borsch, vodka & tears

ever since our visit to the sister bar - after the tears in elsternwick, we were so impressed that we had to come to borsch, vodka & tears to enjoy some more authentic polish food and sip on something from their never ending drinks menu (it is actually 10 times longer than their food menu!!).
of course we couldn’t go past their pierogi’s. this time, we decided to order 6- and the lady was kind enough to let us choose 2 different flavours. the potato and cheese pierogi was by far my favourite. the dumpling skin and filling was soft and went together so nicely with the fried onion and sour cream on top- quite the perfect combination!
the highlight of the night was the crispy beetroot rice balls - absolutely sensational! they’re pretty much like arancini balls, super crispy on the outside, but the arborio melts in your mouth as you bite into it.
the menu is slightly different to their sister bar, as after the tears has a larger menu focused on the food. we ended up trying several entrees and only 1 main from borsch vodka and tears as their food menu wasn’t as extensive.
overall, an evening well spent at borsch vodka & tears as we thoroughly enjoyed our food. it is a bar, so you would expect it to be quite loud inside.

unless we made a poor menu choice, i think borch, vodka & tears is more of a cocktail bar than a restaurant.

we ordered the baltic sea platter and the saganaki as an entree. although the saganaki was great, especially with the combination of the vodka infused figs, the sea platter was a let down. none of the items on the platter stood out, and there were a few that were below average. one item was essentially a pastie you could buy at a supermarket, and the crumbed white fish was just plain bland. the mussels and prawns were decent, but didn’t taste fresh. the smoked trout too, was just something you’d buy at the store.

for the price and the high rating of this place, i was expecting more. perhaps stick to the cocktails or try a meat-based dish. as the seafood is not worth your money.

borsch, vodka and tears is somewhere i've been wanting to try for a while. i finally got my chance yesterday. i'd be lying if i said i wasn't disappointed.

it's not huge inside, so if you really want to go there for a particular meal/event, make sure you call ahead and make a booking. the decor is european style, i suppose, but the table they sat us at, was right next to an open style kitchen and i hate that. it's not fun looking at them cooking the food, and to me, it just ruined the aesthetics.

we were there for brunch, and i ordered the potato blintzes, because i love blintzes. but they were not blintzes. they were potato pancakes/latkes. i was so disappointed. the description in the menu itself described the dish perfectly, but given the heading, i must not have registered that the description and name of the dish were a conflict. i wouldn't have ordered that dish. having said that, the food was flavourful, but the pancakes/latkes - not blintzes - were very oily and i couldn't finish them because i started feeling queasy.

the service was good and the staff were friendly, but you know what? i've tried it, and not been swayed to go back again. if a restaurant can't get the food right, well ... there are other places to go to.

we were amazed by the wide selection of vodka on the menu! we tried the hawthorne berry and black currant shots as well as a couple of cocktails. all the drinks were delicious! we had the bison wings, pierogi and ice cream sandwich. these were also very delicious and we ended up ordering a second round of the wings and pierogi.

i had the borscht - a classic polish beetroot soup. didn’t like the soup itself but the dumplings in there were super yum. it comes with amazing fresh bread and butter on the side, my personal favourite (and i know good bread - i’m german haha). apart from that the dessert cocktails here are to die for! all of them. trust me you’ll want to lick the glass. probably a great dessert substitute or more for people with a very sweet tooth.

it pains me to write this review as this used to be one of our most favourite restaurants in melbourne. we just visited and found that the menu has changed and has gone away from traditional polish food. as one of our waiters said to us the owners have decided to go in a different direction! nearly all of our favourite dishes are gone and the remaining ones served to us were very poor excuses for polish food. the pierogis were burnt and tasteless and looking in the kitchen you can see why, the people cooking them are so far removed from poland they have no idea how to cook them, maybe they lost their chef? they might be able to get away with it serving them to regular punters but for us polish heritage customers it is so dissapointing. also the new menu has very few gluten friendly options available, they have nearly all been taken away! the service and vodka selections are still good so i guess that's all we'll be going back for in future, if we do ever go back.

another first but not my last ..
dropped in for few beers and the sausage , both great ..
a little to noisy if you sit near the bar , the barman gets somewhat excited when mixing the drinks i think 😂, .
very helpful floor staff and service very good.

hearty polish food in a trendy setting with tons of different vodkas. went here as a group of five and we had a really nice meal, sharing some of the starters, having a main each followed by some ace flavoured vodka shots. the highlights for me were the meat pierog (dumpling) and my walnut coffee cream dessert cocktail (think nutty bailey’s with vodka)! service was ok, the vibe of the place is nice and chilled. overall - would definitely recommend to all the vodka lovers out there! 🍸

visited on a saturday night and enjoyed the ambience and people watching on chapel st. the drinks list is huge and leaves you wondering where to start. the food was brilliant, with the cheese and potato pierogi leaving us wanting more. wish i had the stomach space to try this borscht. finished off the night with a hazelnut vodka martini which topped off a fantastic night. make sure you book!

great service and drinks. i do really enjoy the venue, food for me is not exactly perfect due to my expectations of what was cooked at home but that doesn't mean it isn't good, i just would expect some differences.

staff are always extremely polite and attentive, drinks menu is amazing and of course vodka is high priority.

hvala

supprised this place is rated so highly, i thought the drinks were ok all old school, i guess if thats what you are going for the more traditional style cocktails it's alright but wasn't for me found it hard to find a drink i wanted a second of.

wasn't wow'ed by the food ether maybe russian just isn't my thing!

i went here with a meetup group last night. i used to go to after the tears 😭 in elsternwick with friends years ago. i remember i always enjoyed it but for some reason tonight seemed even better. maybe borsch vodka & tears is a better branch or the food has improved, either way i won't complain. when i walked in i saw our group was squishy, maybe it would have been better to have our meetup at after the tears because it's got more space.

we ordered a lot of share plates and we thought we ordered too much food but we got through it anyway. i ordered the cabbage rolls which were in a nice tomatoey sauce with meat, these were just as delicious as i thought they'd be. we also had chicken wings which were amazing especially when dipped in the yummy dill mayo sauce. the gnocchi with mushrooms was nice and pillowy and the mushrooms were delicious. i enjoyed the croquettes even though i'm not normally a big fan. the three surprising standouts were the chips, the beef goulash and the pork schnitzel. the chips were perfect, they were perfectly cooked with a nice herb salt and they were served with tomato sauce and mayo. the goulash was tender bits of beef in a beautiful potato blini. the pork schnitzel was yummy but i enjoyed red cabbage sauerkraut even more, it had a bit of sweetness which i liked. the polish sausage was also good. the only dish i didn't really like was the seafood platter, i thought there was too much sour cream flavour.

for drinks i ordered the mixed bag vodka tasting which came with a small shots of vodka, i love the cute glasses they came in. my favourite one was the hazelnut. when i went to after the tears with friends i would order the andy warhol dessert cocktail which had passion fruit and white chocolate flavours, this was my favourite ever cocktail. they no longer have the andy warhol but they had the crime of passion which also had white chocolate and passion fruit, unfortunately it wasn't as good as the andy warhol but it was still ok.

i tried all the desserts my friends ordered. both the ice cream sandwich and the gingerbread tart were very rich. in fact we could only have one or two bites of the tart, it was that sweet. the pana cotta was perfectly wobbly but i didn't like the vodka flavour. i prefer my vodka in drink form hahahaha. i would stick to dessert in alcoholic liquid form next time. the staff here were very friendly and attentive, especially the man serving is tonight. i would definitely love to come back here.

incredible bar set up to feel like a small restaurant. amazing choice of different vodkas. staff were able to help select some different ones to try depending on the taste we were more inclined to go for. pricey, but very worth it.

borsch, vodka & tears was founded in 2002 by three polish expats and has become a chapel street institution, specialising in polish vodka, authentic wormwood absinthe, eastern european beers and contemporary polish dishes.

food is alright drinks are decent but every old school. one of the better chapel st hang outs! certainly recomend checking out if you are from out of town.