My friends and I like to go out for a meal every now and then, taking it in turns to pick a restaurant. Several years ago I spent a few months in Russia, and I keep meaning to try and find a decent Russian restaurant. A Google search turned up Zima (the name means “winter” in Russian).
Zima is in Soho, next to Ronnie Scott’s famous jazz club, not far from the Prince Edward Theatre. Inside it is warm and cosy, covered with abstract art prints (Kandinsky?). The background music was like a crash course in Russian music, with folk, metal and pop making an appearance.
Russian food is pretty meat-heavy, and there wasn’t much choice for vegetarians on the menu, but lack of choice doesn’t tend to bother me, being chronically indecisive. In the end I went for the dumplings with potato and mushroom, with an egg-and-mushroom bun on the side. Friends ordered borscht, turkey-stuffed cabbage rolls and a side of bread, which the whole table sampled and gave the thumbs-up (also, the little bread board was super-cute).
Drinks-wise, everyone was doing Dry January apart from me, but I really wanted to sample the vodka, so I chose a shot of strawberry and basil vodka which was amazing, and genuinely sippable. I want to come back and sample the vodka tasting platter. The soft drinks were very impressive: the strawberry lemonade was amazing, and my strawberry and orange tea was delicious.
For pudding, we tend to go and find an ice cream parlour, but the desserts here looked so good we decided to stay. Friends had honey cake and pancakes, which both looked delicious. I had chocolate dumplings, which were amazing.
I always get nervous when I pick a restaurant in case people hate it, but in this case I got lucky as everyone gave it the thumbs-up! It’s definitely somewhere I’d like to visit again.
Zima, 45 Frith Street, Soho, London W1D 4SD