Russian Roulette, Chalfont St. Giles

11:57am Wednesday 23rd June 2004

THE Russians are here wealthy Russians baling out a football club or moving into London in their tens of thousands. They bring a proud tradition of culture and cuisine.

It was the cuisine I was interested in when I visited Russian Roulette in Chalfont St Giles last week. Zino Boguslavsky and his family took over an old pub facing the village green 15 months ago and turned it into a Russian restaurant.

He says: "It's European cuisine with a Russian influence. It's not the same style as we serve at home, where you'd have lots of dishes on the table. But the flavours and many of the dishes are exactly the same.

"I go home to south Russia several times a year and bring back the special spices we use there.

"My wife Victoria, who is a fourth generation chef from Russia, used to cook just for the family, and now she cooks just the same here. For me the restaurant is my front room."

Think Russian food and you'll probably think vodka and caviar. And you'd be right. Zino says vodka is central to a Russian meal, and for many diners it's a must-have on a visit to Russian Roulette.

"Throughout a traditional Russian meal, we would have shots of vodka to toast each other. We'd start with frozen vodka when you swallow the shot in one go. It's cold but in 10 seconds you feel warm.

"We'd finish with a fruit vodka, such as cherry or honey, herbs or lemon.

"My personal favourite is to start with a frozen vodka, and finish with a Black Russian cocktail as my dessert: vodka, Tia Maria and ice."

There are 25 vodkas to choose from, along with 43 wines and six champagnes presided over by Zino's son Paul, who is a qualified bartender and chef.

Then there's the caviar. Zino doesn't buy packaged caviar, only fresh from his contacts in Azerbaijan. "It's just four days from fish to plate," he explains, "and it's available only in season which is June, September and October. I have regular customers who ask me to call them when the caviar arrives."

Though not vodka drinkers we just had to start our meal with a shot of frozen (but still liquid) vodka, swallowed in one go. I've no idea what it tasted like as it went down so fast, but I suspect it got our tongues loosened and prepared us to enjoy the meal to come.

I chose traditional blinis for my starter (£5.50). These were quite different from the small ones I expected, and different from English ones too. Large, thin yet lightly puffy pancakes were rolled around a pork and herb mixture and topped with sour cream very delicious.

My husband's starter was one which Zino told me draws diners back time and again: seafood assortment served on a fillet of white fish "in our irresistible mild chilli sauce" (£7.50). Two juicy king prawns, a couple of mussels and some calamari topped a piece of fish, all drench in a delightfully subtle sauce whose separate ingredients I had problems detecting those secret spices from Russia, no doubt.

Chanakhi (£12.95) was my main course, which Zino said is a typical family dish from south Russia. It was a slow-cooked lamb with herbs and vegetables, served straight from the oven in its casserole. The meat was beautifully tender, and again those subtle spices in the sauce made it that much more interesting than a traditional stew.

Rabbit (£15.95) grabbed my husband's attention. This was braised with a "secret blend of ingredients" ie Russian spices, very good too and served on fresh buttered spinach and potato rosti. The rosti was quite different from the Swiss kind, with more flour in the mixture making it a cross between a potato cake and a bread.

Other menu options include herring salad, seafood platter, roast veal, beef stroganoff, dolma wrapped in vine leaves, Russian pasta pockets and whole sea bass, along with traditional Russian desserts.

The family and the Hungarian waitress Esther ensure service is friendly, relaxed but very attentive. Hospitality is clearly a Russian virtue here.