olha pryymak

Last night my husband turned “..” and we decided to pop into a bar to celebrate. It was Monday night but the scene at Arena bar was very happening. Expats hanged by the bar, tired executives in suits, pimp-looking Ukrainians lounged in booths. Girls in pairs (one pretty girl and another – wing woman) – occupied booths, sipped chardonnay, talked on cell phones, smoked hookah and waited on Mr. Pinchuk to drop by.

Otherwise it’s a very typical “new Ukrainian” place, fully equipped with sushi bar, exposed stainless steel kitchen, mini brewery, and sports on tv. The bar was on the ground floor, the lift in the hall lead into a restaurant on the second, casino on the third, and night club on the fourth, what else? In short, a perfect place for a restless oligarch to meet his needs all-in-one. Fabulous!

Arena City Entertainment – off Baseyna St. across from Besarabka

We finally visited Yakitoria sushi restaurant. Since it was labeled “democratic” I was a bit skeptical about potential food quality. Since I had low expectations, the place actually proved to be quite nice. Usual fare: sushi, other Japanese dishes, teas, at one ethnically asian server per restaurant and fashion TV without sound on. This is about the Artema St. location. Also, I saw a suspiciously similar-looking store front with the same name in London walking on the canal towards Little Venice… The web does not mention this to be an international chain. Marketing idea rip off? Common Japanese term for sushi place?

The image of the Lutsk castle graces the 200 hryvnias bill. This is second smallest olbast center in the coutry. It’s quiant and provintial, lovely and clean. There is a live web-cam of the main square in town. A bit of history/introduction on the municipality site and an expected wiki page. The most happening place with frequent live music gigs is Maidan.

Maidan

Boiko, 2
Тел. 0332 72 48 41, +38050 100 27 51

another two presentable local restaurants (besides Crown of Vitovt in front of the Lubart casle) are:

Kraj
2 Vynnychenka Street

Staryj Zamok (Old Castle)
24 Lesi Ukrainky Street

Touring castles around Western Ukraine is a real treat. Olesk is one of the better kept ones and can be seen with least four more great castles within a day. I remember talking my husband to sleep on the fifth site with my interpretation of a very chatty guide’s grand tour.

This site has a good deal of information on the castle’s history museum contents, etc. It’s Ukrainian-language only, though you can see the pics of some of the objects on display. The lovely medieval-themed restaurant Hrydnycia in the basement of the casltle has a brief historical intro, the hours and directions all listed in English.

on Google earth it looks like this.

Hrydnycia

Phone: 8 067 6711303

On a corner of Besarabka market people watching is fun. Cafe Mono offers this and some yummy pastry. Their eastern sweets selection is particularly good. The music there is good, though the messages in between the songs whispered by a particularly sexy woman’s voice promoting their menu annoyed me greatly. Also, they seem to have added a sushi bar downstairs.. next thing will be pasta/caprese salad on the second floor?

2 Besarabska Ploshcha

Lovely concept and decor presented at Puzata Hata in Kyiv. The environment is very relaxed, menu is solid and the prices are low. The most quaint environment is at Besarabka location, the best view from the top floor (on Andriyivska church) from Podil!  There is no menu in English, but foreigners can choose easily get though ordering by pointing at foods they like.

Baseina 1/2A
Sagaidachnogo 24
Khreschatyk 15

It’s terribly hard to find in Kyiv a decent cafe that does not turn into a smoky, boozing bar at night. Repriza offers liquor, but no cigarettes, at least at its Velyka Zhytomyrska St. location. No pictures either to illustrate the post since a very sleazy guard (every Ukrainian establishment has one) whispered me that interior is not to be photographed. Good for them, because this is one thing I was going to criticize – they are too close to Soviet chic in their decor to be charging the prices they do. The chain won awards with Kyiv Post guide.

40/25 B. Khmelnytskoho, 246-4900
38 Velyka Zhytomyrska, 212-1380
10/5 Sahaidachnoho, 417-1908

Parmesan restaurant on Andriyivsky descent is the latest arrival in Italian fair of Kyiv.  The decor is gorgeous, especially in the restroom.  The sommelier is a cute chubby man. As for food – the second time we were there most our selections wished for the better.   Andriyivsky needs more places at any point of the price range to draw pedestrian public there by night after the art bazaar wraps up. Else, it’s dead there after the dark, apart from rare gallery goers or packs of kids hiking up and down to Podil.

Parmesan
Andriyivsky descent. 34B
279-7896

A strange power holding over us – a posh coffee-patisserie place in Passage. The patio always been packed with most good-looking crowd in town during the summer. During winter the public hides in Louis XIV-like styled interior. The other day we tasted there coffee “Parisian” style. It had whipped egg whites with some kind of liquor in it- never heard of such thing being served in Paris It tasted so good! They serve lunch fare too, as well as tons of elegant-looking sweets.

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Beer tasting at Shalena Mama – rock-n-roll restaurant on the corner of Taras Shevchenko park. A separate word about the restaurant: it’s all about Rolling Stones, the music is by them, photos on the walls too and the dishes names on the menu come from their lyrics. It serves something pretty close to Thai food. Prices are moderate there and the crowd is yong and hip.
The country beer production booms nowadays. IT used to be that Obolon dominated the market. People say now it lost its gloss but their flavored varieties still appeal to the sweet tooth. Two top beers you’d find on sale in Kyiv are Slavutych or Chernigivske. Besides, there are Rogan, Sarmat, Dnipro, Yantar, etc. The top beers offer tons of their own varieties. Kyiv Post votes Chernigivske Bila Nich as the best.

Shalena Mama

4A Tereshenkivska st.
Kyiv

Tags: food, Kyiv, restaurants
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