Brighton Beach & Sheepshead Bay: Russian, Georgian and Uzbek Restaurants
Russian banquets on the boardwalk, Ukrainian vareniki, Georgian khachapuri and Uyghur hand-pulled noodles under the Q — then a clam bar on the Sheepshead Bay piers.
15 restaurants
Brighton Beach Avenue runs beneath the elevated Q, a block from the Atlantic, and the restaurants under the tracks cook the food of the former Soviet Union — not one cuisine but many. There are Russian banquet halls where a weekend dinner turns into a show, small Ukrainian cafés where vareniki come with tea and preserves, and Georgian bakeries pulling long loaves of puri from a clay oven.
Central Asia is here too. Uyghur and Uzbek kitchens hand-pull lagman, bake samsa against the tandoor wall and cook plov down in lamb fat, and several sit on the Coney Island Avenue stretch near Brighton Beach Avenue. We label each place by what it actually cooks — Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Uzbek, Uyghur — because the menus overlap but the kitchens do not.
A short way north is Sheepshead Bay, where Russian cafés sit on Avenue Z and Nostrand Avenue and the fishing boats still tie up along Emmons Avenue. We finish there, with a clam bar from 1932 and two slice shops, for anyone who wants a break from dumplings.
Russian banquets & dining rooms
Where a Brighton dinner becomes a celebration.
- 01
The banquet: zakuski, shashlik and vodka
Tatiana · BRIGHTON BEACH, BROOKLYN
On weekdays a Russian restaurant with tables on the boardwalk; on weekend nights a banquet, cabaret and nightclub at once, with costumed dancers and a live band. Book well ahead and go with a group on a Saturday, or have borscht on the terrace by day.
- 02
A fixed banquet menu
Vis-à-Vis · BRIGHTON BEACH, BROOKLYN
On the boardwalk where Ocean Parkway ends, a Russian restaurant and lounge with beach-side daytime tables and live music late on weekend nights. For a group, compare the banquet menus on its site; they arrive in waves of cold appetizers and hot dishes.
- 03
Blini with red caviar and Siberian pelmeni
Skovorodka · BRIGHTON BEACH, BROOKLYN
Look for the life-size bear at the door on Brighton Beach Avenue; inside is a dark, wood-paneled hall with blue glass goblets, built for birthdays. Start with caviar blini and pelmeni, add beef stroganoff, and share everything — portions run large.
- 04
Draniki and house-infused vodka
LOFT by Hot Potato · BRIGHTON BEACH, BROOKLYN
Where Brighton Beach Avenue gives way to Manhattan Beach, a Russian and Ukrainian kitchen that turns into a music room on weekend evenings. Order the potato draniki with sour cream, herring Odessa-style and kurnik, the domed chicken pie, with a flight of infused vodkas.
Dumplings, borscht & chicken Kiev
Russian and Ukrainian home cooking, in small rooms.
- 05
Vareniki with caramelized onions
Ocean View Cafe · BRIGHTON BEACH, BROOKLYN
There is no sea view — the window faces the steel of the elevated Q — but this small Ukrainian café makes soft, bouncy dumplings. Order a plate of potato-and-mushroom vareniki each, a bowl of Ukrainian borscht and farmer's-cheese blintzes, with tea and lemon.
- 06
Chicken Kiev
Vanka Café · SHEEPSHEAD BAY, BROOKLYN
A Nostrand Avenue café named for the Russian roly-poly doll, run by chef-owner Zumo Ashurov since the late 2000s. The chicken Kiev is the house's calling card, with borscht and stroganoff close behind, and staff will translate the menu if you ask.
- 07
Handmade pelmeni and the business lunch
Dmitriev's Bistro · SHEEPSHEAD BAY, BROOKLYN
A small family café on Avenue Z, opened in the summer of 2025, rolling its pelmeni and vareniki by hand from family recipes. Come at midday for the set lunch of soup, hot appetizer, salad and a drink, and leave with something from the cake case.
Georgian: khachapuri, khinkali & clay-oven bread
Cheese bread, broth-filled dumplings and loaves slapped against the oven wall.
- 08
Adjaruli khachapuri
Toné Café · BRIGHTON BEACH, BROOKLYN
Named for the round clay oven that bakes its long, crackling puri, this Neptune Avenue café has fed Brighton's Georgians for more than two decades. Order the cheese-filled bread boat and stir the raw yolk and butter in at the table.
- 09
Khinkali and kashi soup
Toné Café · BRIGHTON BEACH, BROOKLYN
Pick up the broth-filled beef dumplings by their knot and sip the broth first. When it's cold out, add kashi, the garlicky beef soup, with tarragon soda or Georgian amber wine to drink.
- 10
Penovani and imeruli cheese breads
Berikoni Bakery & Georgian House · BRIGHTON BEACH, BROOKLYN
A Tbilisi family's bakery near the western end of Brighton Beach Avenue, with the Georgian House restaurant beside it. Take a flaky penovani for the walk to the boardwalk, and sit down next door for khinkali and shashlik.
Uzbek & Uyghur: plov, lagman & samsa
Lamb, cumin and hand-pulled noodles from the Silk Road.
- 11
Bosu lagman
Kashkar Cafe · BRIGHTON BEACH, BROOKLYN
Halal Uyghur and Uzbek cooking since 2003 on the eastern, quieter stretch of Brighton Beach Avenue, named for the old Silk Road city of Kashgar. Judge it by the hand-pulled noodles stir-fried with lamb, after samsa from the tandoor and the pickle plate.
- 12
Uzbek plov and manti
Cafe Euroasia · BRIGHTON BEACH, BROOKLYN
Under the el, a room that feels like a family's apartment, with music videos on the television. The kitchen's strength is lamb: plov cooked in lamb fat with carrots and cumin, big steamed manti and lyulya kebab, plus the garlicky Korean carrot salad.
- 13
Plov and a round of samsa
Omar Khayyam · BRIGHTON BEACH, BROOKLYN
A neighborhood Uzbek café on Coney Island Avenue near Brighton Beach Avenue, named for the Persian poet of the Rubaiyat. Order plov and golden meat-filled samsa for the table, and ask what the kitchen recommends that day.
Beyond the ex-Soviet table: Sheepshead Bay classics
A clam bar across from the fishing boats, and two slice shops near the piers.
- 14
Fried calamari with the hot sauce
Randazzo's Clam Bar · SHEEPSHEAD BAY, BROOKLYN
On the Sheepshead Bay waterfront since 1932, across Emmons Avenue from the fishing boats, with Helen Randazzo's secret-recipe red sauce on nearly everything. Get the calamari medium or hot, then baked clams or linguine with white clam sauce, and walk the piers after.
- 15
White pie with ricotta, and a grandma slice
Delmar Pizzeria · SHEEPSHEAD BAY, BROOKLYN
A Sheepshead Bay Road slice shop since the late 1950s, a couple of minutes from the subway, that has long claimed the city's first sauceless white pizza. Test the claim, then add a grandma slice with crisp edges.
- 16
Grandma and vodka slices
Lucia Pizza of Avenue X · SHEEPSHEAD BAY, BROOKLYN
The family flagship on Avenue X, with a Brooklyn pizza lineage reaching back to the 1970s and branches now in Manhattan. Eat a grandma and a vodka slice at one of the few tables while they are hot, plus a plain one for comparison.
Every kitchen here was confirmed open as of 2026-10-19. Menus change — confirm a dish is on before you make the trip.
Good to know
Tasting menus in New York, answered
Which train runs through Brighton Beach?
The Q, which runs on elevated tracks above Brighton Beach Avenue. The Atlantic is a block south. Source
What happens at Tatiana on weekend nights?
On weekend nights the boardwalk restaurant becomes part banquet, part cabaret, with costumed dancers and a live band, so book well ahead. On weekdays it is a quieter Russian restaurant with tables under the awning. Source
What is adjaruli khachapuri?
A boat-shaped Georgian bread filled with molten cheese and butter and topped with a raw egg yolk that you stir in at the table. Toné Café on Neptune Avenue bakes it. Source
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