Cafe Izba

I love the wooden table legs, the cute authentic decorations, it really makes you feel like you are at home, like you were at a neighbors house in Russia
the food is fresh, great portions, decent prices too, the service was a bit slow but its worth the wait!
and yes you can bring your own booze.

I made a Unilocal account just so I can review this poor excuse of a restaurant. The service was horrible and slow. There is no excuse why the waiter never checked up on us so we can order. There were only 2 – 3 tables occupied in the entire restaurant yet we still had to stop and ask the bus boy to bring us more drinks and to find our waiter, who took another half hour to come to our table to take our main course order (yes, I timed him). To top it off, when the food finally came, he brought us the wrong dish. When we told him, he insisted that it was right because that’s «what he wrote down» and WE made a mistake.
Bottom line: Avoid this restaurant unless you like to sit by yourself for your entire meal with an empty glass, no food and/​or food you didn’t order.

just had a family gathering at this café on Sunday, March 4^th, 2012 What a wonderful surprise. Izba allows to you enjoy the food and be able to hear your neighbor. The simplest fixed priced menu is excellent. Everything was delicious. you have to come to this café on the empty stomach — there is literally a «ton of food». The prices are on the low side. Multi-​course menu was priced as a single dish costs at other restaurants near by. It is a hidden gem on Coney Island avenue. The café had a lot of visitors, but there is enough space for everyone. The service was ok. One of the waiters was new but managed well and both of the waiters were very nice and helpful. The manager/​owner was very professional. Very honest and polite. The whole experience was excellent. I highly recommend this place for couples and family gatherings. You will love it.

The review that I least enjoy to write is the one designed to downgrade my favorite places, but here we go. After leaving Brooklyn for greener pastures with no Russian eateries whatsoever (what was I thinking?), we crave this food and when my mother-​in-​law did not want a big production for her birthday, we said, why not Izba? Made reservation for 6:30 PM. The fun began right away as we had to wait about 20 minutes to be seated. It was a full house on a warm Saturday night-​the backyard seating area was full, there were two large and one small banquet parties inside, and 2 – 3 tables of people like us, spontaneous reservations/​walk-​in. All that was handled by 2 servers and the owner, who had no choice but to step in and help. The kitchen was clearly overwhelmed because we waited 1.5 hours for a chicken kebab which was ordered at the very beginning for 2 hungry kids. They ran out of red caviar and when I asked to have just plain crepes, they said «We don’t think we can accomodate it» which has never happened before. It’s clear that neither the kitchen nor the waitstaff can handle full capacity. I was really disappointed-​this was our place of choice for many parties, our favorite lunch spot when coming back with kids from Prospect Park Zoo, our backyard summer hangout with friends, so many memories, all shattered in one day.
Izba, please shape up! It’s a shame.

I’m going to take the wind out of Izba’s sails a bit. The food is fine but the service, as I recall, is slow and the accounting questionable. It took at least an hour to get our dishes out. When the bill arrived, it was about 25% more than it should have been. They rectified the error but my natural Russian skepticism against Russian establishment prevails.

I come to Izba for every holiday and non-​holiday celebration with my family and we always overeat. This isn’t even my grandma’s cooking, this, I imagine, is how Peter the Great ate.
Bring your own vodka, and order everything. Wear stretchy pants.

Good hearty food. Try the goshortsky very tasty basked pots with beef and bread on top. Also the fish platters, and pickle platters were delicious. And you can bring your own wine and vodka on Sundays.

Izba was pleasantly surprising. Despite getting the «gringo treatment» (or whatever the Russian word for gringo is, when I asked for water and they brought me a bottle of Poland Spring, it turned out okay. The waitress then brought over a pitcher of luke warm tap water and said «we never do this». I take her word for it that they never bring people water, but I wonder why.
Anyway, the food was great. Some of the best blintzes I’ve had in my life. They were super light and fluffy, and served with a mushroom sauce that I used extra pieces of bread to make sure I got every last bit with.
I had the homestyle beef stew, or something like that. Kind of like Russian shepard’s pie. Very tasty. And the puff pastry that was served on top of the French Onion-​esque bowl that the stew was in was incredibly light and flaky.
The beef stroganoff was also good, but served with grechka instead of noodles. I’m used to the noodle version, but the grechka was light and had a great texture.
Very good food here, I’d definitely come back.

I don’t think I’ve left Café Izba unhappy.
It’s great Russian comfort food — which means it’s heavy and yummy and has lots of cream/​sour cream. It’s expected that you order a lot of food, the waitress would think you’re a bit odd if you only order one appetizer and entrée. This is the sort of place where you hunker down and sit for the long haul. Preferably with a big group. Preferably with vodka.
It’s not impossible to order if you don’t speak Russian (the menu has somewhat passable English translations) but it totally helps if you do (or have a friend who does).

Best food for the money and above in Brooklyn in a small Russian style restaurant across from Staples Store on Coney Island Avenue. Always fresh food with a nice outdoor space and private party room.

Went to Izba again, for my birthday and as usual, no disappointments here. It was a nice night out so we dined outside, not busy so there was lots of quiet. Amazing service as usual and there is never too long of a wait for your food. Everything I have eaten from here is great… I definitely think you should check it out… at least once.