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A serious chef reigns in the kitchen of the optimistically resurrected Russian Tea Room, dispatching fragrant borscht in a covered dish and luscious beef stroganoff. The power regulars who lost their lunchtime booths in the late Warner LeRoy’s 1999 $30 million rehab may never be happy here, but I love the vibrant red-and-green room with its samovars, its Christmas-all-year excess, and the fake Russian art LeRoy commissioned, saved from auction for a golf museum that was never to be. It’s no surprise that consistently lauded whisk Gary Robins can channel Russian. He wowed us at Aja with Asian fusion before morphing into a new American mode at the Biltmore Room. Still, die-hard fans of the Tea Room’s Wednesday-lunch-only pelmeni—little dumplings in chicken broth, smothered in sour cream, feathered with dill—will find his foie gras pelmeni a poor replacement, never mind how smartly flavored. Most of what we’re tasting—goat-cheese-and-wild-mushroom blinchiki, marjoram-scented quail, cocoa-dusted venison—is full of pizzazz and delicious, though expensive and meager. I feel the ghosts: Nureyev, Dalí, LeRoy himself, full of endearing exuberance, and the Russian and Polish immigrants who came in the twenties for tea with jam and cookies because that’s all they could afford. — Gael Greene

Goat-cheese-and-mushroom blinchiki, beef stroganoff or pork tenderloin, cherry and cheese blintzes.

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New York Magazine Reviews

• Adam Platt's Full Review (1/15/07)
• Gael Greene's Full Review (12/4/06)

Best of New York Awards

• Best Caviar (2007)