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Type Russian Tea Room on Google and the first two relevant ones will come; therussiantearoomnyc and Trojka, Russian Tea Room Primrose Hill. Since New York is hardly relevant, possible, nor affordable now or anywhere in the near future, Primrose Hill it was. It was the idea of a dear friend, whom I really should go with, but decided to give it a go now since another dear friend wanted to meet up. I was taking up the time of someone with a busy schedule, so NO, Noodle Oodle Duck Rice Bayswater was not going to be good enough.

Trojka looked just like another restaurant, smells of coffee and cake, american accents amidst the buzz of chatting crowd- but they did have a decent menu boasting Polish, Hungarian, Ukranian and of course Russian spread. My eyes obviously skimmed through ANYTHING that has any of the nationality-sounding words (above) and went pass things like caviar, smoked salmon on bread and poppy seed cake.

I was initially worried since the waitress seemed to be carrying mugs of coffee and carrot or cheese cakes. The interior was authentic enough. Funnily enough, the toilet TILING was in my opinion the "piece de la resistance." But overall atmosphere was nice and agreeable and authentic enough.

I don't know why but I didn't take many pictures of the restaurant. Maybe because I was too excited about the food.

I ordered Blinis, which was this all too typical buckwheat pancakes (mini pancakes)- they really did taste like pancakes!! Like those morning ones you have with butter and maple syrup.

But more of that later. Here's a picture of russian dolls they had behind the serving and main cashier counter. I got it off of google images.

So back and on to the food.

I loved my Blinis, I regretted only having ordered the small portion. There's really nothing much to say about them since they just literally taste like pancakes. The Blinis wasn't extraordinarily weird tasting or anything. In fact when I tasted it, I just knew that's exactly how it would taste like. Except for the little surprise I had about how much like ACTUAL BREAKFAST pancakes they taste like. However, it was the fact that the whole thing was put together was what I liked best. It's familiar tastes, but not tastes that you usually get unless you put a bit of effort of looking into food like these. It rather REMINDS and SUGGESTS you of tastes you're familiar with, and how it would taste of put together.
I hope I'm making sense.




What Hazwan had looked much more interesting, and definitely evoked interesting flavours.
What Hazwan had, on the other hand, was FAR from being able to expect the flavor just from looking at it.
He had Coulibiak- which really wasn't that hard a decision to make. It came at the top of the main meals menu.
Coulibiak - old Russian recipe salmon pie of mushrooms, spinach, rice & kasha topped with smetana, served with fresh tomato sauce.


Sematana is this nice refreshing sour cream but not-too sour and a bit chunky with bits.
The rice made the bite quite dry, so did the salmon. But with the sauce, the moist in a bite is more balances. And it was this taste I really cannot fathom as good or not. It's just weird. DEFINITELY not un-tasty or anything like that though. Even the croute/ pastry looked like the normal puff pastry you have, but turns out it really isn't.
To top it all off, we picked the only drink with the word "Russian" in it. Russian Tea. It came with honey, lemon and raspberry syrup. A thick black tea- definitely stronger than your english breakfast and yorkshire blends.
Nice refreshing late tea it was. Nice area too, Primrose Hill.

Thinking it was going to be this nice Saturday that Nabila persuaded me out with her, I told myself I really can do the outing; a) because I really need the sun and city and people, beyond those I see at the supermarket every 2 days, b) I really wanted to go check out Thanks for Franks with someone. It's been a while now since I accidentally found it.

The 9th of April turned out to be a Friday- there definitely was going to be that lunch working crowd. I thought heck, let's just give it a try. I should have remembered the fact that Thanks for Franks lie right in between the narrower streets of Marlborough/ off Carnaby Street area. And there hardly should be any business looking crowd in that area.

I would have been right, but it did take us sometime to grab a seat al fresco. I initially decided on Salmon Teriyaki Sandwich since it was mentioned in the review, but that then realised why there were so little on the menu, although they had their prized "Best Designed Sandwich Award 2009" Chicken Grilled Sandwich on the menu. It was because they also had smaller chalkboard hanging below the overhead menus- and I saw my lunch for the day; "My Big Fat Greek" Sandwich. Don't ask me where they get these American Grill Bar Chain- type names for their sandwiches. It wasn't even deliberate. Only a few had names. The place really didn't strike as anything special or thematic.

To be honest, I didn't know why I insisted on Thanks for Franks. I can't even experiment their chicken sandwich. It didn't even have much to offer. Too simple a menu, no over-friendly Italian-accented owners behind the counter, not overly decorated either. Maybe it was the plain blue, the word luncheonette, and the fact that I'd hate to miss out on something like this.

Alhamdulillah (Thank god) I didn't! Nabila loved her salmon sandwich which was a fat salmon fillet steak, lightly flavoured with teriyaki sauce on a bed of lettuce tomatoes, between fluffy naturally, dough-sweet brioche.

I was surprised at such a simple-looking deli, they would have in stock this succulent piece of salmon. Even Nabila assured me the fact a couple of times.

Mine was a bit more fresh tasting, of bed of salad on buttery, lightly toasted insides (but no butter) sesame burger bun.

There was some sort of salad dressing- pink-ish, which makes me assume a thousand island like concoction, which was weird in a burger, but it wasn't all bad. With that there were bits of olive tapenade. On this fresh bush of green salad and tomatoes, coupled with chewy grilled halloumi cheese, it was good! By far the best cheese burger, after my having been to succumb to cheese and vegetarian burger options these past few years.

I had a good time. An old guy, who did turn out to be this Italian-accented over chatty, friendly owner looking, presumably Frank took us a photo.

Notice the Kath Kidston table cloth motif.