I'm not Russian or Ukranian, but I'll definitely count this place as my "go to" for comfort food. A rarity in the soho dining scene, this place doesn't have that typical vibe that's trying too hard to be cool or fancy. Instead, you get friendly service from the owners who really care about what they serve and earnestly made food all wrapped up in a cute, homey little restaurant.

Not strictly Russian cuisine per se, their menu does not stray far from Eurasian and none of that fusion hubbub. All dishes tasted great and was more delicate than what I'd expected from cuisine of this region. If I really have to say one bad thing about this restaurant, then I'd say their portions can err a bit on the small side for the price.

Surprise favorite dish of the night was an unassuming root vegetable salad - the Vinegret salad, made with diced carrots, beets, potatoes and peas mixed with a tonne of dill and interspersed with crunchy bits of pickles which was a nice refreshing touch.Another surprise for the night was the drinks (both good and bad).

Bad news first: don't get the kefir. Perhaps lost in translation, but the kefir here is not the slightly effervescent fermented drink that I thought it would be, but instead was just straight up yogurt.

Good news: their home made flavored vodka is some liquid gold. We tried two flavors: horseradish and lemon coffee. Both weighing in at ~40% alcohol, went down surprisingly smooth and had really good flavor. In fact, the vodkas were so good that I found myself voluntarily sneaking sips of the little glasses of vodka my boyfriend ordered for himself - and this says a lot coming from someone (me) who doesn't like vodka (or any alcohol for that matter).

All in all, good food, good booze, good people. Do yourself a favor and give this place a try.

Little Burro has pretty decent burritos, but this has gotta be the worst quesadilla I've ever had in my life (including my own homebrew failed attempts).

Gummy and limp, tortilla wasn't even toasted. Chipotle chicken was overly vinegary. The whole atrocity came off more like a burrito (albeit flattened) of the microwave variety. Not to mention that it comes without the holy guacamole (how sacrilegious!). This thing, ladies and gentlemen, is a quesadilla from hell.

Granted it was takeout, but the photo says it all. They really *beep*ed this one up. If you want Little Burros, just stick with their burritos. But if you want quesadillas, then I suggest you go for Calimex.

Cute and cozy little place, however, as I said, while I can tell that they care a lot about the quality of their ingredients, the flavours are in need some work. Portion sizes are also quite small. Points taken off mostly for lack of flavor (as expected from descriptions per menu).

May still give it a go at their breakfast items on another day, shall report in due course...

Food items ordered:

1. Chicken Cobb salad with smoked tea vinegarette - served on a bed of kale (instead of mesclun as per description), personally love kale but not in salads, as I find that kale is a bit too rubbery and coarse eaten raw. Had they told me that they're using kale I would have not ordered it. Flavor of the vinegarette is non-existent and quite oily to be honest. Nice chunks of chicken and avocado but not super overall. (5/10)

2. chicken water(something)loo - the most flavor packed dish of the night. Sauce was supposed to be a white beer reduction, but mostly it was a creamy buttery sauce (but tasted pretty good though). Served up in a small cast iron pot with some slices of organic bread. About 4-5 slices of chicken breast in the pot. (6/10)

3. chicken curry cranberry tartine with cranberry harissa - served on a thin slice of bread slightly longer than the length of an adult's palm, portion size is good for a light lunch but probably not enough for a dinner. Harissa has a bit of a kick but doesn't have that smokiness I expect from harissa. Tastes more like cranberry sauce with some hot sauce. (6/10)

Drinks:

1. Green and Herbal iced tea - tastes like home brewed iced tea nothing special. (5/10)

2. Super green house blend - kale, lemon, apples and ginger ran through a blender into a thickened shake. Not enjoyable, would of tasted better with a bit of honey, but at least I know I'm getting lots of fiber from this drink and that they didn't skimp on the ingredients (6/10)

BBQ meats were surprisingly decent. the BBQ pork had nice charred bits and a good balance of sweetness and soy sauce saltiness. However, the other dishes were generally subpar in terms of flavor and/or skill.

Stir-fried sticky rice was OK but quite soggy, not the characteristics one would expect if it was "raw fried" as claimed (meaning that the grains of rice were cooked from start to finish in the wok by stir frying resulting in the more coveted al dente finish rather than a soggy sticky mess that sticky rice is prone to).

The last dish, and the one that drove the nail to the coffin of a bad review was the vermecelli dish. At $90, it featured fish and gai lan and was supposed to be stewed. We didn't expect much, perhaps a bit of fish filets tossed in some consommé and a couple gai lan stalks (the normal way to do any type of "stewed" noodle dish), but what we got was some pale looking noodles that was merely tossed in oil with some pieces of minced fish paste and a couple pieces of sad looking gai lan. Bland and flavorless. No skill went into the cooking of that dish whatsoever - did not justify its price tag at all.

I normally shy away from anything "fusion" due to bad experiences in the past (but if you must know, it's usually a luke-warm portrayal of neither of the cuisines it's trying to represent being passed off as "fusion" without much concern on how the actual flavours will mix), but I'll make an exception for this. 

Stumbled upon this jewel on my way to the Flying Pan on a Sunday morning-ish to find the place packed, backtracked just a couple steps up hill and you will find this place. 

Brunch items ordered:
- latte + McGriddle 
- SO had a craft beer + chicken and waffles
- rendang hash to share

Chicken and waffles you say?! Yes you found the right place. I urge you to read on.

McGriddle was was a hotcake sandwich with "built-in" maple syrup between which are coriander bacon, gooey eggs over easy and cheese. First bite and I knew we were on to a good start. I hate to sound douchy but it's very well balanced, I can taste everything yet none of the flavours were overpowered by the others at the same time. The hot cakes and built-in maple syrup tasted like what it should (the syrup being buried as little candies in the hot cakes prevent the thing from turning into a soggy mess), the bacon wasn't overly salty but gives you that nice smokey flavour, egg was gooey enough to act as a kinda sauce to bind everything together and the cheese was of the processed variety (which I normally shun) but worked surprisingly well in this case because of the stronger "cheddar" flavour which helped round out the sweet and saltiness.

Phew, if you're still reading, now comes the chicken and waffles. THEY ARE SO GOOOD!!
Now true southerners would not be impressed to find that this is not the standard C&W affair. The fried chicken is doused in a slightly tart sweet chili sauce (kinda like the ones you dip shrimp cakes in at Thai restaurants), fried perfectly, not too oily and none of that dreaded "cut-you-upper-palate" crispy either. Waffle was light and fluffy. I am thinking about eating it for lunch the next day as I type (sorry folks, by this time we were already too entrenched with eating to take proper photographs)

Rendang hash is a Malaysian rehash of the potato hash. Spicy sriracha, fried onions and garlic slices tossed together with crispy cubes of potatoes with garlicky mayo (queue heaven music). It a sexed up version of the spicy fried tofu cubes you get at Chinese restaurants. (Funny side story: our hungry eyes saw the waitress carry the potatoes to another table which were met with "I didn't order this" stares, waitress proceeds to return said dish to kitchen upon which we eagerly exclaimed:
"we ordered this! It's ours?!" 

Waitress smiles and responds "hold on, I need to take this back and yell at the people in the kitchen (which was right behind us in full view through a glass window, and obviously she was joking about the "yelling"), upon which she immediately returns to give us our plate. Potatoes and joke devoured.

Only thing I have to criticize is the latte here, but given it's not a cafe, I'll let them pass on this. But if they did a kickass coffee too I'd be head-over-heels impressed. Latte by the way, is also served in the typical Fatty Crab fashion aka in tacky chinoiserie earthenware. 

Anyways, all in all a good experience. 

TL;DR - good food, come often

Popped in for a quick meal. Didn't go in with much expectation for a chain family restaurant, but what I experienced was below expectations! 

The lowdown: 
For a supposedly "American-style Restaurant", food is astonishingly small in size, drinks are weak, service was less than courteous, negative value for quality if that is possible. The whole affair felt like eating over-microwaved TV dinners at restaurant prices. I guess the semblence to TV dinners was the most "American" thing about this restaurant. I can't believe Ruby Tuesdays as a well known family restaurant chain could belch out such poor quality food.

[Apologies for the lack of photojournalism, wasn't prepared for a food experience plus the food was so disappointing I just wanted to fill my stomach and leave]

Service: 
Spartan - as in you got your order correctly and that's it. Didn't get any water before drinks arrived until we asked. Food was served without plates/cutlery. Cutlery taken away without asking. 

Food:
Appys
was a coconut fried shrimp concoction. This was one of the "better" dishes, tasted better than stuff you bought from the frozen aisle and that's not saying a lot for a restaurant. Totally not worth the price at around $100 for 5 shrimps. 

Mains 
I had a bourbon BBQ chicken with rice thing. The bourbon sauce was bland at best, can taste a bit of the bitterness from the alcohol plus a very synthetic liquid smoke flavour. Chicken was not even the standard plump chicken breast fillet but a flattened piece of white thing that had the consistency akin to an eraser with the graininess (and thickness) of heavy duty cardboard. Rice was something of the instant variety with random cheese and tomato congealed on top of the rice. The dish also came with some over boiled broccoli ~$190

SO had the wagyu burger and fries. Fries were soggy and oily. Didn't taste the burger personally but the patty was obviously not cooked to order and was dripping lots of clear "juice" which I think may be attributable to too much water added to ground beef during the prep to make up for substandard quality beef. ~$180

Drinks
stole a sip of SO's monster sized margarita which was ginormous as promised but tasted pretty weak (even for someone who doesn't drink). Think a single shot espresso (instead of a double shot) in a venti latte type situation going on here. ~$130