Nevsky Russian Restaurant

Each month my children aged 6 and 8 choose a page number from the Book of Flags, we find our country (this month was Russia!) and then seek out a restaurant that aligns itself with that nation's cuisine.
We hit the jackpot this month.
Nevsky Restaurant in Elsternwick is tucked into an Edwardian-front house on Glenhuntly Road. The huge fireplace in the centre of the small dining room is warm and cosy. The staff are welcoming, funny and genuine. The menu.off the charts. The vodka? Cold and delicious. (especially if you dare pair it with Beluga caviar.).
It's a place worth visiting again and again just to ensure you don't miss out on anything divine (because it all is). The duck special was incredibly tasty. My children chose the gravlax and the Siberian Dumplings. My husband had stroganoff. For dessert, you cannot ignore the sour cherry crepes!
Highly, highly recommend. Even the kids loved it!

Fantastic experience at Nevsky. We went on a Tuesday night so were lucky to get attentive and informative service along with fantastic food. Pate was one of the best I've had. Great home made flavoured vodkas on offer. Highly recommended, we will be back.

I totally loved the experience at Nevsky. I am from eastern Europe and dining here reminded me of my childhood when my grandmother cooked for me. The staff was really welcoming and everything was just great. Thanks guys, see you soon!

Good authentic food with professional friendly customer service. I had the borscht soup which I found filling and nourishing with great value. This seems to be an undiscovered gem as I went early on a weekday and it wasn't busy so everything was prompt. They have a range of spirit and cocktail specials that I would love to try next time.

One of the best Russian restaurants in Melbourne. Delicious food and fantastic customer service.

Cannot fault Nevskys, from Nikki's incredible service (her passion for her job just shines through & her knowledge was incredible) to the incredible crispy duck to the gravlax, most incredible degustation. 10/10 cannot wait to come back! Massive kudos to the incredible chefs and also Nikki who creates such a fantastic experience.

Despite being sat next to a very loud table and the rest of the restaurant being empty (would have preferred one of the many empty tables in a quite spot), I had a wonderful experience. The waiter was polite and provided great info about the $58 Russian Tale banquet, which was wonderful. The food was fantastic. The quality was fantastic. The value for money was fantastic. The decor is fine. My only complaint is that in an almost empty restaurant, we should have been seated away from others and had a bit more privacy. Lots of empty tables, but we were stuck next to a very loud party. But the food and good manner of the staff was wonderful enough that I highly recommend Nevsky. Many thanks Nevsky. Love your work and hope to be back soon!

Good food with generous portion, good service, good ambience, very reasonable price. Worth to try

This is the best Russian restaurant in Melbourne hands down. If you are authentic Russian dishes cooked by actual Russian chefs, you cannot beat Nevskys. Good Atmosphere, friendly staff, food is perfect. 10/10

Great food, great vodka, very helpful wait staff. The average Australian might not have many positive interactions with Russian culture so I highly recommend a visit! The dumplings are especially delicious.

Myself and my partner had the Russian Tale buffet which was excellent value for money and everything was delicious. I mainly came here as I was compelled to comment on the beautiful and accommodating staff members who had excellent knowledge of the menu and drinks list and provided great service with a smile. We were very charmed by the service and will be back as soon as possible for more vodka and solenia.

This was a fantastic restaurant find. The food was delicious. The beer and wine were great. Service was efficient & pleasant.
The pate was the highlight of the meal. Absolutely perfect!

Would highly recommend a visit. Pricing was $60 a head including drinks for 3.
I can't speak for the authenticity of the food, but it was really good.

Wonderful. There were no disappointing parts of the experience.
We were a party of 3 and all had the ‘A Russian Tale’ banquet.
Amazing value for money. I think if you ordered single dishes it could be quiet experience so I can’t recommend the banquet options highly enough.
The photo attached is the cold entree course.
The food was all amazing, we did have dishes that weren’t to our taste but they were still great quality and well presented.
The service was fast, super informative and friendly. The team are amazing and couldn’t do more to improve the experience.

Everything down to the toilets were clean and looked after.

If you are after a great dining experience that’s a little different but amazing food, this is it.

Dining alone, I was unable to order the chef's degustations, so I created my own based on the most popular dishes and the degustation menu. I was very impressed with the high standard of each dish – fine dining level. For me, the highlight was the Seliodka (herring fillets). If I had to nitpick, I would say the borsch needed a bit more beef.

The staff were warm, welcoming, and knowledgeable, and I enjoyed the Russian music. This experience has made me a Russian cuisine convert! I will definitely be back.

My first time eating Russian food ever! The beef was soft and the potato dumpling (sorry I forgot the name!) First time trying borsch too (not pictured), and it was tasty. I liked the atmosphere for the fact that it's not loud. Good place to eat, definitely coming back

This is a secret hidden gem of Melbourne. Do yourself and your date the favour of dining here. Incredible service backed with wonderful food

Bestie has been wanting to try this place for ages so we finally booked it in. After studying the three different banquets available we decided to get the Hermitage banquet at $68 per person - it includes more seafood entrees, which is more worthwhile. With this option you have to inform them at least 24 hours prior so they can prepare fresh seafood.

Our seating was at 8pm because we were worried that if we ate too early we wouldn’t be hungry enough. By the time we were seated and the cold entrees were served, we were quite ready to dig in. Boy were they amazing! The smoked salmon, cooked prawns and herring were super fresh and matched well with the condiments on the side. The cold meats were also delicious. “Caviar” was more like the fish roe you see in Japanese sushi, but went incredibly well with crepe and butter.

A shot of normal vodka was included in the banquet, which was meant to be consumed along with the seafood. After that, we ordered a tasting flight each which came with three of their specialty vodkas (made in-house), in both sweet and savoury flavours. Unfortunately we didn’t really enjoy these - perhaps our palates were not used to them or they didn’t match the food so well.

Hot entrees were okay but not too special. By the time we finished those, we were already nearly full. Thankfully mains only consisted of creamy prawns, confit duck and leg of lamb. Prawns were tasty and quite rich so that filled us up even more. Confit Duck was a little undercooked in our opinion so we did not eat much of it. Lamb was alright but not extraordinary. Dessert was a strawberry romanoff panna cotta and came with coffee.

Overall, it was a worthwhile experience and we are still glad we did it, but next time we’ll probably just order a variety of entrees. Service was very warm and attentive so definitely thumbs up to that. Recommend coming here at least once for an authentic Russian experience in Melbourne.

Absolutely amazing food! Great ambience & just fantastic staff. Food portions were perfect not to much & beautifully balanced. Interesting and different food. Definitely a must for Melbournians to go atleast once! Will go back again and cannot fault! A must

The banquet menu is very filling. The entrees are the best part. Main dishes didn't impress me much though.

Very good service.

Delicious food and great friendly service. Family run restaurant that makes you feel right at home.