Shopping for seafood in Kyiv – tricky, but possible
Despite the fact that Ukraine borders two seas and can boast hundreds of kilometers of rivers, our seafood lovers still have to suffer. Although expeditious entrepreneurs have opened up seafood restaurants to satisfy the growing appetite for seafood in Kyiv, there is still a lack of specialized gourmet seafood stores. Finding great seafood can be more difficult than cooking it.
Choosing where to purchase your fish is every bit as important as choosing which fish to buy. Whether you shop at a specialty seafood shop or the neighborhood supermarket, make sure that it’s a place with a high turnover, as it almost always guarantees fresh fish. On the other hand, just because your supermarket does bustling business in every other department doesn’t mean they sell a lot of fish.
Being able to choose the freshest fish in the market is tantamount to choosing the best. But choosing fresh fish can be tricky, especially today for us Ukrainians, since most of the fish we buy is already cut up into fillets and steaks. While this makes cooking fish a snap, it also means that we need to pay attention before we buy.
Almost every grocery shop or supermarket has a seafood department. However, what you’re most likely to find there is frozen shrimp, squid and seafood mixes, as well Ukraine’s most common kinds of fish, such as Merlusa, hake, mackerel and salmon, which are also more likely to be frozen. Some supermarkets sell a slightly better selection than others. For example, at Billa you’ll always find salmon steaks that look fresh, Furshet has a fair selection of frozen seafood – cocktails and several kinds of shrimp and mussels. MegaMarket chain carries a truly impressive selection of seafood. Still, when it comes to buying expensive fish, you can’t always count on quality and freshness at a giant supermarket.
Quite another thing is the seafood boutique of Doversol seafood restaurant. Such symbiosis of seafood restaurant and fish-market is an absolutely new phenomenon in a gastronomic life of Kyiv. It would be very wholesome if this concept became a trendsetter in our restaurant culture – after all, practically all French and Italian seafood restaurants are also fish-markets. Doversol has a wide selection of whole fish, steaks, and fillets as well as live lobsters in special aquariums, shrimp, mussels, clams, caviar and more. This restaurant gets its products from a major supplier of fish and seafood to Kyiv restaurants, so you can rest assured that all their products are the freshest and sell for prices that won’t scare you. For instance, Dutch oysters “Creuse Prins” at Doversol cost Hr 13 a piece. Cheaper ones are to be found only at Metro supermarket at Hr 11 for a piece. Everything on display at the store may be cooked to order at the restaurant or taken as is.
However, shopping at a restaurant is quite peculiar, so if you prefer a more relaxed atmosphere, as well as a more varied selection of fish, you’ll find it all at Dary Morya – the oldest and most famous Kyiv fish store, known for its excellent seafood and fresh fish selection – with very tempting prices. This seafood specialty store has a large selection of caviar, as well as other “gifts of the sea.” Its assortments ranges from fresh whole fish packed by local fisherman in the back of the store to the most succulent poached salmon you’ve ever seen in the front. Their new two-storey seafood store with aquariums and a gourmet-zone near metro station Lukyanivska, with an area that totals more than 1,500 square meters today, is the largest specialized gourmet seafood store in Kyiv.
They have a wonderful variety of ocean-fresh fish and shellfish — from tender steaks and fillets to cooked shrimp and live lobsters. Dary Morya carries over 30 kinds of fish as well as shrimp, lobster, oysters, clams, mussels, crawfish, conch, squid and a lot more. Real gourmets know that the best time to go shopping there is in the morning or early afternoon, which naturally speaks for its high turnover and marks it as an ultimate seafood store.
Dary Morya (23 Pavlivska, 486-8575; 48 Turgenivska, 486 5164)
