Veselka is a very popular Ukrainian place in the East Village. Prime location, I've gone past it millions of time and have always had it on my bucket list. I'd heard these pierogis were fantastic and I found myself acutely disappointed, as did my Eastern European friend whose hopes had been sky high.
We ordered every pierogi on the menu and they came to us very soggy and very small- can't imagine these are good when delivered, since they tasted and felt like they had been left out for an hour, at least. When biting into one, you'll find that they're very thick and gummy. The only one I didn't mind was the Short Rib, many of the others were alarmingly hard to distinguish.
Where we were most thrown off was simply the pierogi dough not being fried well enough. These flavors might have come through better if there was a thicker and crunchier contrast in the outer layer. We liked that the sides were sour cream, apple sauce and sauerkraut as it felt very unique to the origin country but it wasn't enough to make these pierogis anything we'd come back for.
Meat - Dry meat. No other flavor, seasoning of any kind, the apple sauce was interesting with this because it gave it a slightly richer texture.
Potato - Simply mush.
Cheese - Simply mush.
Arugula & Goat Cheese - Assumed it would be my favorite, again there is not a hint of flavor in these things.I love goat cheese but the taste is so thrown off by the addition of a sticky shell.
Sauerkraut & Mushroom - More flavorful than the others on it's own, without a heavy layer of sour cream or apple sauce.
Potato & Mushroom - Mush.
Short Rib - Tasted good when you added the side of sauerkraut, sour cream, and apple sauce. They might've added a sauce to this meat, which is the flavor in which all others desperately need.
Bacon, Egg, and Cheese - It was an odd flavor to be getting inside a gummy shell. Combined it tasted like someone blended egg, bacon and cheese in a blender and stuffed the contents in some dough.
The Eastern European I went with was awestruck at the idea of Bigos- a stew of kielbasa, roast pork, sauerkraut and onions as it was his favorite dish as a child. When it was presented to him, his heart dropped into his ass.It was $18 and the portion was deceptively small for his expectations. He liked the side of beet salad and the Bigos was okay, but not at all what he was expecting.
Ultimately if I was craving deliciously packed fried pockets, I would go to Empanada Mama and try the multitude of flavors of empanadas done well and right there. These were blatantly not good, from the contents to the pierogi casing- there was so effort taking on flavor and on proper frying of these. We felt as though if it was maybe done slower, with more time and consideration it may have been rather delicious but our experience was thoughtless.
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