Russian Tea Room Offers Authentic Fare

Restaurant review

Russian Tea Room, 10425 N.E. Eighth, Bellevue; 451-3234. Summer hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday: noon-8 p.m. Closed Sunday, Bankcards and checks accepted. Wheelchair-accessible. No smoking. Afternoon tea service 3-5 p.m. -----------------------------------------------------------------

Tea is an important part of daily life in Russia, and the samovar (a metal urn designed to heat water) is a powerful symbol of Russian hospitality. Tea rooms in Russia are popular gathering places for endless conversations about politics, art and religion.

The custom of afternoon tea - typically served with a feast of small dishes called zakuski and sweet buns, bread, butter and preserves - originated in country houses on vast estates to which guests came long distances over bad roads, often arriving at any hour. Zakuska offered a practical way to feed them and maintain good spirits until dinner could be served.

Bellevue's Russian Tea Room - a tiny, 16-seat storefront cafe-delicatessen - not only serves a traditional afternoon tea, but offers authentic Russian, Siberian, Moldavian, Georgian and Armenian recipes for lunch and dinner. The menu is predominantly Ukrainian (one of the two owners is Ukrainian) and is ably cooked by a Belarus native from Minsk.

The bright, colorful deli lacks any real restaurant ambience, and the eight tables, with their small, uncomfortable chairs, can't handle much of a dinner crowd. But the Tea Room does a brisk lunch business serving downtown workers a variety of sinfully rich European cakes and pastries, lunch boxes, soups, salads, sandwiches, as well as complete sit-down entrees.

Afternoon tea, with a delicious assortment of tiny cakes, butter biscuits and preserves, served with a steaming pot of loose, strong Russian tea (imported from Krasnodar), occurs weekdays from 3-5 p.m. ($5.95).

If you can withstand the torture of the Tea Room's chairs, the dinner menu offers a number of treats (many of which are served for lunch) worth tasting. All entrees are made fresh from scratch with little salt or sugar. The Tea Room's recipes are not as greasy or oily as real Russian cooking, but the food is still somewhat heavier - although nonetheless delicious - than what many light eaters may find comfortable. Entrees come with soup or salad, vegetable and rye bread.

Appetizers include sauteed Moldavian eggplant with vegetables ($5.95); baked Ukrainian eggplant with herbs and oils ($4.95); a smoked fish plate of sturgeon, whitefish and Norwegian nova ($7.95); and Bulgarian feta cheese and olives with green onions ($4.95). Russian red caviar (with cream cheese and black rye bread) is $9.95, or you can splurge on black sevruga caviar for $35.95.

Try a cup of Ukrainian borscht for a light, flavorful blend of cabbage, beets, carrots, celery, onions and mushrooms ($2.95). Other soups include a Russian favorite with beef, rice, walnuts, herbs and a hint of pepper; split pea; and chicken. The dinner menu's only salad is an unremarkable dinner salad ($3.95 a la carte); the lunch menu offers much more interesting salad variety.

The Tea Room's pirozhki is the best I've ever had - a delicious bread dough, baked golden brown and filled with lean beef and cheese ($3.95). A rich hachapuri - Georgian bread with a variety of baked-in cheese blended with herbs, spices and fresh cilantro - also was very good ($3.95).

Don't miss the tender lamb a la Russe, or kolalaki (a recipe originally from Armenia), with its highly spiced meatballs browned in butter and seasoned in a parsley tomato sauce, served over rice pilaf ($9.95).

Generous portions of traditional Russian dumplings tossed in butter and topped with sour cream, are available with either chicken or lamb ($8.95). The chicken was delicious, but the lamb was somewhat gristly. A very good vareniky - the Ukrainian version of the traditional dumplings - mixes in potatoes, sauteed onions and seasonings ($8.95). Stuffed cabbage rolls were good but contained some gristle with the ground beef.

Desserts ($1.85-$2.95) include a rich assortment of Russian tortes, layered with chocolate, cream, cherries, fruit, nuts and baked meringue.