New Armenian restaurant offers ethnical dishes and unexpected entertainment
Upon hearing that a new Armenian restaurant just opened in Kyiv, I thought right away it would be an interesting place to take my visiting American friend. Armenian not being a cuisine particularly familiar to me, thoughts of the Central Asian and Middle Eastern dishes I had tried in the past colored my imagination. Besides that, I figured that a new Armenian eatery in Kyiv – the only one I have ever heard of – is worth checking out.
Although my friend came down with a strange stomach bug the morning of our planned dinner out, he still mustered up the spirit to try Ani. So, accompanied by my boyfriend, the three of us ventured out. Not surprisingly for a Tuesday night, only a few tables of diners were scattered about. That didn’t matter much, as the space had plenty of unusual decor to occupy our attention. Ani was decorated in a mixture of modern and ethnic stylistic details, with rotund earthy-green clay huts placed strategically throughout the spacious, modern restaurant. Inside each hut was a table, or several tables, with elaborate floral table cloths and ethnic rugs stuck upon the sloping walls. I think in an attempt to create romantic ambiance, candles, along with layers upon layers of used candle wax, dripped down the side of a clay wall in the middle of the room.
At this point, not knowing exactly what to make of the place, we quickly picked a vacant, cozy-looking hut towards a back corner and climbed in. A perky blond server immediately brought us thick menus, with pages of dishes to choose from.
Suddenly, a man, clearly not a member of the waitstaff, approached our hut. “Excuse me, I’m sorry to bother you but I think I have lost my rabbit. I think he went behind your ear…” he said in a heavy foreign accent. Sure enough, he reached his hand behind my boyfriend’s ear and pulled out a tiny, spongy rabbit. The man then proceeded to ask if we would like to see some magic tricks. Despite our disinterested shrugs, he presented his show—making rabbits appear out of nowhere, presenting sneaky card tricks, and showing us his ability to punch a hole in a bill of money using a pencil and magically fixing it. This is so weird, I thought to myself, thinking that a show like that belonged at a themed family restaurant with clowns and finger food.
Our orders arrived quickly. As it turned out, each dish came on giant white plates and they ended up covering the whole table. My friend, trying to give his stomach a rest, decided to stick to simple chicken dishes, opting for the chicken vegetable soup (Hr 22) and chicken shashlik (Hr 57). My boyfriend and I decided to be adventurous and ordered a variety of dishes with unusual names. We started our feast with a toast of special flavored vodkas- grape vodka (Hr 15) and vodka made from a type of red berry, called “kiziloviy” (Hr 20).
With five different plates of tasty-looking food sitting before my eyes, I took a sample from each one and dug in. Being a fan of vegetarian fare, the lightly-flavored “sjunik” salad (Hr 20) made simply of kidney beans, onions, cilantro and vegetable oil, hit the spot, although my boyfriend, not a particular fan of kidney beans, preferred the “ker at sus,” (Hr 50) an appetizer combining plump pieces of beef with tomato, sweet peppers, onions, green peas and herbs. I also enjoyed the flavorful, if somewhat greasy, “zhingjalov hatz” spinach bread (Hr 17). Finally, the “hurdzhin” (Hr 85), a giant white “dumpling” filled with lamb, herbs and vegetables, best impressed our eyes and taste buds. We washed everything down with a glass of green, fizzy Tarhun (Hr 12), a “grass” beverage, tasting oddly like soda.
By the end of the meal, although our stomachs were full, I doubted the authenticity of the decor and cuisine. As it turns out, Ani’s interior was created by the same person who did the stylized Georgian casino-restaurant Kazbek. The menu included things like shashlik and hachapuri (Hr 45), which I had always associated with Georgian cuisine, and the ethnic-sounding music soundtrack that repeated throughout the night didn’t have a single song without Russian lyrics and that typical “poppy” Russian feel to it. Although our server confirmed the authenticity of the cuisine and the “Armenian” music, I still had my doubts. She did, however, give us each our own free CD of their music selection with Ani’s smart logo, leading me to believe that it was definitely a business that offered style over substance.
Maybe my expectations were set a little too high to begin with – I was hoping to be wowed by totally new tastes and feel for an hour or two as though I had been transported to Yerevan- while instead I just felt like I had been to another pre-packaged ethnic “theme” restaurant, with dramatic, hodgepodge decor and a few Armenian-esque details, but with no particular care given to authenticity.
Ani (72 Chervonoarmiyska, Olimpiyskiy shopping center, 4th fl., 590-2565)
English menu: YesEnglish-speaking staff: Yes
