RESTAURANT REVIEW : Moscow Nights Illustrates the Hazards of Authenticity

The Soviet Union is a country to visit for, among other things, its people, its exotic sights, its folk dances and its music, but not for its food. The same can rightly be said for Moscow Nights, a large Russian banquet restaurant in Reseda. On weekend nights, it’s alive with music and dance and often festive parties of 70 or so celebrating a wedding, an anniversary or a birthday. But although the food may be up to Russian standards, it’s not up to ours.

Moscow Nights is actually surprisingly similar to a comparable restaurant in Russia (except that the service is far better here). This is less a result of the decor and food than it is of the spirited entertainment you’ll find there on weekend evenings.

Grisha Diamant, emcee, guitarist and leader of a small band, would fit comfortably into a 1905 Russian version of “Beetlejuice.” Dressed in pre-revolutionary peasant garb and with ample hair (as electrified as his guitar) wiring out from around a bald spot, he accompanies the Karamazov Sisters (more about them later) in Russian folk songs and does some pretty mean solos worthy of Chet Atkins. His comic patter (in English, with occasional multilingual jokes) provides diverting bridges between musical numbers.

But the entertainment is only half the fun. The other diners, especially the celebratory Russians, can be equally entertaining. One evening, banquet guests, joined by other diners, bounded out of their seats to do a vigorous Armenian folk dance. After a hearty hora, they then stood back to watch a young couple do a breath-taking kazatzka , which is danced close to the floor. And the Lindy that followed wasn’t hard on the eyes, either.

By this time, my guest and I had consumed the appetizers, a couple of which were so good that they would have been welcome as encores later in the meal, and others that in vaudeville days would have gotten the hook. The boiled dumplings, pelimeni , were best: Slavic won-tons, little packets of seasoned chopped beef. The vareneki , thicker pastry wrapped around a tasty potato filling, were also good, although the ones filled with a ricotta-like cheese were dull. Pirozhki , baked Siberian turnovers, were wrapped in a flaky pastry but the beef filling was disappointingly under-flavored.

We had high hopes for smoked fish with red caviar, but the best part turned out to be the boiled potatoes that came with it. The sliced fish seemed to have been sitting around before being served, and the red caviar was a sticky mess. The potatoes, however, were vibrant with butter, garlic and dill.

When there wasn’t dancing, there was singing. Not the customers this time, but a petite black-haired girl and a zaftig redhead billed as the Karamazov Sisters. Each of them gave effective performances of familiar Russian songs. However, Emma, the lusty redhead, also put across some terrific jazzy versions of American standards that reminded me of how intently American jazz is listened to in the Soviet Union.

Somewhere in the midst of all this fun--and it was so much fun we even stood up to get a full view of the kazatzka --the main courses arrived. The less said about them the better. The beef stroganoff was covered with a brown gravy studded with hothouse mushrooms; the duck (stuffed, according to the menu, with apples and other things) was simply dry; lamb shashlik was none too moist, either. The best bet of the lot was a “mignon steak,” which was tender and cooked just as ordered but not particularly flavorsome. We did not order the fish, which, the helpful waiter told us, was frozen. The vegetables were not pleasant. We ordered more boiled potatoes with dill.

Over good coffee and indifferent dessert, we listened to the poignant wail of a fiddler newly arrived from Minsk, according to the emcee. It expressed the peculiar combination of sadness and exuberance that seems to be distinctively Russian. Some of the songs sung by Emma and her “sister” were affecting in a different way. “Podmoskovniye Vechera” (“Moscow Nights”) was obviously appropriate, and no explanation is needed for their choice of Leonard Bernstein’s “I Want to Be in America.”

However, in spite of the current changes in Soviet life, based on my experience in the Soviet Union, I think I’d still have more fun at Moscow Nights than I would in Moscow.

Recommended dishes: tomato and cucumber salad, $4.95; vareneki (potato), $6.95; pelimeni (beef), $6.95; mignon steak, $16.95.

Moscow Nights, 19655 Sherman Way, Reseda. (818) 349-5300. Open for lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays; Sunday brunch, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; dinner, 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 5 p.m. to 1:45 a.m. Fridays, 5:30 p.m. to 1:45 a.m. Saturdays, 5 p.m. to midnight Sundays. Full bar. MasterCard and Visa accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $45-$65.