Katia’s Russian Tea Room
Tea: ☕️ ☕
Food: 🍰 🍰 🍰 🍰 🍰
Ambience: 🌸 🌸 🌸
Overall rating: 💖 💖 💖
Tags: casual, russian
Katia’s is closing in May and will re-open in June as a cafe. They no longer intend to offer afternoon tea or Russian cuisine.
Afternoon tea at Katia’s is a sketchily defined affair. Large parties can book any time and pre-order bites, but our group of reviewers didn’t quite qualify. Instead, we had a hybrid dinner-tea: the restaurant opened an hour early for us and served us never-ending pots of tea while we sampled food from the dinner menu. The same dishes are on the tea party menu, so we approximated the tea party experience.
Those dishes — a spread of Russian classics — were Katia’s obvious attraction. We’d be hard-pressed to pick favorites. Every selection on the zakuski tasting platter pleased, from the hearty eggplant caviar to the bright-red vinaigrette (potato-beet salad). The potato vareniki, dripping with butter and topped with caramelized onions, melted in the mouth. The pelmeni were perfectly browned with fresh, well-spiced meat inside. The piroshki were fluffy and golden, though the cabbage filling was a trifle bland. Puckeringly sharp herring was excellent both alone and on soft, sweet blini. Fresh smoked salmon and salmon eggs also made for scrumptious, fishy blini toppings.
We didn’t skimp on our dessert order, either. Sweet vareniki struck just the right balance of tart and sugary, in both the cheese- and cherry-filled varieties. Syrniki (fried sweet cheese patties, topped with a berry compote) were pure fatty indulgence, although Erica insists that her grandfather’s are even better. The homemade apricot jam tasted of pure apricot essence. The pavlova provided a satisfying combination of textures, and the crumbly, creamy napoleon proved a ideal specimen of the genre.
The atmosphere at Katia’s is nice but casual: pretty mismatched plates and ornate tea mugs provide the touch of elegance that the paper napkins and scant decor lack. Our dishes arrived in a steady, well-timed stream, though tea and water refills did not. Katia herself bustled around the restaurant with sometimes-overbearing suggestions, banter, and, of course, more tea. Not that this was really about the tea. The Russian-style black tea was delicious (particularly with the addition of sugar cubes) and fortifying, but without nuance. Bagged herbal alternatives were obviously a mere afterthought. One unusual feature: every cup and pot arrived pre-brewed to perfection.
Date attended: April 22, 2018
Attendees: Ilana, Erica, Hannah, Jasmine & Tom
Price/seat: $25 for official tea parties; we averaged $34
Location: 600 Fifth Avenue, San Francisco
Menu: www.katias.com
