Korona Vitovta and its service by the gram
Sunday, January 13th, 2008
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!
Great place to pop in before catching a movie at the Kyiv theater across the street. I am going nuts over their chocolate moose. The baklava trays remind me of sushi. The savory food is authentic enough to attract lots of Turkish-looking guys to the place which vouches for its authenticity.
..has its own brewery and a patio, but food there sucks. Do not get there anything but the beer (Slavutych)! Otherwise, people watching, especially on a weekday around lunchtime can be real fun. It offers free WiFi (I have not checked it myself). I got to write up a post about places to get free WiFi around Kyiv now that I come to think of it.
Two days ago I took a flight from Milan to Kyiv and had some time to spare on observing my compatriots getting ready to board. First thing that stuck out in observation process was their shopping habits. Usually everybody gets stocked up while still in town. Therefore the over-sized suitcases at the check-in. And let’s not forget the shiny wrapping plastic film that help holding up those bursting suitcases.
…are so-so good!!! The traditional cakes seem to have stuck around. Roshen has bought up some of the specialty cake bakeries (and cheapened the ingredients, brr). But others, like the old trusty Kyiv city bakery (supplies to most supermarkets) makes the best “Kyiv”, “Prague”, “Truffle” ever!! Those three are all-time classics and serve for a perfect guest treat/indulgent breakfast afterwards.
. It comes in special chestnut-leaf themed box (chestnut must be on city coat of arms or sth like that, its blossoms here are as big as cherry blossoms in D.C… and Japan, wher they-cherry trees – came from).
We came there for late dinner so camera-phone photos turned no good. So, here’s one from the restaurant’s 
… is no more. An advantage of growing older – is getting to appreciate the good things in life that passed. For instance, basic daily bread – I remember sinking my teeth into a warm loaf, biting on the crusty, burned side, mmm. The trucks would deliver the bread to the stores still warm. Way back then the bread came in bricks, less often – in round shapes, black or white. The dessert bread would be the baton. Everything else was pastry.
