After doing extensive research, the Best Of team comes to the conclusion that Du Long is far and away the best Chinese food joint in town.
ed as if they were prepared by Ming Dynasty chefs? Hr 40 for a pot of green tea? No take-out without getting the evil eye from the wait staff? It’s not Chinese the way most Westerners know it, but whatever. When that craving for Gung Bao chicken comes on strong, resistance is futile.
It took some doing, but we decided to check out Kyiv’s best Chinese restaurants and prove to our readers that the best of the Orient can be found in Kyiv. True, dining out on Chinese food is typically expensive here, but wood mushrooms don’t grow on trees in Ukraine the way they do in China.
We made our way to six spots in town that purport to serve the city’s best chow. We began with a place right downtown called Khram Drakona, or Temple of the Dragon, across the street from the Sports Palace.
Among other things, Khram Drakona has an extensive menu that includes standard Szechwan and Cantonese dishes. They have the Hung Bao, the bamboo chicken and chow mein of various descriptions, and even such delicacies as snake, turtle and sea snails (call several days in advance for any of these items to be ready for you, though). That being said, parking is a nightmare (as it is anywhere downtown), the cheesy Russian rock playing there most nights is a tad off-putting, and it is expensive.
Next stop was down in Podil, at the waterfront. Mandarin Chinese restaurant, a floating icon just a stone’s throw from the Richny Vokzal, does an elaborate tea ceremony and many elaborate dishes, too. And the food is pretty darn good. They also do plenty of standards, not to mention the order-ahead delicacies, and the parking by the river is decidedly better than downtown. That said, Mandarin’s location on the waterfront tends to expose diners to Kyiv’s seedier side after dark. Then again, seeing the drunks and prostitutes that often hang out near the river could also give one the impression of being an extra in a Mickey Rourke film, which makes you feel kinda tough and gritty, too.
Way up north in Obolon is the expansive Chinese-Vietnamese restaurant Queen Bee. For people in that part of the city this is as good as it gets: Not only is there a fabulous restaurant there serving two Asian cuisines, but the place also includes a casino and entertainment complex. It’s a one-stop location for many of the city’s Eastern-leaning socialites. But if you don’t have a car, or don’t want to shell out for a long cab ride home, then consider somewhere else, as we did.
Where else to go? Well, Lun Van, near the Opera.
Lun Van has much in common with Mandarin and Queen Bee. It has a sumptuous interior, immaculately prepared food and proper music that accompanies diners digging their chopsticks into any of the dozens of meals that appear on the menu. The menu does go a bit overboard with the menu selections (most of the Chinese places we checked out were alike in this respect, too). Does any restaurant need 10 preparations of bamboo in addition to around 20 of chicken, 20 of pork, 20 of shrimp, etc.? And when we got the bill for the green tea, thinking we were getting it free, as we did elsewhere, we were shocked to see the price charged for the pot.
Despite some of its totally low-budget eccentricities, Eastern Traditions right underneath the Post offices almost automatically qualifies as number one in this survey. This busy Chinese restaurant serves up excellent dishes ranging from savory Dzi Ra mutton to a sizzling seafood hotplate and even variations on eggplant that we often can’t resist. The food comes hot, you can definitely get take-out there, it’s the cheapest Chinese around, and friendly restaurant director Kolya is always there to smile and greet his regular guests.
What drops Eastern Traditions into second-best on our list is not its prices (Hr 25 range), but the inadequate level of service and the sometimes questionable practices employed by the kitchen – for example, why does it take so long for rice to come? This hasn’t stopped most of us at the Post from eating there all the time, mind you.
Topping our list, as they did a few years back in this same column, is none other than Du Long. If you’ve tried before to find this place and couldn’t, give it another go.
Snuggled just off the street near the Hotel Express on T. Shevchenko, Du Long sits off the street from its buffet outlet. Find it. It won last time and this time for a number of reasons: excellent food, great service, luxurious decor, and good prices compared to the other high-end Chinese spots in the capital. They even have a karaoke room for guests who want to embarrass themselves in front of their friends.
What a great place!
Du Long
46B T. Shevchenko, 235-7350.
Open daily from 11 a.m.to 12 a.m.
English menu: Yes.
English-speaking staff: No.
