The Russian Tea Room Review

Tea Room is best Russian restaurant in New York. I took my wife for anniversary.

Unique and iconic...and very red! Great champagnes and caviar though the entrees are a bit heavy for today.

You definitely pay for the name here, not the food or service. We should have turned around when we saw the empty place at prime dining time. They require reservations but there's hardly anyone there. Decor was unique but dated. The 3 chandeliers were decorated with red Christmas ornaments. Food was very mediocre.

The service was good but the quality of food was not good at all compared to the price. I got the beef which was mostly fat rather than meat. And my boyfriend got the chicken which didn t taste like a chef cooked meal. I m not sure if other items on the menu are better

I'm from Norway, so this sort of cuisine is very interesting to me.

I absolutely adored being here and the ambience was so beautiful. The people where actually very friendly and there was a lot to chose from in terms of variety.

The teas where excellent but I think this is a place to go to for a special occasion.

Although I lived in the tri-state area all my life, ironically I had never had afternoon tea in NY. I had afternoon/hi-tea in many establishments in Asia, so I expected my experience in NY to be similar. I took the chance to try hi-tea in NY when a friend from out of town came. It was her first time going to tea, so I choose the Russian Tea Room from the reviews I have heard. We made reservations, so we were quickly seated. But reservations were unnecessary as there were about 5 parties of two when we arrived. I expected it to be a bit more crowded since we did go on Columbus Day.

After we were seated, the waiter immediately brought us the menu. We had a quick glance and he explained the two different tea sets they had to offer. We opted for the traditional tea set which came with an assortment of sandwiches, scones, and sweets, and of course a choice of tea. I choose the Formosa Oolong tea, which was quickly brought out after we had placed our order. The teacup was quite different from the traditional ones I've seen. It was a drinking glass places in a metal type of holder. The waiter poured the tea and explained to us that it was Russian tradition to put preserved raspberries in our tea for sweetener. I usually don't take anything with my tea, but decided to give the tradition a try. The tea had a bit of a tart taste with the added raspberries, which was what I expected. It was good to give it a try, but I definitely prefer my tea as is. Our tea set was brought out to us in two rounds. First, the sandwiches were brought with caviar on the top and a mix of sandwiches on the other two trays. The smoked salmon and shrimp salad sandwich were the best, and the others I could pass on. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't serve cucumber sandwiches as that was a favourite of mine during my college days. The second set came out with the sweets. There were chocolates on the top, cupcakes in the middle, and scones on the bottom. We were stuffed from the sandwiches and could only munch on the scones. The waiter noticed that we couldn't have anymore, and kindly offered to pack our sweets to go, which was a bit unexpected. I've never taken the food leftover from tea, and I'm quite surprised that the Russian Tea Room graciously asked.

The food is extremely expensive and it is absolutely nothing special. I had the filet with foie gras and it was like they did not season anything. The filet was cooked properly. The foie was two tiny charred chunks, which did not seem to have the right flavor or texture... I ended up extremely sick the following morning.

This place is a shame !
We where a party of 11,celebrating 40th bday,
Entered an empty place ,loaded with employees,who s not paying attention for costumers.
We waited so long for drinks and food that ended up tasting very bad!!!
Doesn t worth the prices,definitely not recommended!!!!!

As a Russian, I can say that the food they serve is quite regular food of a descent quality you can find in a typical russian cafe.

The price they charge is RIDICULOUS! $24 for 300ml of Russia soup borsh , which is common in my country because it is easy and cheap to make. $42 for three pieces of fatty lamb chops served with some greens placed on a plate with NO CREATIVITY WHAT SO EVER!

The only thing which was absolutely up to my Russian standards (that is why two stars) was the service! It looked like the staff were prohibited to smile and talk in a nice polite fashion. Instead they were efficient in serving you with few words spoken, like in an authentic russian factory canteen. I was surprised to find a really nice smily chatty server there and ....he was russian for Kemerovo.

Overall, if you want to experience an authentic Russian ambience - this is the place to go.

I'm confused how they get away with claiming to serve a gluten free menu ( same price as regular menu) and just serve a bowl of fruit rather than a three tiered cake stand of baked delicacies. Not the same by any stretch. For the savoury course they substituted the bread for cucumber and lettuce which to be fair was OK. The sweet part was unforgivable however.

Meh. Mediocre food but wonderful tea in a magical setting. Come here for the tea service not dinner.

Amazing experience. Went to this restaurant with my girlfriend for a dinner date and the waiters where so amazing and smily . The food was great and hey, try the mosco mule drink (my current favorite). I will add this to my list of fine dinning places in nyc

Interior really interesting and nice, but pure menu, nothing related with a russian, just names. Nobody speak russian, can not makes even really simple plain blinchiki with no fill. No kids menu. Just caviar.

Great service, definitely dated still an interesting place for tea

Warm details and a plush ambiance. The perfect spot for brunch with gal pals.

A terrific experience, a little like Mardi gras, you have to do it at least once. Just once. Food was very good...waiter.. a little snotty, I have to say. Could not stop telling us how busy they were, when the restaurant was essentially one third occupied. I wouldn't tell you NOT to go, just think of it as an experience to check off the bucket list.

Great ambience! We love the decor and the layout. Very disappointed with the food. My family and I had dinner on 2/2/18 during Restaurant Week. We had the chicken & salmon dish and they were both horrible. My teenage kids did not finished their meals. Dessert was no better. We had the cheese cake and the chocolate cake and they were both horrible. Waiter service was below average, perhaps our expectations were too high. I will not recommend or revisit this restaurant for their food. Very disappointed.

Pricey but the atmosphere and food are worth it. Ask to see the second floor where you can see the 15 foot glass bear aquarium and beautiful room.

Our first trip to NYC and we had High Tea after church to celebrate my mother's 83rd birthday. Absolutely beautiful, excellent service, and delicious food. A wonderful experience we will never forget. I also found a beautiful pendent and christmas ornament in the gift store that I will treasure. We hope to make this a yearly christmas tradition from now on and we can not wait to come back next year.

The service was great.
Food was great.
The tea was so so, look at the color of the tea.
Best sweet potatoes fries.

Second time I've been here. Both occasions really similar (although I was in a different group size). We got high tea both times. Both the savoury and the sweet trays were good. If I had a small complain it would be on the presentation itself, a bit poor. But they tasted good. The place is really nice and worth a visit, although the waiting staff are fairly ruder but it might be because all my other high teas have been in London and it's a bit different. I recommend the experience, although it's a bit pricey for what you get!

I was with my family in the restaurant week.The attention seemed excellent, as for the food, I do not think the same. Maybe because the menu was cut, I went with that promotion, maybe in original letter serve More

Too expensive for the little food provided. Had to pay extra for champagne! Old & outdated.

I went for the afternoon tea for my birthday and it was so disappointing. The service was good. The atmosphere is fun. The food was just so awful. I have no problem spending money for excellent food and the tea itself was lovely but all the food was subpar. I won t be going back.

Just cuz u can't afford it doesn't mean its overpriced!!!

Absolutely, 100% without question, the worst meal I have ever had.

From inflight meals, to remote villages in East Asia to 5 star restaurants to neighborhood delis and everywhere in between, this place embodied the worst of all sustenance I have consumed.

My cocktail, a $25 creation, the Cavitini described as a dirty martini with olives and caviar, was a glass of vodka straight up served with a cucumber slice with a minuscule portion of caviar. No biggie, I had them dirty my vodka and moved on. My husband ordered the vodka flight. The four shots of vodka came out with no ice bath or anything to keep them cold and the portions were already at room temperature when served.

Our amuse-bouche was tiny white chocolate drops with hardened congealed fishy caviar. We ignored it, hoping for the best when the food came. My Foie Gras arrived, two hunks of liver like cubes atop thin bread wafers drenched in oil and cherry preserves. The smell coming from the dish was exactly that of my dog s ear infection, it was inedible. I am a huge fan of Foie Gras; I order it every chance I get this was not even remotely, what I was expecting. We asked for the plate to be removed and I did not complain thinking I perhaps was in the wrong, despite my husband s pleading that I say something.

Our meal came; my Chicken Kiev was a dry husk. A waiter came over with pomp and circumstance to make the first cut; when no butter or juices ran out he simply turned and walked away quickly. A huge dry chicken nugget atop cheap white rice rather than the traditional Plov that was described on the menu. The sad vegetables on the side were unseasoned and over cooked. My husband s duck was fatty and cold with no flavor. Both plates looked like churned out airplane food. We barely made it through them and after waiting for desert for 20 minutes, we asked for the desserts to go and the check.

The desserts came plated shortly after.

The blintzes were great. The cheesecake was missing the chocolate shavings and fruit advertised and tasted frozen or at least refrigerated for an extended time.

My husband complained to the manager who had no knowledge of the menu or any Russian cuisine at all. They offered us no alternative, no discount, no nothing, hardly an apology just the empty promise of letting the chef know our concerns. We paid $400 for a meal that was largely inedible. This was a horrible waste of time and money. We have lived in the city for nearly a decade, anywhere else would have been a much better celebration of Valentine s Day. We dine out all the time and while we are not foodies, we know what tastes good and are not afraid to spend money to have a memorable meal. This was not worth a dime of our hard-earned salaries.

To add insult to injury, as we made our escape our coats taken at the door were nowhere to be found, our coat check ticket never came to the table as we witnessed for a myriad of other diners. After being scolded by the woman at the coat check for losing our nonexistent ticket my husband had to go into the coatroom and find our coats. Once found we were treated like criminals trying to perform an outerwear heist. It was horribly insulting and ridiculous. Do NOT dine at the Russian Tea Room. It's terrible.

I used to go here when I was a child with my mom. The food is the same. Still good and authentic. It has lost the family run feeling of years ago. I would go just to see how beautiful the space is! I love a good tea service...

Horrible quality of food. Tastes like food from the clearance section of a low budget russian store - if such were to exist.

The worst food I have ever eaten in my entire life. Even with a reservation, we still had to wait an hour to be seated. Expensive too. Everything made me gag it was so gross.

Restaurant week spot: amazing. Great servers Crazy decor on the second floor. Desserts were top top notch. We had:
- Blintze
- Salad
- Ravioli
- Mousse
- Cheesecake

The ultimate first date spot. Won t break the bank, a legendary place.

Really enjoyed our lunch visit during restaurant week. The mushroom and goat cheese blinchik was tasty 3/5. The bouef stroegenoff was delicious and the meat was very tender 4/5. The chicken was juicy and went superbly with the sauce and mashed potatoes 5/5. The cheesecake was very good, but it was slightly hardened on the edges and I prefer it with a graham cracker crust, but the drizzle it sits on is superb 4/5. Service was acceptable, didn't stand out.

Long story short, we waited almost 40 minutes for our reserved table and had to leave before being seated.

I wish I could give this place a proper review. We had a reservation for 6pm because we were seeing a show at 8. At 6:20 they started to try to seat 6:15 reservations even though there were at least 4 other 6:00 reservations still waiting to be seated. At 6:35 we had to walk out and find something different because they had only seated one table in that 35 minutes we had been waiting. The hostesses almost completely refused to talk to anybody and the manager was doing nothing to help the situation. At one point he told the crowd waiting that a bunch of tables were paying and about to open up. 20 minutes later we were all still waiting.

What makes this even worse, is that on OpenTable, they still had reservations listed available for every 15 minutes all night with 1,000 point bonuses for making a reservation, even though they were clearly beyond over booked.

Excellent service, but it's the experience and history of this place that is captivating, make sure to ask about Madonna (who worked here at one time). A must visit for experiencial dining.

All complaints from previous guests are because off the price, but in my opinion it's worth the experience.

Used to love it when I was growing up - great Chicken Kiev. Now it's good for cocktails if you're headed to Carnegie Hall.

This is wonderful place to share time with friends while having a wonderful tea time but not only tea we also drink a glass of champagne. Enjoy this place is valuable every single penny.

Nice atmosphere, food was not so good (came for the NY restaurant week)

I only went for drinks. The martini was well made but the place was pretty empty and a little dull.

One of the priciest drinks in the city. The Godiva martini was good.

Old world and charm and delicious Borscht (hot or cold) served by the likes of a Doctor Zhivago movie extra replete with double breasted imperial Russian military jacket and regulation mustache. Vegetarian High Tea options. Been wanting to visit since I was a kid listening to the old WQXR (96.3) ...slightly to the left of Carnegie Hall" radio ad!

Elegant and traditional, a great place to eat Russian food. If you ask for caviar, prepare the portfolio. Great cocktails and excellent service.

Probably the biggest restaurant letdown ever. The decor and the experience is 5 star but the service and the food are lacking. I actually felt bad for the place while sitting there on a Saturday night with less than half the tables on one floor full. They say they are renovating the other 3 floors but I am pretty sure that is just a story since they just had a $36,000,000.00 renovation in the last 15 years. I took my wife for the pre-theater menu which was about $70 per person and came with an appetizer, an entree and a desert. We got the Tea Room Salad and the Red Borscht, the Crispy Chicken and the Beef Stroganoff and we got the Chocolate Mousse Cake and the Tiramisu. I have had excellent Red Borscht in Poland and this was not nearly as good though it came with a nice beef pastry and some sour cream, which helped. The salad was blah. The Beef Stroganoff was average, my Irish mother made better but I actually liked the Breaded Chicken quite a bit even though my wife thought it was dry. We took one bite of the Chocolate Mousse and that was enough, but the Tiramisu was quite good. The bread guy was very professional but the bread was cold and not super fresh. I was also shocked at the bathroom experience. An old, not so clean, rundown bathroom in the basement with marker graffiti above the single urinal. The pre-dinner menu with one alcoholic beverage each and one coffee each, plus tip came to $245.00. Not worth the price at all but this was a birthday meal and the experience was fun. They actually even managed to "lose" my reservation that I made 8 weeks in advance but due to a lack of clientele even on Saturday night, they fit us in easily. With high expectations, we both said we would never come back again. Sad.