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Time Out New York’s 20 best dishes of 2019
by Bao Ong and Emma Orlow
Tzarevna
Crab khachapuri, $25
Georgian hachapuri is a bubbling fondue pit with brined sulguni cheese and a bright yolk that gets mixed together. Tzarevna makes the dish its own with a sourdough crust that’s fermented in-house; in the crab version, there’s a playful addition of adjika—a Georgian style paste made with nuts and spices—giving the delightful effect of Old Bay seasoning.
→ Lower East Side (tzarevna.nyc)
The 100 best restaurants in NYC to dine at now
By Bao Ong, Emma Orlow and Time Out contributors|Posted: Tuesday December 10 2019
Photograph: Time Out/ Ali GarberRestaurants, Russian
74. Tzarevna
Lower East Side
What is it? A restaurant serving excellent “New Russian” cuisine with beef stroganoff served with pomme puréeinstead of noodles and a crab version of khachapuri.
Why go? Tzarevna has no vodka bottles; instead, Georgian wines are the thing here. That same fresh approach gives a nuanced perspective on Russian cuisine, inspired by Georgian, Ukranian and Uzbeki cooking.
6 Savory Ways To Enjoy National Pickle Day
by Aly Walansky Contributor for Forbes
Salty and savory, a pickle is a uniquely satisfying snack. And while it’s always a treat piled onto a burger or with a pastrami sandwich at the local deli, there’s countless ways to celebrate pickles. As for when to celebrate this briny treat, National Pickle Day, coming up on November 14, sounds like a great time!
Seasonal Pickled Plate
Sometimes a great meal is all about how it starts. “Our pickle board features cucumbers, long island hot peppers, pomodoro (a Russian term for a brined tomato), marinated mushrooms (currently shimeji, also from Long Island), and pickled green strawberries. The first 4 pickles are quintessentially Russian. The board showcases a variety of pickling styles, while also representing our dedication to seasonality and local agriculture,” said Ricky Dolinsky, owner and chef of New Russian restaurant Tzarevna, located in New York City. “Our house pickle board represents our restaurant’s mission, which is to draw influence from the flavors of Russian cuisine while reinterpreting them through American optics and execution.”
TimeOut: Tzarevna
Restaurants, Russian – Lower East Side – Recommended 4 out of 5 stars
Mariia and Ricky Dolinsky opened There in October 2018 but soon realized they wanted to focus on modernizing Russian cuisine—after all, Mariia was born in Russia, and Ricky is the son of a Slovakian immigrant. By April of this year, they pivoted to Tzarevna, a new concept in the same space.
Down the corridor from the basement-level coffee bar is a small, somewhat hidden dining room with a concave, greenhouse-like glass ceiling, fake roses and stacking dolls; the interior design is perhaps a little tacky, but it’s also not beholden to the aesthetic conventions of other LES restaurants.
We began with Russian black bread ($4)—it’s not actually black, but the rye has a dark hue—served with scallion butter and crisp radishes. Borrowing from the region’s preferred ingredients while expanding upon them, a beet salad ($10) with walnut-cheese crumbles, celery and peach mousse errs on the sweeter side for a starter.
Next came the sprats ($16), a small fish in the herring family that is fried with a crackling batter and finished with lemon and a side of beans. We snacked on them like salty chips.
The beef stroganoff ($24) is prepared with a lesser-known cut, Wagyu flat iron, which is incredibly supple and mouthwateringly rich, mixed with hearty oyster, shiitake and cremini mushrooms in soupy pomme purée, rather than a bed of noodles.
Georgian Khachapuri is a bubbling fondue pit with brined sulguni cheese and a bright yolk that gets mixed together. Tzarevna makes the dish its own with a sourdough crust that’s fermented in-house; in the crab version ($22), there’s a playful addition of adjika— a Georgian style paste made with nuts and spices, giving the delightful effect of Old Bay seasoning—paired in the dish with apple and dill.
The cheese-filled bread and other dishes are brought out by Mariia or Ricky, giving the service a personal touch, as if you were in the Dolinskys’ home.
Unlike Tatiana and the other beloved Russian supper clubs of Brighton Beach, Tzarevna—which means “daughter of a czar”—has no vodka bottles; instead, Georgian wines are the thing here. That same fresh approach gives a nuanced perspective on Russian cuisine, inspired by Georgian, Ukranian and Uzbeki cooking—one zakuski-style platter at a time.
BY: EMMA ORLOW
POSTED: THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 12 2019
Tzarevna brings Russian fare to the Lower East Side
by Hoodline. Photo: Tzarevna/Yelp June 5, 2019
If you’ve got Russian on the mind, a recent opening is need-to-know. The new arrival to the Lower East Side, called Tzarevna, is located at 154 Orchard St.
This new business offers tapas-style Russian fare and wine, with menu items ranging from beef stroganoff with beets and mango to a buckwheat salad with sunflower tahini and pine nuts.
With a five-star rating out of 11 reviews on Yelp so far, Tzarevna has been warmly received by patrons.
Lenny T., who was among the first Yelpers to review the new spot on May 10, wrote, “The service is genuinely caring and unpretentious. The menu may be intimidating if you’re not familiar with some of the dishes, but once the plates arrived everything was familiar and delicious.”
Yelper Alice K. added, “Delicious — great vibes and amazing service, plus, lovely Georgian wines. Highlights include the black bread, radishes, pelmeni, chachi pourri, Olivier, stroganoff and beignets. Highly recommend this spot!”
Interested? Stop by to welcome the new business to the neighborhood. Tzarevna is open from 5 p.m.–11 p.m. on Tuesday-Friday, noon–11 p.m. on Saturday and noon–4 p.m. on Sunday. (It’s closed on Monday.)