Belarussian Xata, The Second Iteration of a Moscow Restaurant - Belarussian Cuisine in Sheepshead Bay

[manolands]

Recently, I had the wonderful experience of going to Belarusian Xata. It’s a very, very new spot so it’s really hot off the press in terms of discovery value: only three months old. I can understand why it has laid low because it’s all the way out in Brighton Beach, a food kingdom few venture to, a foreboding unknown!!!

I was especially excited to try this one because I have been to Belarus, and I was hoping it would be a kind of Belarusian-rural-kitsch restaurant that you find in the countryside. Amazingly they got the genre down to a tee. I mean, this is maybe the single most “authentic” restaurant I’ve ever been to in terms of the experience. They even had the fake wood tables and chairs AND the flavored vodka.

Belarusian food, as well as most food of the former Soviet Union can be considered an acquired taste to come. Lots of fried, fatty, and salted components would be a great way to describe the core of the cuisine. This restaurant does that, and does it well. It’s a great place to sample Belarusian delicacies like Draniki, which feels like the Potato Latkes ancestor, being thicker, more uniform in shape, and often stuffed.

I ordered my go-to appetizer at any former Soviet resto: herring with onions/potatos. I’d dare say I like a bit more saltiness to herring, but that’s me being a bit nitpicky. A solid herring plate it is. Any semblance of a diet went off the rails with the Draniki, fried pork, and cheese sauce (pictured below). I promise it really wasn’t bad. I am a really uptight eater, meaning I judge the shit out of restos, but this actually played very well in a way that only a former Soviet resto could.

I may like Draniki better than Latke’s because there is just so much more you can do to them. Meat filled, veggie filled. I BET YOU COULD EVEN MAKE VEGAN ONES :-O!!!! Anywho, it was solid, but if that’s too much of a “fuck no” end of dishes for you, then they have a huge selection of other items to choose from. Fish, Shashlik, etc., you name it!