Uncle Vanya Cafe

Too long, didn’t read: Starters/​small dishes are delightful, their mains are acceptable, and the atmosphere is classy, casual, and intimate.
I went on a Sunday evening and the place was pretty slow (as in traffic, not service). It has a very classic old New York feel, and I love that a place can be both classy and casual – something I think many modern establishments don’t understand. So A+ on atmosphere.
For an entrée I ordered the duck with bulgur wheat and my boyfriend had the borsht, which was quite hearty. Though to be honest I think when I go back I will stick to more small starter dishes which I think are more their specialty. For example the blini was excellent.
The cherry dumplings were delightful, as was the traditional tea with cookies!

VERY disappointed with this place. I’d like to write how the food was, but I only know how it smelled from the people around me who actually got their orders taken and received their food.
My friend and I waited OVER AN HOUR until the waiter came by to take our order (no exaggeration — we were ready to order at 12:50 and the waiter came to us at 2:07). In that hour, we watched how he took the orders of everyone else, brought out their food (including the free bread baskets that we didn’t even get), took the food away, and took additional orders and brought them over. And I’m visibly pregnant, and we were sitting right in the waiter’s path; he could have at least brought out a bread basket or something. Just writing and remembering this is bringing back my hunger pangs.
And no, he didn’t forget about us — he stopped by at least 4 times to tell us that he’ll be with us in a second.
Also, there was another woman at our table (it was communal seating because we were listening to a live band), whose order the waiter did take, but never brought to her in the entire time she sat there (also over an hour).
The waiter finally came over to take our order right after the band announced their last song, and then actually acted surprised when we said we changed our minds because of how long he took, and that we had wanted to eat while watching the performance (like the rest of the people there). No apologies, nothing.
If you’re reading this, please don’t give them your money. The Russian Vodka Room and Russian Samovar are two blocks away — they are more expensive but they have good food and good service. Places that treat their customers like this do not deserve our money. Also Mari Vanna on East 20^th Street has delicious Russian food (we ended up hopping on the Q train and going there, and it was wonderful), and Veselka in the East Village is also good.

Personally found the service to be very good. Prompt, not rushed, accurate, and friendly. Food was delicious (a quick lunch of borscht and golubtsy). Cozy and beautifully decorated. Recommended.

Food was tasteless and cold. Chicken Kiev was dry and no butter. Stuffed cabbage was watery and no flavor. The frozen entrees I buy are far superior than theirs. Since your February reviews, this place has gone way downhill. I was looking forward to something different for dinner and I haven’t had such lackluster since I was a novice cook 50 years ago.

Been here a few times and usually had a nice meal. My friend and I had dinner last week and we were very disappointed. We had the borscht — hot. Was served luke-​warm and the pieces of cabbage were so large we had to cut them with a knife and fork then resume eating the soup with a spoon. We also had Vareniki — very soggy and a few had no filling in them. Lots of water at the bottom of the bowl. Next we had Chicken ”Vanya” which was greasy.
Really disappointed. Not may choices for Russian food in the city, and now this one just is not worth the money.
Take the trek out to Brighten Beach!

Went to this restaurant pre-​theater and the entire experience was a disaster. Our waitress forgot half the order, brought everything completely haphazardly and left us alone for very long periods of time… Food was OK, but service was abysmal. Maybe the kitchen staff was on strike? Would not recommend.

We were seated for over two hours, and half of our party didn’t even receive their entrees. What food did arrive was fine, but not great. Horribly managed kitchen, and seemingly inexperienced dining staff.

I’m Russian, and it was alright. Totally decent, but no destination for Russian food. It felt overpriced, but I guess that’s what you’ll get in the area. If you want a beer and some dumplings, it’s an acceptable place to do so.

Came here for an early dinner!
Atmosphere: 4 — Dim lights and very intimate, jazz/​classical music
Service: 3 — The food was slow to come out but I assume it’s because it’s handmade
Food: 3 — Overall authentic Russian food but too salty for me (I recommend the vareniki potato dumplings!)
It’s okay if you’re in the area but wouldn’t go out of my way.

Unbelievably slow service. Tasteless food. No air conditioning on a hot evening. Leaving this place with a sense of relief, never to come back.

This place got very bad. The only dish which is still good is the borsch. I ordered an apple juice and the waiter (there is one) brought an orange tasteless one. Then he said that they don’t have an apple juice and he heard that I ordered an orange one. The wine and coke during happy hour were warm. The roasted duck was boiled instead… very sad

Very mediocre– not worth the money. I still stand by the fantastic borsch they have. However, everything else was not great– very very basic food for a high price tag on seamless.
For the money we spent on lunch we could have had a gourmet meal. Instead we got a slab of grilled chicken, overly salted eggplant caviar, 6 poorly made crepes, soup, and potato bread on the side.

A very classic café and restaurant for dinner. This is the first place I tried real Russian food, as much as how authentic i think it actually is. With the blini with caviar, vereniki (potato stuffed dumplings), and my favorite soup — borscht, depends on your appetite, though hese can be a full meal for two.
Almost everytime I visit, I will order Pelmeni. Different from Chinese dumpling, the stuffings are different, which makes the flavor distinct, what strikes the most is that those dumplings does not contain any grease.
Regarding drinks, I don’t recommend coming here for any authentic vodka because they don’t serve here. However, the tea here is not bad. To my surprise, they don’t a wide range of selection of tea except the Chinese white tea.
It’s definitely a calm and fine dining location and worthy for revisit.

A very casual Russian Café about a half mile away from a handful of Broadway shows. It’s on 54^th street; kind of in the middle of nowhere (there don’t seem to be many restaurants on that block of 54^th), the food is hit or miss, but I definitely got a huge HIT with my choice of their vegetarian stuffed pepper. Russian food isn’t exactly known as vegetarian friendly, but I was feeling like I’ve had way too much meat in the past few days and wanted to scale it back a bit. The veggie stuffed pepper was fantastic!
The service was really awesome as well! When we came in and let them know that we only had an hour to be in and out because of tickets to see a show, they were very accommodating and took our order and brought out the dishes fairly quickly.
We all ordered some borscht to start with. Now, the restaurant has an option for a cup or bowl (⁴⁄₆), but they didn’t ask us to clarify which one we wanted, so we each got a large bowl. It would have been nice if they clarified before charging us all for a bowl, but we also should have spoken up (we didn’t see the two prices until after we got our food). The borscht was alright. My mom makes it better ;), but it’s a decent introduction to borscht if you’ve never had Russian food.
I also got some Sprats as an appetizer. It’s just Sprats on rye bread and the appetizer came to 4. LOTS of food — good zakuski to split and if you’re ordering shots of vodka — traditionally you would have a shot and chase it down with a sprat or other assorted zakuski.
My entrée was the obvious winner. A huge delicious pepper stuffed with rice, mushrooms and topped off with a tomato purée and sour cream. Lots of flavor. I adored every bite. Even if you’re not a vegetarian, but love tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms — you need to get their veggie stuffed pepper!
The ambiance here is a little weird. It’s very red and has a bit of an old feeling to it, but it’s still cozy and intimate. If you’re in Manhattan and don’t want to go to Brighton Beach, Uncle Vanya’s Café is a good solution for some Russian food. Unilocal check in gives you 10% off the bill!
tl;dr — get the vegetarian stuffed pepper. Delicious.

Food is ok. Service … I don’t want to be too critical, and given the fact the floor manager was the waiter, service is ok. Ordered stuffed pepper and it came out microwave oven heated. Half of it was still cold. Taste… Ok. I didn’t expect this from them. Would not insist on going there unless you have a really good reason to.

Absolutely horrible service! I ordered a pot of hot tea and never received it. Our water glasses were filled once and never refilled during our entire meal. The complementary bread was stale. And the unisex bathroom needed improvement!
With all that said the chicken dumpling soup was good… The chicken Kia was good… The potatoes that came with it were also good… Unfortunately the service ruined our experience!

Hells Kitchen or Russia? Really what’s the difference. Same rickety furniture, windows open to the noisy street, bring your own vodka, air conditioning turned off, ceiling fans that circulate the hot air, Russian spoken by almost everyone, and – I swear this is true – lights flickering the whole time, as if an electrical blackout was just about to happen.
They serve a fine cold borscht here. It’s tangy and refreshing, the real deal, full of diced beets and chopped egg, with loads of fresh dill and sour cream. It comes with a basket of homemade dark bread that is sour and delicious.
I’m not even going to review the rest of the meal – that would bring the rating down a star or two. I’m just going to say I miss the Uncle Vanya posters that used to hang on the walls, but my guess is they crumbled into dust with age and had to be replaced.

Had a great dinner with friends. Borsch was excellent as an opener and the veal dumplings were very tasty. Portions were small, but I think that was ok. They were all hand prepared, and seasoned well. The light Russian lager was also pleasantly tasty.
On the negative side, the service wasn’t speedy and they ran out of all beer while we there.
Super cosy. I’d recommend it to friends.

Authentic Russian food.
This is a small place with a cozy feel. The food was similar to what my mom makes me at home (comfort food).
The dinner took about three hours. We weren’t in a rush, so this wasn’t a big deal but would have been if we needed to get out of there sooner.

guy was very nice, interesting beer seection, good mushrrom/​potato mic, solid food. I have had better but for 13 dollars, I’ll gladly take it.
3.6

Ich vermisse ja schon lange einen guten Russen in München. Wenn mir da jemand einen Tipp geben könnte
Da ich super gerne russisch esse (besonders Pelmeni haben es mir angetan), muss ich das eben auf Reisen tun. Meine besten Erlebnisse mit russischen Restaurants hatte ich bisher in Berlin (Vodka satt bis morgens um 4) und Wien (Fußball schauen, während der Chef etwas zaubert, was nicht auf der Speisekarte steht).
In New York ißt man immer da am besten, wo die jeweilige Ethnie sich angesiedelt hat. Die Russen sind vorwiegend draußen in Coney Island, aber auch in Manhattan gibt es den einen oder anderen.
Uncle Vanya ist für seine leckeren ‘infused vodkas’, also Vodka mit Geschmack (auch ungewöhnliches wie Knoblauch oder Ingwer) und sein ‘Chicken Kiev’ bekannt. Ich konnte mir allerdings den Griff zu den Pelmeni nicht verkneifen. Die waren dann auch recht lecker, allerdings waren für amerikanische Verhältnisse die Portionen eher klein und der Service mittelmäßig (kann auch daran gelegen haben, dass der Ober wenig Englisch und ich wenig Russisch sprach).
Die Atmosphäre ist ein bisschen plüschig, dafür gibt es Pluspunkte, die Location schön zentral in Hell’s Kitchen, oder wie es neuerdings heißt ‘Midtown West’. Die Preise absolut annehmbar.