Solyanka For The Music

Last night, after failing abysmally to put a shelf up, Wolfie and I endeavoured into Bradford to try Yorkshire's only Russian restaurant. Due to the poor integrated transport system here, we don't go to Bradford often enough as it is a different council area and there is a paucity of buses. This is sad as architecturally it's a beautiful place - particularly at night - and is actually nearer to where we live than Leeds. The new urban park is also marvellous and a great place to have a pint or picnic, particularly in the summer.

The restaurant was fantastic. It was like my grandma's front room but with Soviet propaganda posters on the wall. The gentleman who managed the place was a sweet grandfatherly soul who was delighted by the fact we had visited Russia, although he did profess his dislike of Moscow. He was from Samara and told us a great deal about his city. He also expressed his undying love for Kyiv, where he lived for five years. This bloke was one of the most stereotypical Russian people I have ever met and this only made him sweeter. It was also interesting to discover that 90% of his clientele is English.

We also expressed out mutual love of Baltika beer and how you can only get number 7 easily in the UK. However he said he can source all of them easily, including number 8, our joint favourires. All we needed to do was give him a call.

Our waitress for the evening was from Klaipeda in Lithuania, a city I visited back in 2003. She was beyond delighted that not only did someone know about the city but they had actually been that she was quite endeared to us for the rest of the evening.

We were urged by the proprietor to try his solyanka (солянка), with him saying it would be better than anything we had tried in Russia. This soup of smoked meat (six different types), gherkins and olives was certainly delicious and the perfect warmer for a cold winter's night. For our mains I had to go with pelmeni (пелмени), the traditional ravioli-style meat dumplings with butter and sour cream. Stodgy, filling and absolutely wondrous. Meanwhile Wolfie went for lulya-kebab (люля-кебаб), an Azerbaijani dish which was spicy and stuffed with cheese. As a side, Mister Wolf had cheese and olives dipped in garlic.

The service was perhaps a little leisurely but the food was all freshly cooked and the ambience in the place was brilliant. Russian pop songs from a huge televised concert were playing and everyone there was clearly having a great time. And of course the excellent staff made it a very pleasant dining experience. We will definitely be going back.

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