheat or wheat pancakes, served with sour cream, melted butter, caviar (red or black), smoked salmon, herring, or sweet fillings (jam, condensed milk). The Maslenitsa (pre-Lent) butter-week tradition runs through blini.
- Shchi
- Cabbage soup with beef, carrot, onion, potato, and dill. Russian-Empire-era national dish predating borshch; the soup that fed peasants and tsars across centuries. Sour shchi (with sauerkraut) is the older form; fresh shchi is the summer version.
- Olivier Salad
- Diced boiled potato, carrot, pickle, hard-boiled egg, ham or chicken, peas, and mayonnaise. Invented at the Hermitage restaurant in Moscow in the 1860s by Lucien Olivier, later simplified during the Soviet era. The Russian New Year's table centerpiece.
- Pirog and Pirozhki
- Pirog is the large baked savory or sweet pie (with cabbage, fish, mushroom, or apple); pirozhki are the small hand-held versions (often filled with potato-and-onion, meat, or sweet fillings). The bakery tradition runs deep.
- Herring Under a Fur Coat (Selyodka pod Shuboi)
- Salted herring layered with boiled potato, carrot, beetroot, onion, and mayonnaise. The Soviet-era invented dish, now a New Year's table standard.
- Solyanka
- Sour-spicy meat or fish soup with pickled cucumbers, olives, capers, lemon, and dill. The Russian comfort soup with the sharpest flavor profile in the canon.
- Caviar Service
- Russian black caviar (from Caspian sturgeon, now mostly farmed after wild-stock collapse) and red caviar (salmon roe from Kamchatka and Sakhalin), served on blini with sour cream, on toast, or by the spoon with chilled vodka. The historic prestige luxury.
How to order
At a traditional Russian table (whether a restaurant or a home), the meal begins with zakuski (small plates) and vodka: salted herring, salo with rye bread, pickled cucumber, marinated mushroom, blini with caviar, olivier salad, herring under a fur coat. Round after round of zakuski with chilled vodka shots (always with a toast). After the zakuski come the hot dishes: a soup (borshch, shchi, or solyanka), a hot main (pelmeni, beef stroganoff, kotlety with kasha, golubtsy), and a sweet finish (medovik honey cake or syrniki cottage-cheese pancakes with sour cream). At the modern Moscow fine-dining rooms, the tasting menu follows a similar logic but compressed.
The rookie mistakes: trying to drink vodka cocktail-style (it is drunk in shots, chilled, with food, paced through the meal; never sipped on its own), refusing the toast (each round of vodka is preceded by a toast, often increasingly elaborate; participate), expecting the meal to be paced like a French progression (Russian feasts run on a long zakuski stretch, then concentrated hot courses), and ordering only one dish (the Russian table format is sharing and abundance). Tip 10 percent.
What to drink with it
Vodka is the universal pour, served chilled (out of the freezer) in small glasses, with food and toasts. Russian Standard, Beluga, Stolichnaya, Kauffman, and the craft producers (Polugar, the historic bread wine made from rye) are the categories. Beer (Baltika, Zhigulevskoye) for casual rooms; the brewing tradition is broad but secondary to vodka. Kvass (the fermented bread drink, lightly alcoholic) is the universal non-alcoholic option in summer. Russian sparkling wine (Sovetskoye Shampanskoye, the Soviet-era brand still produced) for celebrations; the Russian wine industry (Krasnodar, Crimea, Rostov) is rebuilding seriously since 2010 and produces credible reds (Saperavi, Cabernet) and whites (Riesling, Chardonnay).
Where to eat it
Moscow: White Rabbit (Vladimir Mukhin, the country's most prominent modern Russian chef), Selfie, Twins Garden (Ivan and Sergey Berezutskiy), Cafe Pushkin (the classic Russian-Imperial-style room), Dr. Zhivago (the modern Russian-classic crossover). St. Petersburg: Tsar (Imperial-style), Restoran (the modern Russian classic). Outside Russia: Brighton Beach (Brooklyn, the largest Russian-American food district), Tel Aviv (the Russian-Israeli scene), Berlin (the Russian-German diaspora), Vilnius and Riga (the Baltic-Russian crossover). The post-2022 political situation has restricted travel for many; the diaspora restaurants in Berlin, Tbilisi, and Tel Aviv now hold the standard.
A short history
Russian cuisine took its modern shape across several historical layers: the medieval Slavic base (kasha, shchi, pirogi, mead), the Mongol-Tatar influence (pelmeni from Siberia, the dumpling tradition), the 18th-century French-aristocratic overlay (Catherine the Great's court invited French chefs who codified the multi-course Russian service that became standard in Western fine dining), the late-Imperial restaurant scene that invented beef stroganoff and olivier salad, and the Soviet decades that standardized but also preserved the kitchen. UNESCO listed Russian shchi in 2024.
Frequently asked
What is the difference between Russian and Ukrainian borshch?
The two cuisines share the dish, but the Ukrainian version (UNESCO-listed in 2022 as Ukrainian Intangible Cultural Heritage) typically uses a fermented-beet-kvas base for the souring, more vegetables, less meat. The Russian version typically uses fresh beets, more meat (often beef shank), and sometimes includes prunes or a smoked-meat finish. Both versions are served with sour cream and black bread with garlic.
Was beef stroganoff really invented in Russia?
Yes. It was created at the St. Petersburg kitchen of the Stroganov family (a powerful aristocratic merchant family) in the 1850s, traditionally credited to a French-trained Russian chef in their employ. The original is mustard-and-sour-cream-based; the international Stroganoff (heavier on cream, often with mushroom and onion) is a later Western adaptation.
What is the deal with the Russian New Year's table?
The Soviet-era New Year (December 31, since Christmas was suppressed) became the country's most important secular feast, and the table is heavily codified: olivier salad, herring under a fur coat, mimosa salad, pelmeni, kholodets (meat aspic), pirog, mandarins, champagne (Sovetskoye Shampanskoye), and the President's televised speech. Russians of every generation recognize the menu.
Russian by city
Russian in Los Angeles
Russian in Madison
Paul's Pel'meni ★ 4.5
Paul's Pel'meni on West Gilman, the late-night Russian dumpling counter near campus since 2009, sells a single dish of pelmeni with butter and sour cream.
Try: Russian pelmeni with butter, curry and sour cream
Paul's Pel'meni after midnight ★ 4.5
Paul's Pel'meni on State Street in Madison is the late-night Russian dumpling counter selling a single menu item until 02:00, the city's defining 1am snack.
Why locals love it: The State Street late-night Russian dumpling counter sells a single menu item until 02:00 and is the city's defining 1 a.m. snack.
Tip: Mix beef and potato pelmeni in one order; curry powder, butter and sour cream are non-negotiable toppings.
Paul's Pel'meni ★ 4.5
Paul's Pel'meni on West Gilman, the late-night Russian dumpling counter near campus, sells a single dish of pelmeni with butter, curry powder and sour cream.
Try: Russian pelmeni with butter, curry and sour cream
Russian in New York City
Tatiana Cafe ★ 3.8
Tatiana Cafe on the Brighton Beach boardwalk has run Russian-Ukrainian family meals in New York City since 1990. Borscht, pelmeni, blini, ocean-front tables.
Signature: Pelmeni, Beef stroganoff
Order: Pelmeni in butter, with sour cream on the side.
Tip: Live music on weekend evenings runs late. Order from the Russian menu if Cyrillic is doable; the kitchen makes more there.
Russian in Portland
Kachka ★ 4.6
Bonnie Morales's Russian and Georgian room in southeast Portland, with infused vodkas, pelmeni dumplings and the city's most authoritative zakuski spread.
Signature: Pelmeni, Khachapuri
Order: The Siberian pelmeni with brown butter and vinegar
Tip: Lunch is counter service and walk-in only. Dinner takes reservations and the vodka flights are mandatory.
Russian in San Francisco
The Sentinel ★ 4.5
The Sentinel in San Francisco is Dennis Leary's South of Market lunch window, serving a corned beef and Russian dressing sandwich to a long FiDi office line.
Try: Corned beef sandwich
Tip: Order ahead via the website by 11:00; the window is a six-deep line from 12:15-13:30.
Swensen's Ice Cream ★ 4.0
Swensen's Ice Cream in San Francisco is the 1948 Russian Hill original near the cable car turnaround, with hand-scooped cones in a small corner shop.
Why locals love it: The 1948 Russian Hill original. The chain went global; the corner shop where Earle Swensen first scooped is still small, family-run and easy to miss.
Tip: Open Wed to Sun only; the chocolate fudge cone with rainbow sprinkles is the kid order, the rum raisin is the right adult.
Russian in Seattle
Piroshky Piroshky ★ 4.5
Piroshky Piroshky in Seattle's Pike Place is the 1992 Russian bakery: salmon and cream cheese, cabbage and beef, hand-folded buns under $8 sold.
Try: Salmon piroshky or cabbage and onion
Russian in Strasbourg
Dostoïevski ★ 4.4
Dostoïevski is a russian room in Orangerie. Reserve ahead, order the pelmeni and khachapuri, and let them pour a Georgian wine from the short list.
Why locals love it: A small Orthodox-themed Russian and Georgian table on Rue du General Conrad east of the centre, found mostly by word of mouth and a loyal Sunday-lunch crowd.
Tip: Reserve ahead, order the pelmeni and khachapuri, and let them pour a Georgian wine from the short list.
Russian in Tallinn
Moon ★ 4.2
Moon on Telliskivi is a Michelin-listed Russian room running Siberian pelmeni dumplings, borscht and dairy-led mains; it moved to a new Telliskivi address.
Signature: Siberian pelmeni dumplings, Borscht
Order: Pelmeni and borscht; the kitchen pickles, ferments and sour-creams its own dairy.
Tip: Vegetarian options are explicit on the menu. The G-building entrance is at the Telliskivi-end of the complex.
Moon ★ 4.1
Moon on Telliskivi is the Michelin-listed Russian room in the creative quarter, with Siberian pelmeni, beetroot borscht and house-fermented dairy daily.
Signature: Pelmeni, Borscht
Order: Pelmeni and borscht; the kitchen ferments its own sour cream and bakes the bread daily.
Tip: Moved to the G-building Telliskivi address in mid-2025. Vegetarian options are explicit on the menu.
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