The very dry is actually quite sweet. This is cooking as a direct expression of the People's Will, diametrically opposed to the egoistic fusion gimcrackery that too often holds sway in fancy-britches upscale joints. Anyone who digs Italian antipasto plates will feel at home with these Russian equivalents, known as zakuski . Eating zakuski without simultaneously drinking is either idiocy or treason or both, so order a round of Stoli shots. Keep in mind that the restaurant's policy is to serve no more than four drinks to one patron.
Russian salads resemble ye olde potato salads of beer-drenched picnic lore.
The rich Olivier salad, a melange of ham, potato, eggs, carrots, peas and pickles bound with mayonaise, is the best of RR's selection, with the dense, walnut-studded mushroom salad a close second. Borsch, naturally, is Russia's signature dish, and Restaurant Russia offers a particularly good rendition. Swimming with dill and marbled with cream, the beet soup is hearty enough to serve, along with an appetizer or salad, as a light dinner in its own right. Russians typically regard vegetarianism as a sort of mild mental illness, and the entree list offers little comfort to our veg-only comrades. Those who eschew red meat but can stomach a little chicken or fish are in luck.