Dining Review: Hot Potato House Is Original And Homemade

Tucked away on the quiet Oriental Boulevard, Hot Potato House, at 109 Oriental Blvd, is a subtle, yet impressive, Eastern European restaurant just down the road from Kingsborough Community College.

Their focus and speciality is the potato, a staple in Eastern European cuisine that is important to Russian culture, according to Hot Potato House owner Greg Amirkhanov.

“The potato is a food that is creative. Especially in former U.S.S.R. countries where they couldn’t afford meat,” said Amirkhanov. “We do affordable food but in a creative way.”

The prices of the potato dishes range from $5 to $14, and come in different styles such as latkes, patties, crepes, pierogies, and shepherds pie. We had the latkes with lox and a poached egg as an appetizer. It was a crispy, and delicious potato pancake with thin smoky slices of lox and a plump poached egg.

The menu includes gluten-free, and vegetarian items to accommodate all food preferences.

As well as the latkes, we also had the assorted pickle platter to start. This came as a plate full of pickled cabbage, savory, but still salty pickles, pickled peppers, kirby, and tomatoes. It was a large portion, and this reporter would be lying if they said they didn’t take some of it home.

Also, we tried their herring spread. It was sweet and soft with a fishy aftertaste. It goes great with the brown bread that is served to each table.

As an entree, I had the skirt steak, which is carefully marinated in a red wine sauce for five days before hitting the grill. It was perfectly cooked to my medium-rare preference. The steak came with a side of roasted vegetables, pickled cabbage, and mashed potatoes with bits of broccoli mixed into them to give it a unique green tint.

This reporter’s date had the salmon steak as an entree, which also came with vegetables, cabbage, and mashed potatoes, as well as a side of a thin pomegranate sauce to make the salmon a little sweet.

Hot Potato House also has a cherry, and apple fruit punch that is homemade, something that Amirkhanov boasts gives his restaurant an edge.

“Everything here is made on the premises,” said Amirkhanov who can be found greeting guests at the door, and asking them how everything was as they leave. “You can taste it in the food. Nothing here came from other places, or came frozen. Except for the ice cream, of course.”

The dessert that we had was the tarte tatin, which is their homemade, caramelized apple tart with a scoop of ice cream. This dish is another speciality of their’s and they treat it with extreme delicacy. It takes about 25 minutes to make one. It was like an enhanced apple pie with extra sweetness and cold vanilla ice cream to cool the palette but also level out the flavor. It’s a must-have.

Dining Rundown: Hot Potato House
Hours: Monday-Friday 12pm-10pm, Weekends 12pm-11pm
Good For: Lunch, Dinner, Dessert
Phone: (718) 975-7990
Kid friendly? Absolutely. Kid’s menu prices range from $2-$5
Takeout: Yes. Delivery within a 3-mile perimeter.
Reservations: Call the restaurant.