Borsch Vodka and Tears
Borsch Vodka and Tears
173 Chapel st, Windsor 3181, Victoria, Australia
+61 3 95302694
I am taking a break off Japan food blogging and thought I’d write up Borsch Vodka and Tears which I visited not so long ago. I have long heard of this Polish restaurant but hubby was never into Polish food thinking it was just borsch and mushrooms, which did not interest him. After our eastern Europe trip he realized that there was more to it that just beetroot and mushrooms, so when Dr. Ben suggested going to Borsch vodka and Tears he didn’t disagree.
Walking into this restaurant certainly transported us back into the bohemian era. We ordered two vodka cocktails – “Bison and Apple” and “Something Wicked This Way Comes”. They were both made from this vodka that was also nicknamed Bison Piss because apparently the bison graze on the grass that was infused in this vodka. Noice. The “Bison and Apple” was nothing special although quite refreshing, but the “Something Wicked This Way Comes” was quite sweet at first, but nice the ice melted a bit it tasted like a very very nice strawberry drink. yum.
We ordered a few entrees to share and three mains between the five of us. Lamb croquette ($14.5) was first, it was meaty and crunchy with hints of licorice throughout. The crunchy gherkin was a good addition to this dish as it cuts the fattiness.
Next up, the potato pancake with mushroom $14. I thought the potato cake was a bit firm for my liking but the flavour was really good. Even hubby who didn’t like mushroom was slopping on the mushroom sauce.
The cabbage roll $14- Everyone raved about this dish, especially the sauce. Ahmanda even wanted to eat the sauce by itself. That’s how good it was.
Chicken and beef crepe was a bit meh. I looked at it for a long time wondering what this was as it looked like spring rolls. It finally dawned on me that that was the crepe and I don’t know, the crust was a bit hard. The flavours of the meat wasn’t too bad though.
Secret sausage was next and the reason we called this secret sausage was cos we never ordered it. We ordered the polish sausage as a main and we thought geez this was so small but this must be it! It has really really awesome flavours and combined with the mustard and the tomatoey sauce was just awesome awesome awesome! I found out later that this was the Cevapcici $14… I think.
Now for the mains. The REAL sausage $26 came- 2 big sausages with a heap of mash- YUM. Apparently the two sausages were different but as we were sharing this dish I just accidentally took one whole one thinking that it was the same. Oppppsss sorry guys. My sausage was nice but nothing really special.
Goulash $26 was OK- I thought the meat was quite tough but the sauce was not too bad. Maybe they should cook the meat longer. Once again there is a big gloop of mashed potatoes….YUM!
Pierogi with cheese and potato $23.5. Before it came we all wondered how simialr this dumpling is to the chinese dumplings, and whether it would taste any good. But we don’t have to worry- the dumplings weren wonderful- it was crispy on the outside, soft and pillowy on the inside.
Vegetarian borsch and the polish borsch were not good though$14.5. I know borsch is made of beetroot, but when I was in Poland it seriously tasted less beetrooty than this. It just tasted like beetroot and nothing else. No salt, no nothing. Yikes. We only almost finish it because we were betting on whether we can pee red. 😛 Also included was the Pierogi of porcini mushroom and sauerkraut, and it wasn’t that great. Note to self: stick to cheese and potato pierogi and don’t order the borsch next time.
It’s dessert time! Hubby ordered a crepe with chocolate and hazelnuts, Gundel $11.5. It was wonderful.
My chocolate and almond cake special with honey fig was very very rich. After all the really rich food that’s perhaps not the best choice, but the cake was very moist.
Dr. Ben had the lemon vodka panna cotta. I secretly think that Dr. Ben ordered it just to wobble the panna cotta 😉 Dr. Ben let me try some and I quite like it as it was lemony and light, but it doesn’t really taste like vodka.
Overall I thought the food was fantastic, nothing like anything we’ve tried before. There were a lot of talk on Urbanspoon about rude service, but we thought the service was OK, they were just quite understaffed so the service can be slow and sometimes unresposive. 8/10
Hey! Thanks for the kind words about my brother’s photo skills. I showed him the comment to bring a smile to his face. Your food photos are absolutely stunning and made me hungry the whole time. When I was in Poland, I missed out on Borsch but will be sure to make my Polish boyfriend make me some 😉 However, I did have some Pierogis and they melted in my mouth! Miss it!! Have a great day!