Library Food Club

The venue

First of all, people sometimes exaggerate when trying to convince you to visit their homes so I was really interested in this “concealed door that leads to a secret bookshelf.” Behold, they didn’t lie! 

I noticed the door that didn’t really look like a door, ascended the stairs and found myself inside a bookshelf! 

The restaurant is actually down a different flight of stairs that you are led to upon entering the bookshelf but for a few minutes I was tempted to rummage through the shelf and escape into the adventure that is literature. 

The bookshelf could have easily been inside grandma’s house because the vibe is warm and homely with milk cartoons, rusk containers and vintage furniture. 

The food

 

The guests definitely felt at home because I was flying solo but I was not starved of company as everyone was happy to chat and get to know each other. 

They started us off with a liver pâté which is a really smooth paste, not a choking hazard and just waltzes gracefully down your throat. Next was the salmon and beetroot that were each accompanied by a really flexible and bendy bread called a buckwheat pancake.

I’m a South African so beetroot for me is always infused in vinegar but I liked this interesting, salty take. 

When the stuffed dumplings were served, the instinct on the table next to mine was to ask for soy sauce. I honestly felt the same because they lacked flavour but I had to adhere because when in Russia, you do as the Russians do. 

It’s a good thing I forgot to ask the chef for the recipe of the sauce that accompanied the pork belly because I’d undoubtedly botch it. It was such a carnival of flavours that I ended up neglecting the mushrooms on my plate. 

I tried to enjoy the stuffed chicken breast but I kept having flashbacks of my ex feeding me his side-chick’s leftover stuffed chicken. This was obviously not the restaurant’s fault but I had to abort the mission and move on to the next dish. 

Forget squeezing lemons into your fish; the chef’s marriage between trout and capers had a honeymoon on my tongue! 

I gave the dessert a miss though. Also not the restaurant’s fault; I’ve really tried to cultivate a sweet tooth but I just keep failing epically. 

The drinks

A wise barman once said “cocktails in short glasses are the strongest,” and if you don’t believe him, try the Chacha Sour next time you visit the Library Food Club. 

Did you know that the Russians drink tots of vodka the same way that we drink tequila but instead of a lemon slice they eat a gherkin? 

Unlike water in Johannesburg, the wine was flowing. But of course the cocktail snob in me snubbed the wine and asked for the cocktail menu. 

The Moscow Mule’s ginger ale almost tricked me into thinking I was drinking stoney but there was something happening in my blood stream that quickly reminded me that my stoney was “fermented.”

In fact, I almost forgot it was a Russian menu until I got tipsy from reading all the vodka on the cocktail menu. 

The comrade is the sort of Russian take on the classical mojito, using vodka instead of gin. 

The owner could have been more hospitable though. He had a lengthy conversation with the couple on my table but didn’t so much as acknowledge me. 

In his prior conversation with them I had even insinuated myself into the chat but as soon as I identified a pattern I remembered the adage, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

Overall, the food is really enjoyable and the menu is not intimidating because it features things that we are already familiar with. I’ll definitely go back because I need to taste every single cocktail on that menu. 

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