Because Russian food was so foreign (haha!) to me, besides borscht, I hadn't heard of much what was quintessentially Russian. This made it a little bit hard to decide on what to get for appetizers and my main entree, because normally I like to go for the most traditional or popular dish. Instead, my friend and I looked at the very appetizing menu, and just picked whatever we were "feeling" which happened to be mushrooms (my new obsession) in a secret recipe dressing with garlic and dill, and chicken roulette which was chicken rolls stuffed with dried fruits and spices for appetizers. Both were pretty good! We also both tried some Russians beers-not their liquor they are most known for, but the Baltika #6 and #9 (I kid you not that those are the names) weren't too shabby.
For my main entree I had the Chicken Tabaka which is "marinated hen, fried under a press and served with a garlic sauce" this was super yummy! I was very excited to try it because I'd never had hen, but then I thought about it and isn't all chicken we have hen? I do not know the difference if there is one, and this bothers me. Regardless, it was delicious, especially the skin! For my side I had a couple of choices but I decided to go with something that I have never had, and again didn't really know what it was: buckwheat. I have had buckwheat pancakes before, but alas I didn't really understand what it was. It turns out, it's basically in my own terms, a "wheat-like quinoa"-nothing exceptional about it, but it was pretty good and I felt like it was healthy?! Finally, we decided to splurge on a dessert and I am so glad that I did because it was the highlight of our night. We ordered to split (but I wish I had my own whole plate of dessert) the Natan's Blinzes which were blinzes with cherry, peach, and sweet cheese-oh my mouth salivates just thinking about them! The sweet cheese was to die for, it's very similar to cream cheese I would say-similar texture, but this was warm and very gooey! Alas, I didn't take a picture :( I apparently ate it too fast, which seems to be a common theme here in my blogging. I'll have to be more diligent about that!
Overall, for an interesting cuisine that I think gets a bad rep, Cafe St. Petersburg was really very good, and decently priced! In my opinion, it's worth taking the dreaded Green Line out there, it is practically as soon as you get off at Newton Centre, so there's not much of an excuse!