Veselka

Where did you have the best pierogis you ask?
Veselka is my answer.
Be warned my review is strictly based in having pierogis and the service.
I wanted to grab a quick lunch and was in the area and stopped by to try the pierogis. I was seated at the bar, the server was super attentive and kind.
I ordered short rib and potatoes pierogis and they were delicious. Juicy, succulent and flavorful.
Ok so writing about them has made my mouth water.
Cutting the review short to get some pierogis :)

High quality Ukrainian comfort food in a bright and cheerful setting. Reasonable prices and friendly service also make Veselka worth the visit.
I sat at the counter and was quickly greeted by a nice waitress. I ordered a deluxe meat combo plate which came with a side salad and a cup of borscht. I don’t usually rave about side salads, but this one was fresh and crisp, served with a very tasty creamy dill vinaigrette. The borscht was unbelievably delicious — a bright magenta soup with small pieces of meat. Savory and warm, I could have eaten another bowl as my meal.
The meat plate was great. Several meat and potato pierogis, stuffed cabbage with mushroom gravy, kielbasa. Even the sides of sour cream and the beet and horseradish salad were amazing.
I highly recommend Veselka for an amazing ethnic meal. Smachnogo!

Was recommended I go here by a friend since I love Russian food, so I checked out the reviews and got a couple friends to join me.
When we arrived it was packed so we were waiting for a little bit. The servers were pretty slow in seating us, even though they kept making eye contact and clearly noticed us. It also took a while for someone to come to take our order.
However, it was all worth the wait because the food was delicious.
I haven’t had kasha since I was a kid so I tried it– was expecting Mannaya kasha– but the kasha they have is buckwheat and was still pretty good.
The highlight of the experience: the potato and truffle oil pierogi. So fresh and so delicious! As was their hot apple cider which tasted fresh and not syrupy.
Only downside was the slow service which could have had to do with how many people there were (but even when there were empty tables, the service was still slow). Overall not a bad experience and I’d hop in here again when I’m in the neighborhood.

Who doesnt love breakfast all day!!! I dated a Russian, I know what its like to eat the amazing, home cooked meals filled with mayo and weird meats.
Unfortunately the omelet with kielbasa was WEAK but their challah french toast was incredible. The potato pancakes were amazing as were the blintez. I had never had one before and dont love things filled with whatever Farmers cheese but I was in heaven.
Staff was nice, not too loud and huge space. Good neighborhood spot to have.

Best perogies in New York. Hands down.
It’s pretty much as authentic Eastern European food as it gets. Stuffed cabbage, kielbasa, potato pancakes, beef stroganoff… you name it, they got it. They even have Czec and Ukrainian beer, which is seriously the best. Their service is run by a Ukrainian family, so everyone who works there is of some sort of Easter European decent, which I thought gave it a great authentic charm. The best part? It’s open 24 hours.
I went to Poland this past summer, so biting into some of the cuisines brought back that flavorful, authentic taste I had been missing. Their perogies were just how I had remembered them… cooked perfectly and full of flavor. I ordered half sweet potato half potato perogi plate. It wonderfully came with small sides of cabbage, sour cream, and apple sauce which really make the dish.
I absolutely love the culture of Eastern European food. The culture’s food is very heavy, but full of flavor and taste. You really can only have it every now and then. If I were in a position where I needed to gain 20 extra pounds (which unfortunately I don’t), I would absolutely come here every day.
Side note: Try the coconut dream bars ($ 3.50) on your way out. It’s literally like biting into a piece of heaven.

I had Veselka a few weeks ago when I was in NY, and I thought the pierogis were just pretty good. I tried some meat (yummy!), sauerkraut and mushroom (didn’t think I would like it, but great and different), potato (pretty good but a little bland) pierogis.
Except I couldn’t stop thinking about the pierogis, so I went in for breakfast the next morning. Now I try to get Veselka every time I stop by NY since great Ukrainian food can be a bit hard to come by. And I swear it gets better each time!
I haven’t had to wait for seating most times, but at standard times like Friday or Saturday night you might have to wait outside in the cold for 30 minutes. Take out can take less than 10 minutes for them to prepare, which is a good alternative if there are ever too many people. Service can vary; some are nice, most get down to business with no fuss — I guess they’re trying to service everyone as fast as they can!
Veselka is even open 24/​7, so I can have pierogis for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a midnight snack.

Oh wow! Try their pierogi! Really good!
My wife and I went here on a way to PDT and wanted to grab a quick bite. Even though it is not a fast food, pierogi arrived super fast and were really good.
You can get one of each sort, which gives you a chance to try many different flavors!
Didn’t try anything but pierogi, but as a Polish on a hunt for good food, I can definitely imagine coming back!

If you need some comfort food this is the place.
Been going here for years. They have the best chicken soup, pierogi & potato pancakes in the city.

Been in their location for 60 years apparently, which given the transient /​fashionable nature of NY food is really quite something.
Anyway, onto the meal, visited on a busy Friday night, had a little wait but dealt with in a professional manner and gave me a chance to check out the diners which seemed to be an even split of young east village arrivistes and an older crowd who look like they’ve been coming for years and years, in all, a nice mix of people.
We started with dumplings which could be deep fried or boiled, when we asked our brusque (but efficient) waiter which he recommended, he repeated «boiled or fried» — in a manner you normally associate with an adult speaking to trying, tiring children… we plumped for fried and didn’t disappoint — the spinach and cheese being my highlight.
I went for Grilled Ukrainian Kielbasa which was basically fancy sausage’n’mash — that’s not a complaint by the way, I haven’t had sausage and mash in ages and this fitted the bill down to a tee… especially with the addition of mushroom sauce for the bangers.
Across the table, beef stroganoff wasn’t as readily praised, but I tried some and it tasted nice enough to me and if she wants a review she can get her own Unilocal account :-)
Felt like eating at a proper old skool type of a place and none the worse for it, I more than liked it.

Quite disappointed by this place.
I’m a huge fan of perogies, and had heard a lot about this place. However, with the mediocre service, bland dumplings, and small portions, I was disappointed. And it was pricey for the size, too.
I’ve never tried this as drunk food — this might be a different review when that happens.

I can only comment on the spinach pierogies here, which I indulged in as a drunk snack. They were AWESOME. Some of the best pierogies I have ever had, and they come with sour cream and apple sauce for dipping which are both delicious. I wish this place was not so far away from my apartment because I want to come back and try everything on the menu. I am only docking a star because it is pretty expensive– cost $ 7 for 4 pierogies. The atmosphere in here has a very neat old-​school diner vibe.

Ukrainian diner, it doesn’t get any simpler than that. Picture a stereotypical New York City diner and swap out the food for Ukrainian staples like borscht, pierogis, and stuffed cabbage and that is what you will see when you step foot in Veselka.
The restaurant is small, so you will likely have to wait to be seated. My friend and I grabbed a seat at the counter where you can see the kitchen at work. This was a rather cool way to experience Veselka or any restaurant, but can get quite noisy and distract from lunch or dinner conversation.
On to the food! I got a deluxe meat plate so I could experience as much as Veselka had to offer as possible. The suggested soup was borscht, and it was simply delicious: warm and hearty, it was just what I needed to warm up on a cold winter’s day. The pierogis were all pretty good, but not spectacular. I may just be used to dumplings from Asian cuisines that are bigger and more savory. The meat stuffed cabbage was a little tough to cut through, but delicious nonetheless, kind of like a meatloaf in a cabbage wrap. They also threw in a juicy grilled kielbasa. Lastly, the small beet and horseradish salads that came with the dish were wonderful, particularly the horseradish. If you want to the whole package, the meat and vegetarian plates are both great options.
Veselka has a menu for all meals of the day, which is probably it’s biggest strength. If you’re looking for some food in the winter, there’s a good chance Veselka will have something in store for you.

As you can tell from my previous reviews, we really love the food here. It truly is our go to spot in Manhattan for great food at reasonable prices.
Since we virtually have to come through Manhattan to get home from our NJ visit, we might as well leave some cash at our favorite eating spot.
Our wait tonight was 20 minutes as the place was hopping with people. I hate waiting, but this place is worth a 20 minute wait.
Our order tonight was the following.
G — Blintzes and a potato pancake.
Me — chicken noodle soup, grilled cheese with bacon, and a potato pancake.
(My potato pancake was really just an extra for G because he would not order 2 for himself)
I am not going to review the Blintzes as G gets them all the time and you can read my previous reviews on the Blintzes. The are wonderfully good.
Chicken noodle soup — excellent, hot, flavorful with lots of noodles and chicken.
Grilled cheese with bacon — I am going to preface this with the fact that I never order grilled cheese at any restaurant. To me grilled cheese is on the same list as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Those are make at home sandwiches, but tonight for some reason I had this craving for the grilled cheese. I picked the challah bread with cheddar cheese and bacon. You get your choice of bread and cheeses. When the waitress brought this sandwich to the table, all I can say was it was this vision of toasty buttery bread with cheese oozing out of the sides. It was glowing perfection of grilled cheese. The bacon was visible all the way to the crust. There must be some sort of grilled cheese chef extraordinaire who made this hot bread cheese masterpiece. I picked this buttery hot sandwich up and bit it and it was so good, I mean better than mine good. The cheese was perfect and so much bacon. My fingers were all buttery and I wanted to lick them but I used the napkin. Damn the etiquette. I offered G a bite of my heavenly sandwich and finally after he finished his Blintzes (and the extra potato pancake), he took me up on my offer. His first response was… oh my god that tastes amazing, wow is that good. I thought his eyes were going to roll back into his head. He took a second bite and was in some sort of grilled cheese euphoria zone.
This sandwich is probably the best grilled cheese I have ever had in my entire life. The only thing that could make this one sandwich better would be to have two of these sandwiches. It’s just that good.
I opted out of my favorite hot apple crumb cake tonight, but see my other review of it’s delishousness. The grilled cheese was so good I just wanted that to be my last flavor of the evening.
Grilled cheese with bacon at Veselka, it’s sent from the cheesy bacon gods to be prepared by those with spatulas of gold. Yummy to infinity.

I love beets. Borscht is a beet soup. 1+1= Pure savory deliciousness! I got a bowl of Veselki’s traditional Ukrainian Borscht. It comes with pork and chicken, unlike their Christmas Borscht, which is just vegetables.
The restaurant is not super huge. Counter seating up from, tables in the back bigger area. Bartek, our polite waiter, was explained what we were looking at. In the end, I picked a bowl of traditional Ukrainian Borsch. I wasn’t very hungry since lunch was only a few hours ago, so I took a few spoonfuls and the rest went in a to-​go container.
I did get to try an Arugula Goat Cheese peirogi. First, the dough was light and chewy (glad it wasn’t super thick and dense). I like the subtle flavor of goat cheese, and it was a perfect pairing with the arugula.
Prices were decent. I’d definitely come back, next time I’m in the city!

This is like going to my Grandma’s house. It’s warm and flavorful and unique and crazy delicious. The menu is HUGE and unique and there are things you won’t find in most restaurants anywhere. We ate the best potato pancakes I have ever had (don’t tell my Mom!) and perogies (BEET perogies) and a warm an hearty vegetable soup. We didn’t have room for dessert but they looked homemade and wonderful. It’s a crowded, small space and we went at an «off» time so I’m not sure what the wait is like during peak hours. It was wonderful and I highly recommend the experience.

My husband and I were actually planning to grab dinner at the Ukrainian House next door but were turned away due to early closing for Christmas Eve. I didn’t even think of coming to Veselka as an alternative since I was repeatedly told their foods are mediocre and overpriced. But my husband saw a «pierogis» sign and knew he couldn’t walk away without giving this place a try.
My husband and I each ordered a combo platter special — meat combo and meat combo deluxe. Both our platter came with a side salad and soup (any soup from the menu). I opted for the Christmas borscht and my husband went with their cabbage and meat.
We were more than impressed by everything we ordered! The side salad was simple yet tasty. The paired dill yogurt dressing was light and refreshing! My Christmas borscht came with two adorable mushroom stuffed dumplings — I inhaled both within seconds — so good! The soup was a little sweeter than what I’m used to but no complaint! My husband loved his cabbage and meat soup — it was everything he’d ever craved! He almost licked his cup clean! We also loved the complimentary sweet bread that came with the soups!
Onto the mains — the differences between the regular and deluxe was an additional Eastern European sausage and swapping of a meat pierogis to a sauerkraut mushroom pierogis. I was expecting the meat pierogis to be similar to Chinese dumpling. But it was actually made was shredded short rib — 100x better than any dumplings I’ve ever had! The potato and sauerkraut dumplings were equally delicious — wished I had a bigger stomach to enjoy an full order of these alone! The stuffed cabbage was much more condensed and packed with meat and rice than previous ones we had. Perfectly seasoned, smothered in warm mushroom gravy, my husband and I enjoyed every bite.
$ 15 and $ 17 for regular meat and meat deluxe plus salad, soup, and bread. Price was extremely fair for NYC! The amount of foods was generous and the quality was impressive. My husband and I are not even considering giving Ukrainian House a try anymore, instead we will definitely return to Veselka for another treat!

This is a staple of the East Village — YUMMMMMM!!! Open 24 hours. Vegetarian friendly. Booze. What more can you want, yes please.
«Breakfast, every hour it could save the world» (Tori Amos)
It is not grossly overpriced — its upscale diner prices.
Drawbacks: No reservations and long wait times if you try to go during peak hours — like weekend brunch time! But so worth it. Also — the bathrooms are very tiny.

Tasty little Ukrainian diner. Had the short rib pierogis fried and they were tasty. I also had the special meat platter which came with three pierogies (meat, potato, & mushroom/​onion), stuffed cabbage, kielbasa, matzah ball soup, a green salad, bread, and typical sides with eastern european food (sour cream, sauerkraut, beets, bread, etc). I live in an eastern european enclave in Miami so this is food I am pretty familiar with. I think it was all clearly above average. The soup was the best I have ever had of its kind. The star of the show for me. The mushroom and onion pierogogi was the best of the group. Prices were ok by NYC standards and I thought the service was good considering it’s NY & my experience has been eastern european service is usually a little icy. I would definitely come back.

«You know what the Ukraine is? It’s a sitting duck. A road apple, Newman. The Ukraine is weak. It’s feeble. I think it’s time to put the hurt on the Ukraine.»
— Kramer
I know that Kramer was only talking about RISK because the Ukrainian people and food at Velelka is Strong!
This 60 year old, 24 hour diner is filled with character and uniquely delicious food. We went there at 11 pm Saturday and the place was packed. There was even a 15 minute wait. Once seated, the staff was patient with our lack of knowledge of the food and they answered a bunch of questions as we decided what to order (these are very difficult decisions). Veselka is the type of diner that is filled with locals but its still not trying to exclude the out-​of-​towners. Knowing that they must get a lot of foodie tourists (foodists?) they have the perfect section for us to choose from «Ukranian Combo Plates». For a very affordable $ 15 I indulged in a massive late night feast.
It started with soup, I went with the Borscht because how often do you get to order Borscht. It was the first of many wonderful courses. It was served with fresh bread and a salad with a dill dressing. Next was the main course, 2 meat, 2 potato pierogi, 1 meat stuffed cabbage with mushroom gravy served with sour cream, beet and horseradish salad. This is a ridiculous amount of amazing comfort food. When we left the restaurant it was still packed. It made me wonder if they ever slowed down and it only made the food seem better knowing the insane pace that the kitchen and the staff has to keep up with.

L’endroit est plutôt sympa, le service efficace, et ce fut très agréable pour moi de découvrir cette cuisine que je né connaissais pas.
Après je pense que l’on peut trouver mieux niveau qualité, mais pour le prix c’était très correct, ça reste une très bonne expérience pour moi!

Veselka recently celebrated its 60^th anniversary (est. 1954). While I can’t say that the food has stayed the same since its birth (I wasn’t born back then!), I can tell you that the food here today is tasty but pricey.
I tried the Deluxe Vegetarian Plate ($ 14.50) to sample a little bit of everything on the menu. The plate included 1 cheese, 1 potato, and 1 sauerkraut & mushroom pierogi, 1 meatless stuffed cabbage, and Kasha (Ukrainian buckwheat «cereal») with mushroom gravy and sour cream
You can get the pierogies boiled (always the better option, in my opinion) or fried. My favorite was the potato — the fillings were well-​seasoned, and I liked that they do not skimp on the fillings.
The meatless stuffed cabbage was made with wild mushrooms and rice. Pretty tasty, and this option (vs. the meat-​stuffed made with beef, pork, and rice) is not as heavy.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the Kasha… just tasted bland but I guess that’s what it is supposed to taste like.
My friend’s potato pancakes, which are pan-​fried t a crisp golden brown and served with sour cream and apple sauce, were quite greasy.
I would definitely get just the pierogies because that’s what Veselka does the best.

Pieroooooogi!!! Of course with kraut and mushrooms and meat! To die for!!!

Soooo geil das Veselka, hier könnte ich jeden morgen frühstücken. Die Amis meinen ja, der Service dort wäre unfreundlich (
) sind halt keine schwarzen Arschkriecher sondern Ukrainer etc. wenn man freundlcih ist wird man auch gut bedient.
Ganz kurz: Die Portionen sind riesig, also teilt euch lieber alles was sich lecker anhört. Wir hatten nur die Pancakes, Blinzers (vergesst nicht die Cranberry Sauce mitzubestellen) und Pyroggen (die mit Fleisch sind gut, der Rest nicht mein Fall) und sind wieder rausgerollt.
VG

Eigentlich fährt man in New York ja raus nach Brighton Beach, wenn man russisch essen möchte. Aber auch im East Village gibt es ein paar Ukrainer, die sich nicht verstecken müssen.
Das Veselka ist eines davon. Das Essen ist solide, aber nicht spektakulär. Auf jeden Fall die Pierogen mit Käse-​/​Kartoffelfüllung, die kalte Borschtsch und den ‘stuffed cabbage’ versuchen!
Schön ist hier, dass die Qualität der Speisen zu jeder Tageszeit konstant und auch der Service gleichbleibend freundlich ist.
Preise sind ok. Für 9 $ bekommt man z.B. einen riesigen Cheeseburger mit Fries und für 12 $ einen Spezialitätenteller mit Salat und Suppe.