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Sunday, January 20, 2013

Pierogis at Veselka in NYC, New York

Image of Entrance of Veselka in the East Village NYC, New York
It has been a while I wanted to try Veselka, a restaurant located in the East Village, that serves Ukrainian cuisine. Interestingly, Veselka is located where it used to be Little Ukraine and you can still see some of its presence, between the Ukrainian Church, Ukrainian Museum or Ukrainian school!

The restaurant reminded me a bit of Katz's deli, probably because of the decor that appears similar to what it was when they opened in 1954 (not that I was there), as well as the large crowd waiting for a seat. We went there at 11:30am on a Saturday and it was already packed! Normal: people came for breakfast in this 24/7 joint. 

Although the menu offers traditional breakfast items such as pancakes, waffles or eggs, we decided to try typical Eastern cuisine dishes. We started off with soup. Jodi ordered a Matzo Ball soup.
Image of Matzo Ball soup at Veselka in the East Village NYC, New York
I ordered the Borscht soup.
Image of Borscht soup at Veselka in the East Village NYC, New York
Soups are homemade and we ordered the small portions. I was imagining smaller portions to be honest! This was a nice size for $4.75! The matzo ball soup was very good: the matzo ball was soft and tasty and the chicken soup, that contained some real chicken, was delicious. 
The borscht was very good and you could definitely taste the beets that are used. It was served with sour cream that I dipped in the soup: fantastic!

We then wanted to try pierogis (dumplings). We picked cheese pierogis as well as potato pierogis. 
Image of Cheese pierogis at Veselka in the East Village NYC, New York
We decided to get both pierogis fried so they had a bit of crunch on the outside. 
Both dishes were served with homemade apple sauce and sour cream. The potato pierogis were also served with some delicious caramelized onions. I liked the pierogis, but definitely preferred the potato ones as the cheese ones were a bit bland, not because of the shell but because of the farmer's cheese they use, although there was some sweetness to it. I would have preferred a goat or swiss, but for sure, it would have nothing to do with Ukrainian authenticity...
In fact, I will retrieve the same farmer's cheese in the cheese blintze.
Image of the Cheese Blintze at Veselka in the East Village NYC, New York
This was a disappointing dish as all I could taste was the cheese and the blintze itself was overpowered by it. Too bad!

So, although I did not like everything I ate, I will probably come back to Veselka to try some other dishes. I like the casual atmosphere and the very comforting food.

Enjoy (I did)!

And remember: I just want to eat!
Veselka on Urbanspoon

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