Russian Restaurants Houston: Pierogi, Borscht, and Kolaches

Houston has nine currently open spots for Eastern European food — a Ukrainian-Georgian restaurant at POST Houston, a Bosnian grill near the Galleria, a Russian crepe bistro in Tomball, four delis and markets anchored in Spring Branch and Fondren, and a Czech-Texan kolache trail that started in 1982 and still runs citywide. None of it is concentrated in one quarter; the Eastern European community in Houston is dispersed, and this guide maps where to find it.

Every spot on this list was checked as open on its official website or official social page as of October 2026.

The quick list

• For a sit-down dinner: Foreign Grill at POST Houston (Downtown) for Georgian khinkali, khachapuri, and Uzbek plov
• For Bosnian cevapi and sarma: Cafe Adel near the Galleria
• For Russian blini: Wholly Crepe Russian Bistro in Tomball
• For Polish kielbasa and frozen pierogi: Polish Food Store & Deli in Spring Branch
• For smoked fish, pelmeni, and caviar: Russian General Store on Hillcroft
• For Bulgarian imports: K&V Bulgarian Market on FM 1960
• For the full Eastern European supermarket experience: Ararat International in Spring
• For Czech-Texan kolaches: Kolache Factory (citywide, since 1982) and Kolache Shoppe (Greenway and Memorial, scratch-made since the 1970s)

How we chose

We looked for spots with something you can actually order or take home today: a current menu, house-made deli product, or Eastern European specialty imports. Every pick was verified as open on its official website or active social page. We left out Golden Grain on Birdwood Road — its website lists hours but third-party listings report a permanent closure, so call ahead before visiting. The Heights restaurant Blue Tuba was confirmed closed at research time and is not included. For a broader map of Houston's international eating, see Beyond BBQ: Houston's International Food District Guide.

Full-service restaurants

Foreign Grill — Downtown

POST Houston food hall, 401 Franklin St · Ukrainian, Georgian, Uzbek · open daily

Foreign Grill is run by a husband-and-wife team — he's Uzbek, she's Ukrainian — and every recipe on the menu comes from their families. The result is the most interesting Eastern European menu in Houston proper, served inside the POST Houston food hall. Order the Georgian khachapuri (a boat-shaped bread filled with melted suluguni cheese and a runny egg cracked on top), the khinkali (juicy beef and pork dumplings from Georgia, eaten by holding the pleated topknot), and Uzbek plov — slow-cooked lamb rice with chickpeas and barberries. Check the current menu for Ukrainian staples like borscht. The food is halal.

The insider angle: Khinkali has an etiquette rule. The pleated topknot is a handle, not a bite. Leave the nubs on your plate; a stack of them is the traditional way to count how many you ordered.

Best for: a lunch or dinner in downtown Houston with anyone who wants something well outside brisket range.

Cafe Adel — Galleria area

6363 San Felipe St, Suite 300 · Bosnian and Balkan · open daily

Bosnian food sits at the intersection of Ottoman and Eastern European traditions: grilled meats with the char of Turkish kebab, braised dishes as hearty as any Eastern European kitchen, and pastry layered in the Ottoman manner. Cafe Adel's cevapi are the right starting point — hand-rolled minced beef sausages, chargrilled and served with Bosnian somun bread and raw onion. From there: sarma (beef-and-rice cabbage rolls braised in sour liquid) or a slow-braised lamb shank. Dessert is baklava and Turkish coffee.

Best for: a group dinner near the Galleria. Tables fill on weekends; a reservation is worth it.

Wholly Crepe Russian Bistro — Tomball

413 W Main St, Tomball · Russian · closed Tuesdays

Chef Emiliya's family recipes are the foundation of the menu. The menu is built around blini — the Russian crepe, paper-thin, made savory or sweet — using the same technique her family used. Savory fillings include ground beef with mushrooms and smoked salmon with scrambled egg. Sweet versions come with jam, fruit, or farmer's cheese. The restaurant is on Tomball's small-town main street, about 30 miles northwest of downtown Houston.

Best for: a late-morning outing paired with Tomball's antiques strip. More in the Tomball area guide.

Delis and markets

Polish Food Store & Deli — Spring Branch

1780 Blalock Rd · Polish imports and prepared foods · closed Mondays

Spring Branch has quietly been Houston's Eastern European neighborhood for decades, and the Polish Food Store is the community anchor on Blalock Road. The shop makes fresh and smoked kielbasa in-house, carries half a dozen herring preparations, frozen pierogi with beef, potato-cheese, and sauerkraut-mushroom fillings, Polish rye bread, sauerkraut, and seasonal imports from Poland — candies, baking supplies, holiday specialties. The deli counter lets you pick up smoked meats to go.

Note: The adjacent Polonia Restaurant at the same address is temporarily closed as of October 2026. The store is the destination. Check the official Facebook page before visiting — the main website's SSL certificate has expired.

Best for: stocking a Polish pantry or grabbing kielbasa for a backyard grill. More dining in our Spring Branch restaurant guide.

Russian General Store — Hillcroft

9629 Hillcroft St · Russian imports and deli · typically open daily 10 AM–8 PM

The Russian General Store has been serving Houston's Eastern European community from the Hillcroft corridor for years. Expect a wall of smoked fish — cold-smoked salmon, hot-smoked whitefish, and at least a dozen herring varieties — plus salmon roe caviar starting around $7, frozen pelmeni, imported salami and sausage from Russia, Hungary, and Germany, rye crispbreads, kvass, Georgian wine, Armenian brandy, and Russian chocolate sold by the pound.

The insider angle: Salmon roe caviar for around $7 is legitimately good value. Bring a cooler bag so the smoked fish survives the drive home.

Best for: stocking a Russian kitchen. The Hillcroft corridor is one of Houston's densest international shopping strips — worth pairing with a Bellaire Chinatown lunch on the same trip.

K&V Bulgarian Market — North Houston

4620 Cypress Creek Pkwy (FM 1960) · Bulgarian and Balkan imports · open daily

K&V is a specialty grocery stocking hard-to-find Balkan pantry items: Bulgarian sirene (white brined cheese, richer than feta), ajvar (roasted red pepper and eggplant spread), lutenitsa (a Balkan relish), frozen banitsa (flaky cheese-and-egg pastry), cured meats, and imported beverages. The shop is small and focused. Check their site for delivery options.

Best for: cooks chasing Balkan pantry ingredients. The FM 1960 corridor puts it within easy reach of Willowbrook and Cy-Fair.

Ararat International Supermarket — Spring

2111 Spring Cypress Rd, Spring · Russian, Armenian, and Eastern European · Mon–Sat 10 AM–8 PM, Sun 10 AM–6 PM

Ararat is the closest thing the Houston metro has to a full-scale Eastern European supermarket: wide aisles of imported cheese, butter, and preserved vegetables, a seafood counter with smoked fish, and a deli kitchen turning out shashlik (grilled skewers), plov (lamb rice), Russian salads including olivier and Korean-style carrot, and freshly baked rye bread. If you're in north Houston or coming down from The Woodlands area, this is the best grocery-and-deli combination in that part of the metro.

Best for: a complete Eastern European grocery run on the north side. Check the deli counter early for the freshest prepared foods.

The Czech-Texan kolache trail

The kolache is a Czech pastry — a soft, yeasted dough round filled with fruit, poppy seed, or farmer's cheese — that arrived in Texas with Czech settlers who came to the Hill Country and Central Texas starting in the 1840s. Texans adapted it over generations and eventually invented the klobasnek: a savory version stuffed with sausage and cheese that most Texans simply call a kolache. That name would puzzle a Czech grandmother, but the Texan version is its own institution now — a breakfast staple tracing its roots directly to Central European immigration.

Kolache Factory — Multiple Houston locations

Founded in Houston in 1982 with an explicit Czech heritage mission, Kolache Factory now has locations citywide: Westheimer, Memorial, Downtown, Willowbrook, South Post Oak, Westchase, and more. Sweet kolaches cover cherry, apricot, blueberry, strawberry, cream cheese, and poppy seed; savory klobasnek come stuffed with sausage and cheese. Hours run from early morning to early afternoon; check the official Kolache Factory site for the location nearest you.

Best for: a Czech breakfast on the go, anywhere in the city.

Kolache Shoppe — Greenway Plaza and Memorial

Kolache Shoppe has two Houston locations: 3945 Richmond Ave near Greenway Plaza (Mon–Fri 6 AM–12 PM, Sat 7 AM–1 PM) and 10321 Katy Freeway near the Energy Corridor (Mon–Fri 6 AM–12:30 PM, Sat–Sun 7 AM–1 PM). Both make kolaches from scratch every morning with a recipe more than 50 years old. Sweet kolaches follow the Czech lineup: cherry, peach, apricot, blueberry, cream cheese, poppy seed. Savory options use Kiolbassa Polish sausage — a San Antonio Czech-Polish heritage brand — with cheese and jalapeños, plus rotating specials like an Oktoberfest kolache with sausage, provolone, and sauerkraut. Boomtown coffee is on site at both locations.

Best for: scratch-made kolaches on a weekend morning. The Greenway location is close to Upper Kirby and River Oaks restaurants if you want to carry the meal further.

Save this: Eastern European Houston checklist

• Sit-down dinner: Foreign Grill (POST Houston, 401 Franklin St, Downtown) for khinkali, khachapuri, and Uzbek plov; Cafe Adel (6363 San Felipe, Suite 300) for cevapi and sarma.
• Russian crepes: Wholly Crepe in Tomball — closed Tuesdays.
• Polish pantry: Polish Food Store & Deli on Blalock in Spring Branch — closed Mondays; call ahead (713-464-9901) to confirm hours.
• Russian kitchen: Russian General Store on Hillcroft for smoked fish, pelmeni, and caviar; Ararat in Spring for a full-market run.
• Balkan imports: K&V Bulgarian Market on FM 1960 in north Houston.
• Czech kolaches: Kolache Factory has the most locations citywide; Kolache Shoppe in Greenway and Memorial makes them from scratch.

For more of Houston's international eating, see the best restaurants in Houston guide or take the food crawler's international district tour.

Last verified: October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Are there Russian restaurants in Houston?

Yes. Foreign Grill at POST Houston (401 Franklin St, Downtown) serves Ukrainian and Central Asian food — Georgian khinkali, khachapuri, and Uzbek plov — and is open daily. Wholly Crepe Russian Bistro in Tomball (413 W Main St) specializes in Russian blini and is closed Tuesdays.

Where can I find pierogi in Houston?

Polish Food Store & Deli in Spring Branch (1780 Blalock Rd) sells frozen pierogi with beef, potato-cheese, and sauerkraut-mushroom fillings and is open most days except Mondays. Ararat International Supermarket in Spring (2111 Spring Cypress Rd) also carries Eastern European frozen goods and has a prepared-food deli counter.

What is a kolache and is it Czech or Texan?

The kolache is a Czech pastry — a soft yeasted dough round filled with fruit, poppy seed, or farmer's cheese — brought to Texas by Czech settlers in the 1840s and 1850s. The savory sausage-filled version most Texans call a kolache is technically a klobasnek, a Czech-Texan invention. Kolache Factory (citywide) and Kolache Shoppe (Greenway and Memorial) carry both.

Where can I buy Eastern European groceries in Houston?

Russian General Store (9629 Hillcroft St, Fondren Southwest) stocks smoked fish, pelmeni, caviar, and Russian pantry staples. K&V Bulgarian Market (4620 Cypress Creek Pkwy) carries Bulgarian and Balkan imports and delivers on DoorDash. Ararat International Supermarket in Spring (2111 Spring Cypress Rd) has the widest selection, with a full deli counter.

What is borscht?

Borscht is a sour beet soup from Eastern Europe, especially Ukraine and Russia, typically made with beets, cabbage, carrots, and potatoes in a beef or vegetable broth, served with smetana (sour cream). Foreign Grill at POST Houston in Downtown is the most likely Houston spot to find it; check the current menu before visiting.

Is there a Polish restaurant in Houston?

Polonia Restaurant (1780 Blalock Rd, Spring Branch), long one of the few Polish restaurants in Houston, is temporarily closed as of October 2026. The Polish Food Store & Deli at the same address is open for kielbasa, pierogi, herring, and Polish groceries (closed Mondays).