Well it has been a long time between meals for the FOFO group. But we went to the Russian Coachman after I pointed out that some of the people at work thought that is was the home of the Russian Mafia. I had lived around the corer for 18 months and have never been there, so it was a good chance to go inside and have a look. Billy organised the meal and we headed back into Redfern. It is strange, for over a year I have been cycling through Redfern, only blocks away, but I did not really feel at home again until I was walking the streets down to the Coachman from Redfern Station. Redfern is still one of my favourite suburbs in Sydney.
The Coachman is full of surprises. It is built in an old house from the convict era of Sydney. When you first enter there is a bar. As I was there before the others I stopped to have a beer. I ordered a Baltica, all the way from St Petersburgh. I was immediately transported back to 1999. I had dinner with this Dutch girl in Turku in Finland. She introduced me to many beers I had before. I remembered one, but thought it was Dutch, and I have been looking for it since. I found it. It is Baltica, and I would say it is my favourite beer.
Very shortly after the others started to arrive and we headed into the dining rooms. Being a house, the rooms ramble a bit like old house rooms with some of the walls removed, we ordered our meals and sat down to eat.
We ordered quite a variety of food so that we could sample it all. Being with food bloggers has it’s advantages. The service was excellent and seemed to improve as the night progressed. The entrees were good hearty food. One of the disappointments I had in my 12 days in Russia was that I had never been able to eat Russian food apart from what the little old ladies sold on the train platforms. As is usual we had to wait while all the food was photographed. I did not put the effort in that the others did. I am not a full time food blogger, just a part time one. I had the dumplings which were truly excellent. I am convinced that Dumplings come from Manchuria, but I have never researched this. But I have eaten them in Manchuria and the dish is the same all the way from the south of China to Japan and over to Poland.
The main courses came next. My dish was good, but some of the others were even better. The little bread roll plates were invaluable in getting samples of each dish. GrabYourFork has a full description of each meal.
Finally we went onto eat deserts. These were also very good. Lots of strudels and cakes. My strudel was very good.
I’d have to say I enjoyed the entrees the best. There was some very unusual and some brilliant food. The rest was good. I think in the end we ended up spending about $60 a head, so it was a bit more on the expensive side. I was glad that I went and will go back there when the chance arises. I want to say that this is the best restaurant I have been to in Sydney, it is certainly up there in the top few.
The Coachmen Russian Restaurant & Function Centre
763 Bourke St, Surry Hills NSW 2016 Sydney
Finally Billy has posted his review of the place.