Korona Vitovta and its service by the gram
Looking for a fine dining experience, Yuri Uzzband and me came to Korona Vitovta – the best restaurant in Lutsk, standing right at the door of the Lubart castle. It all started well, the funnest part came with the bill. at the dinner. We had one glass of wine each, and the bill modestly displayed six of each ?! ‘Funny,” thought I and went asking about this number 6. “The foreigner (Yuri) asked for a “big” glass of wine,” explained Luda (our waitress).
By now you (who spent some time in Ukraine) all know that Ukrainian menus like to trick you with items priced by grams, and then the waiters take the liberty at judging how many of those grams your wallet can handle. Luda’s stab at this problem exceeded all expectations: 6×50=300 grams of wine. “Why didn’t you bring us the whole bottle in that “big” glass?” we asked, very annoyed. “You should have declined the glass when you saw it was 300 gram”. “Forgot my measuring cup at home,” I defiantly thought. The worst part was that the wine in question was flat. Be on guard if you see too many kinds of wine by the glass in the menu. It could have been sitting open for months, like ours did.
Appalled at this Luda’s lame attempt to trick us, we demonstratively payed the $25 per glass, promising we’d tell every expat to avoid the place. So now you now. Btw, with the quick poll via blackberry among his “high-flying” friends Yuri Uzzband concluded, that $25 per glass could cost at only other place in the word – the Beverly Hills Hotel bar!
Tags: food, Korona Vitovta, Lubart castle, Lutsk, restaurant, restaurants, travel
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on Sunday, January 13th, 2008 at 12:01 pm and is filed under travel.
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January 27th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Wow, that’s pretty expensive wine. I don’t remember if I went to that place. The good thing about not drinking alcohol is that you don’t need to worry about these things.
April 14th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
damn wrote a long comment and deleted it. Learnt that in Lviv, cakes are charged by the 100g, and the more foreign you sound, the bigger the slice of cake will be (and no one will explain that you are being charged by the 100g).
I got caught out with little money and almost couldn’t pay (my cake was around the 300g mark, apparently). The devushka was particularly unhelpful or sympathetic.
I am well aware that alcohol in Ukraine is charged by the grams, but never in Kyiv have I seen desserts charged by the gram – are we just supposed to expect this? I order something on a menu for the price listed. If they are irresponsible enough to bring me something that’s heavier than the weight listed for that product, then that’s their fault.
If only I could have explained that in Ukrainian (or Russian even). Sigh.
But what next? Dinner in a restaurant where they charge you for the extra 50g over the 350g listed?
But basically. Don’t go to Tskukerinya in Lviv. There are plenty of other nice places to do to, where the service is nicer and more efficient.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:50 am
Sigh, sorry to hear that the gram scheme has expanded onto desserts now.
You know, got snubbed off at Tzukernya as well. Yes, you all people, don’t go there!