The Russian Tea Room Review

Unique atmosphere in a legendary restaurant of the 20s. An absolute must have when visiting New York.

Fabulous place, we stopped in for Pre-theatre diner and were treated like royalty. The food and drinks are top quality and the staff were wonderful. Highly recommend their Chicken Kiev and their early grey tea!

A quaint landmark restaurant with great character. The place was empty on a Sunday, but filled up eventually creating a more lively space. The green and gold atmosphere is paired with authentic Russian tradition. Be sure to look around for some of the more Russian-influenced customers, complete with oligarch-style tracksuits and women in fur hats. Our server, Vladimir, was friendly and knowledgeable, serving traditional Russian tea with cherry preserves and Stroganoff. The warm hospitality paired with the sheer honesty about personal preferences on the menu really brings Moscow to you. I felt like the only thing missing was a picture of Putin on the walls!

The place to come for the decor. The service is some of the best you will find in town and the food is quite good. Sadly they do not excel at tea. Expect bagged tea not loose leaf that is not handled to the best practice standards of tea making.

Not the best experience service and food was terrible but drinks was good

Good location reasonably priced quality staff polite

Our lunch at the Russian Tea Room was a wonderful experience from the moment we entered the restaurant until we left. We were pleasantly greeted and promptly seated. The wait staff were a cut above. We were served water and fresh hot rolls as soon as we sat down. Our waiter brought menus and explained the specials. There were 3 of us. Each meal was to die for, perfectly prepared and presented. Desserts were rich and decadent. The teas complimented the desserts. As we left, the hostess thanked us and wished us well. Thank you/

Paying is for the decor. Pulling tables and so are very considerate. I still feel a touch of uncaring

It was a very good experience. I started with caviar tasting. It s nothing special, but was good and it's perfectly matched with the champagne.
And then I asked for beef stroganoff. OMG!!! It was so amazing.
I finished with the dessert and the cappuccino which were very tasty.

Absolute rude personal. Was taking to the manager the other day, she is absolutely paranoid, hysterical woman. She was almost screaming at me! How insane is that? As a customer I don't have an words... Worst experience ever!

Love the decor. Beautiful. Such a wonderful place, very relaxing. Had brunch, really enjoyed. Worth experiencing.

My 15-year-old daughter and I had afternoon tea at the RTR on a recent trip to the city. It was an enjoyable experience all around! The tea sandwiches were dainty and delicious - our favorite was the smoked salmon on pumpernickel. The service was excellent - our teapots were checked and refilled several times. We hope to try the brunch next time we go!

A very extravagant place, green walls with gold paintings, furniture upholstered in red leather, feel like a nobleman ... :) Expensive, but very tasty, and also on the -1 floor there is a mini museum with a nesting doll and Orenburg shawls)

Dine in luxury and enjoy delicious food. Friendly service.

Outstanding pricy food served with impeccable service in a setting from the Guilded Age. A marvelous experience in all dimensions.

Tasty food (small portions however) great service excellent Moscow Mules

the interior and decor is nice and everything but thats it. the staff is trying to be helpful but they are very unprofessional. the girls at the reception are dumb and have no idea what they are doing. waiters also were acting like its their first day here. main course was good but salads were horrible, just grass, no vegetables to be found anywhere. manhattan has a lot of of other better restaurants than this. avoid.

Fantastic experience. Great service. Great food. Great drinks.

I last went here for my 27th Bday celebration. It was empty- not due to the food, but the prices and the economy at the time Oh the PRICES!- Absolutely outrageous! So in that respect, quite an authentic recreation of contemporary Moscow. Vodka "flights" of 3 are a bargain at $20 though. The decor is Tzarist Russian and almost "Disneyish" in style. Visit once for sure if you have never been, or don't plan on a trip to Russia in the near future.

Got squished in between two other tables. So uncomfortably close to the point I bumped an elbow. The other guests had to stand and move when I got up, like at a ball game. Service was awful, not a single smile or pleasant comment the whole evening. I decided to take my wife to NYC for our honeymoon and chose this place for our special dinner. Was pretty bummed I dropped a bunch of money on the worst customer service in NYC. Our server either ignored us, hated us, or both. I saw him once and he looked like hew hated his job. The food was actually pretty great, which is why I was so bummed. Might be better another night.

The food is absolutely awful and does not even resemble anything close to russian food. Don't waste your time and money go to Mari Ivanna on 20th for the real deal.

What an absolutely unique experience! What a gem of a restaurant to be located right beside Carnegie Hall!

I was unimpressed. We were there in the blackout and they comped cocktails and dessert to other tables but did not for us. Given the experience couldn't meet our expectations, I would have expected some refund.

Good Russian food The attention very well and the place too. A ticket, main course and dessert are requested. Very close to Central Park. Somewhat elegant place.

Great for ambiance (check out the second floor of you can) but overpriced for quality.

My spies tell me that the food is trash and their house wine is garbage water. The name means nothing. Tiny hors d'oeuvres, tasteless. $225 per person. I don't know how they have they stayed open for 92 years. The people that go there must have burnt off the tips of their tastebuds. Waste of time and money!!! Go to Per Se!

We had heard about the Russian Tea Room and it was great to finally experience it. Absolutely loved the decor. Very authentic. Prices are high but we expected that. Food was delicious and we enjoyed every bite. Worth having at least one trip to see and take this place in.

The decor is beautiful and the atmosphere makes you feel that you are in a cozy place. Between the caviar, the champagne and their delicious food overall I didn't know where I was after an hour of enjoyment!

Drinks we fantastic... but a little heavy priced.. 3 cocktails and tip is $100... so for that.. I d doubt I d go back. But it is very good. The bear fish tank on the second floor was pretty cool to look at though.

A tourist trap but worth it to try once in a lifetime. It's food isn't the best but the place is very nice.
It's expensive $$$$, lovely place for an imperial dinner.

I went for Restaurant Week with some college friends and a special lady. The atmosphere was decidedly Russian (a good thing) and service was excellent. However, when it came to the food I was a bit underwhelmed. Overall good time.

After a long time, I was able to enjoy authentic Russian cuisine. In the past, there was always a Russian restaurant in the student district of Tokyo, but recently it has become difficult to eat Russian food. We chose only borscht, beef stroganoff and typical dishes, but each one was not for the seasoned taste but for everyone, and the volume was so large that the dessert could not be modified.

Very much as expected. The decor is fabulous and the atmosphere stuffy but historic. The service is excellent. The food is good maybe above average. The prices, however, far exceed the food's caliber. Go for the experience not the food. Great cocktails also.

Iconic and famous restaurant. Russia all around you, unabashed gaudy colours of the decorations giving you that old Russian feel. Food authentic and original.

Excellent service, waiters were extra attentive made the whole dining experience extremely pleasant. The food was great and the decor was worth the visit. Would definitely be back again

Went there for restaurant week, the atmosphere and decorations is really great! The dishes were amazing and worth it!

Superb. Have done drinks and our first caviar experience to celebrate our anniversary over the summer and it was absolutely wonderful. Manager and bartender were amazing. We went back for Christmas Eve just for the heck of it and is just such a great place. Cannot do NYC and not do the Russian Tea Room, it's a landmark and worth it. Highly recommend from Russia with love, delicious. And if you are a Billions fan, then this is a must do.

Amazing!!! So wonderful!! A experience always wanted to have, did not disappoint.

The Russian Tea Room in Manhattan. Not one iota could be added or subtracted from our experience here spanning 59 years.

This is a beautiful restaurant, and makes a great romantic dinner. The service is superb (as it should be) and the food is elegant and delicious.

It's a museum. Take special notice of the 24k gold ceiling. Service was the best I've ever experienced. Lunch express menu was fabulous. Best borscht ever! Nevermind the prices... It's a must.

Food was very good. We went before a show at Carnegie and we had the pre theatre menu. I was nervous about ordering from this menu, thinking it would have been food that was precooked and rushed but this wasn t the case. Everything was cooked to order with fresh ingredients. The service was 5 stars, our server Mohammed was very friendly and personable.

Amazing building, worth going just to look at the art work and curios.
But food very average at best; this is not "fine dining" in any sense of the word.
And the price/quality ratio is very low; there are many other places in NYC that offer much better food at much lower prices.

Wow, The food is average, but with the cost it makes it not worthwhile as far as value is concerned. I strongly recommend looking for a higher valued restaurant if you're looking to try a new place.

The decor was pretty nice, however not as good as the photos are making it appear, but thats pretty common.

The service was okay, however, I rarely got a refill on my drinks.

I took my Russian husband to this restaurant for afternoon tea. He was very excited to visit this landmark restaurant which had been featured in several movies. The food was well presented on beautiful three-tiered trays, but tasted mediocre. In terms of caviar on the blini, it was almost non-existent. Not bad for 60-90 dollars a person! I would have still rated this restaurant well, despite the food, but the waitress was incredibly cold and rude. My husband assumed the waitress was Russian and started speaking Russian to her. She said coldly, and clearly offended, "I don't speak Russian". He then said "there would be no shame..." until she cut him off and kept repeating, "I have no shame, I'm not ashamed. I am not ashamed. I am Turkish." When she finally let my husband finish, he only wanted to say that there would be no shame in staff learning a few Russian words to really bring out the charm and authenticity of the Russian Tea Room. My husband then tried to inquire about all the art on the wall in this iconic restaurant, and the waitress coldly answered she didn't know anything about it. I honestly find all of this surprising as a former waitress myself. I used to work at an Italian restaurant and we learned a bit of Italian and we were taught about the history of the restaurant, which was nowhere at the same standard as the Russian Tea Room. Working for tips, you'd think the staff would be a lot more friendly. I think the management really needs to reconsider its staff. If not for genuine Russians, or lovers of the Russian culture, then at least staff that is client-oriented.

We were excited to go to afternoon tea on Sunday after seeing "Anastasia" on Broadway. The dining room took our breath away. Absolutely beautiful and authentic. But I was disappointed to get a pot of hot water with a tea bag in it. For $60 per person I was expecting a bit more. The finger sandwiches were tasty and satisfying but the pastry tray which is usually the piece de resistance at an afternoon tea was amazingly lackluster. We could not even bring ourselves to eat the two small cupcakes which were stale and unappetizing. A quick trip to the local bodega could have resulted in something more gourmet. We were surprised that there were so few people there, but after we realized that this was a tourist scam it made more sense. Our wait staff seemed very shy and uninformative. It would have been nice for them to explain that Russian tea is often drunk from glasses with the sugar cube held between the teeth and sipped through. Or that the provided cherries could be used to sweeten the tea. A great opportunity for a cultural experience was wasted. So disappointed.

On our first trip to New York, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit the historic Russian Tea Room. We knew that Madonna used to work here, and that it had been featured in many old Hollywood videos, so we were expecting it to be a pretty solid experience. It was alright. We probably wouldn't visit again on future trips. Here's why:

Pros:
-Decent ambiance
-Decent service
-Makes for a good story

Cons:
-Food is sub-par at best (kind of tasted like store-bought baked goods)
-The beautiful section of the restaurant that you see in pictures (with the bear, and the tree) is closed off. It's only available for private parties.
-It's a bit expensive, especially for the quality of food.
-It felt a bit awkward. We were one of two tables in the restaurant. To be fair this might have been due to the time of day or time of year we were there.

It's a fun little spot, and if you're a huge film nerd or Madonna fun it might be worth a trip, but otherwise I'd recommend finding another tea service/restaurant.

Brilliant venue. Great location, friendly service and delicious menu.

Definitely something to experience while in New York City.

Afternoon tea is a New York staple for some families to celebrate. It is also on many visitors to do list. High tea is an English tradition imported to NYC with a Russian twist. It can cost as much as $90.00 per person with champagne. It is a lot of food and many will find some of the half sandwiches not to their taste.

Great but a little too expensive for the food we ordered

Super cozy, beautifully decorated with various paintings with Russian motifs and a wonderful collection of samovars. The dishes are very well prepared and delicious. Honest price.

Ariana and I loved this experience. True first class all the way.

A real high tea (but turns out tea is not my thing)

Stunning place that has well executed menu and service. Trully great experience.

Cannot understand the high ratings for this place.
Pro: old landmark place with lots of history.
Con: mediocre food, mediocre service coupled with outrageous prices.

In a city fool of amazing places to go for an afternoon tea and hundreds of great Russian food restaurants, why waste time and money in this "has been"?

This review is for the afternoon tea. Overall the food was very good, not amazing (some of the sandwiches are really too basic such as the ham & cheese or the tomato spread). The service was lacking some drive, and was too much on request . For example the hot water refill for the tea came too early for us and we had to decline, but we had to ask to have it come back. We had some questions on the menu due to allergies, but the waitress seemed annoyed to answer. We are talking about 200$ for 2 incl. 1 coupe of champagne so the standard of service should be better. We could feel the next table being served by the manager got a totally different experience in terms of explaining the menu for example, so we know this is possible and done, it just needs more consistency!
Also competition is right across the street where we enjoyed a lot more our tea service at the Park Hyatt.

Fine location, classy place with great ambiance, top notch food choices, outstanding customer service. Highly recommended!

Amazing place!
We went there one Sunday for brunch and were not disappointed. The food is excellent and so is the service. I am not even talking about the mind-blowing decor.
One of New-York's must see.

Nice elegant place, good food, great stuff, but unfortunately not really Russian. It is more like Russian image , kitsch. Probably that was my wrong expectations & nostalgia about my homeland. We came there for lunch - the menu was too American did not remind me about Russia at all. Also they do not have Russian non-alcoholic cold beverages which traditionally should serve with lunch. Instead the offered the tea. Russian people usually do not drink tea at 2pm only cold drinks. The music is really Russian and very good but sounds only in a restroom!

I'm in forever love with TRTR specially their staff our host was Nepali and he was the greatest, super charismatic and our bar tender was great too, we will be sure to bring back some Honduran and Nicaraguan currency for your collection!

Think cirque du soleili without the performers. As a small child Christmas used to invoke a similar feeling... Love this place! An authentic, bright, beautifully ornate & festive celebrity grade dining experience without the elitist feel. My girlfriend & I had a martini with Leonard Nimoy while waiting for a booth back in 02 , talk about a surreal first Tea Room experience. $$$$ but you get what you pay for!

Truly lovely, fairly cheap too, expected it to be much more expensive.

Worst experience ever!!!! All hype now show, get a vodka and get out!!!!

The ambience is absolutely spectacular. The plush, red booths and the gorgeous artwork, the chandeliers and well-dressed staff. You feel like you're in an elegant Russian parlor in the 1920s.
I skipped the $18 dessert which was incredibly small.
Overall, the service was very high quality.

The Russian Tea Room is the best place to eat in NYC! It is historical and delicious. The whole place is exquisite !!

Outstanding special spot near Carnegie Hall if you want blini's and borscht. Typical Russian menu but also other options as well. Outstanding that it is back open!

I don t know ... I don t like their employees. fire them please. Thanks..

Expensive but worth every penny!!! Staff made me and my gal feel like a king and queen and food was to die for!

We just stayed at the Park Hyatt and ventured to have dinner at the Russian Tea Room - or perhaps what was once the RTR but is no more.
My wife and I shared the space with a nice mom and her 9 year old daughter and with a couple of teenagers across the room. The emptiness of the space was painfully loud. What was once the place to see and be seeing, is nowdays a lonely and sad place. The staff, wearing old, seemingly dusty and unfitted Russian customs, looked redicioulus and knew it as well, and yet managed somehow to walk around with a chip on their shoulder (and I don't mean that as a compliment). The service was deeply below par and my mother in law makes a borscht that puts their version to shame. The food was average at best and without a doubt not worth the $150 we left on the table - especially with so many great restaurants around. What I want to convey to you, is how SAD the place felt, it felf like visiting a skeleton of what used to be a beautiful bear. One thing is nearly certain, you won't find any Russians dining there. And here is the thing to take away - we fell into the trap because we were staying at the Hyatt across the street... It was virtually impossible for us not to fall in... I mean, you are staying next door to the RTR and won't give it a try? Well, take our word for it and skip it!! It's not even worth going in order to place a "check mark" and say you were at the Russian Tea Room - it's not really there any more.

downhill for this place! too bad it is convenient for carnegie. food is pretty bad

My favorite place for delicious Quality Meals. the staff was very helpful and observant.

A classic restaurant with attentive service. Ideally located next to Carnegie Hall. The Russian Tea Room has been in existence for years and is maintained at a very high level.

Nice experience but extremely expensive for what you get. Still it s something that every tea lover need to do at least once.

Eh! The Russian Tea Room has been on my New York list forever and we finally went for tea. The place itself is worthy, nice plush red Russian feeling. Service on the other hand felt pretty Soviet, and as ones who go to tea where we can find it, I have to say theirs could and should be better. If it's on your list, go. If not...

To go even once in life. The tea is unbeatable !!!!

Tryed it for. NYC restaurant week. I highly recomend making a reservation, and you will likely be seated in 2nd floor where the ambience is more exclusive. Loved the food, wine, and my wife's company. Wll definately visit again next week.

Interior decor is splendid. Great choice of tea for a fan like me. Get the Stroganoff.

One star is too much. The decorations are nice but I wouldn't serve their food to my dog. I'm Russian and embarrassed to call what was served, our cuisine. It was an extremely disappointing experience for me and my friend who was visiting from Russia.

Gorgeous place with fantastic decorations and amazing food.

If you want to impress check this out! No grets here but you will pay for the motts:)

Heard great things about the restaurant from a local and decided to check this place out for brunch. Unfortunately, both the service and food failed to deliver and the recent negative reviews were spot on.

The service was actually great at first when we were seated as the table was pulled out to allow us to seat and take off our coats comfortably. But for the rest of the time. The service was super disappointing as no one checked in with us to see how our meal was, we had to ask repeatedly to fill our empty glasses, and frankly, we saw our server twice. Once to take our order and another to give us our check. I felt that this was unacceptable given that the restaurant was relatively empty and it the menu prices weren't cheap.

We started off with the pastries and it was probably the best part of the meal. Both of them were flaky and hot which was good. I wouldn't go for the basket at $18 as you can pick your own for about the same price.

Our mains were a bit disappointing. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't anything special either. For the price of the food, I expected more in terms of the quality and taste. For example, the brown toast which came with the scrambled eggs and smoked salmon was hard like cardboard, the potato slice was burnt, and the salad that came with the truffle quiche had a bit too much acid.

But what really got to me was their orange juice (I highly don't recommend ordering this). Prior to ordering the juice, we asked whether it was freshly squeezed. The waiter said "Yes" enthusiastically so we ordered it without checking the price (our fault). The juice came out really quickly which I found suspicious as freshly squeezed juice should take a while to make. So, I took a sip of this drink and knew immediately that it came from a container. I was going to say something but the wife wanted to keep it as she was really craving a juice with her meal so I just left it. I expected it to be about $6-$8 but I almost fell off my chair when I saw that we were charged $12!!! That is ridiculous for carton juice - even for freshly squeezed juice I would argue; I forgot to take a picture but it came in a standard tall clear water glass.

Anyway, we paid and there wasn't a thank you from anyone as we left. If there were 1/2 stars I would give it 1.5 for the history/atmosphere of the restaurant, the pastries, and smoked salmon. Other than that, there's not much that's good about this place and would definitely not come back. I would not recommend this restaurant.

Fancyyy and glamorous establishment. Food and drinks were great. The place was pretty empty and silent which made it a little awkward. The staff were friendly and were very kind to show us their bear aquarium on another floor. It was more like a museum to explore, but not a place I d go back to.