Dining and drinking review: Vostok House of Dumplings

Vostok House of Dumplings is located at 1126 Commerce Street

Review and photos by Ted Broussard

From Russia With Love
Who knew Tacoma needed a soviet inspired dumpling house downtown? Well clearly the brother-sister owners of Vostok Dumpling House in Seattle’s Capitol Hill did. And to hear tell of the busy lunch crowds from UWT and surrounding businesses, they are not the only ones.

This is not a fancy restaurant by any stretch, and wasn’t intended to be. You need to be ready for a casual place with just six or so large communal tables with stools just a little too tall and a stand up counter by the front windows. All of the food is served in basic paper trays and baskets with the standard plastic ware selection.

But get past that and get to the food. The service is at the front counter with a large blackboard naming all the options. The staff person at the desk was consistently friendly and helpful on both of my visits there and very eager to explain how it all works for first time visitors. Here’s the drill: 1) make your choice of either pork, chicken or potato dumplings (aka pelmeni) in either a full order (18 dumplings---$10) or a half order (10 dumplings---$5.50). 2) choose a sauce---several options like dill, garlic herb, jalapeno-cilantro, etc. at no additional cost. 3) Choose add-ons like sour cream, bacon, caramelized onions, etc. for anywhere from $.50 to $1.50.  OR, you can pick a “style” with fun names like Bay of Pigs, Ivan, Bolshevik, Rocky IV and Sputnik for a special concoction sauce. After that, you can choose side dishes like Russian Fries, Borscht or red cabbage/carrot salad or even have piroshky for dessert in apple or cherry flavors.

Flavor is a mixed bag for me. I’ve tried all 3 dumplings by now and none of the fillings seem to carry much of a flavor punch at all. It’s all about the sauces here. I’d encourage you to chat up the staff person taking the orders, who is very willing to offer friendly suggestions about what goes best with what. So far, I’m a big fan of the Chernobyl sauce, a fresh mix of cilantro and jalapeno without the jalapeno heat, and the Ivan style with flavorful punch of garlic sauce, caramelized onions and bacon.

The borscht is serviceable on a cold day but again; I didn’t get any particular flavor sensation. The Russian Fries were a surprise. Not French Fries at all but the standard potato dumpling deep fried instead of boiled and topped with bacon, sour cream and green onions---delicious. The apple piroshky with hot caramel sauce was very good and the light and crispy crust was a nice reprieve from the heavy dumplings. Each dish is served with a generous chunk of brown bread that can be purchased by the loaf as a take-out item. Drinks are limited to cans and bottles of beer and soda but they do have a fun line of Russian themed sodas called “Leninade.” It was tasty and had clever puns about Russian expressions. They had me at “Join the PARTY!” and the encouragement to get “hammered and sickled.”

All in all, I think Vostok Dumpling House is well worth trying.  It’s different than other downtown options and makes for a good lunch or a bite to eat when heading out for the evening if you’re into the heavy food thing. The space itself is clean and service is friendly and helpful. Sure, the service ware is basic and spare but I chalked it up to the whole Russian theme thing. Make no mistake; the food is good but no one is “Putin on the Ritz” here, if you will.