$$$ - expensive
Russian
Veg-Friendly Russian Restaurant
This elegant restaurant, decorated in old Soviet style, is located right in the center of the arts district of Chicago. Russian Tea Time has a surprisingly large selection of vegetarian/vegan dishes that originated in former Soviet countries (which the menu will tell you how to pronounce, along with a few basic Russian phrases). Many of the soups and side dishes (which can be ordered tapas-style) are vegan, as is the pomegranate sorbet.
Blue Line or Red Line to Jackson.
- Large Group-Friendly
- Live Music
- Quiet
- Romantic
Added by Eric Purdy on Aug 14 04 (updated Aug 14 04)
Reviews
While this place looks like it would be expensive (and trust me, it is if you order the main entrees or the flavored vodka shots), it is easy to get a reasonably-priced meal here if you just order the side ¨taste¨ dishes. Many of the ¨taste¨ dishes are vegan and range between $3-5. Very reasonable if you order a few and split them with friends.
My husband and I love this place for a quick, inexpensive lunch when we visit the Art Institute. A bowl of soup and their dark brown bread will fill you up or choose from several vegan entrees for a fancier meal. We've enjoyed the vegetarian sampler platter with guests.
I went here for afternoon tea. I called ahead to ask if the full tea service ($19) had any vegan-friendly entrees, and I was told no. I was, however, able to find a couple of vegan friendly entrees on the lunch menu, so I just ordered from there. The food was good, the tea was quite fine, but the service was unbelievably neglectful especially when they weren't even busy. I think we sat for a good 20 minutes trying to track someone down for the check.
This place is quite expensive and the food just isn't worth it. I really loved the bread they served, dark pumpernickel with onion on the crust. However, the rest of the food I had was okay at best. My appetizer, the zucchini and eggplant, was decent, though the eggplant was cooked with some sort of too-sweet sauce on it.
My main dish, however, was the totally bland. It was a big pile of stewed vegetables with barely any spices. Maybe I just don't like Russian food.