Testing the cooking at one of Kyiv’s oldest Chinese eateries
More than once I have passed a place with a simple signboard, “Chinese Cuisine,” over the entrance, walking or riding down Bulvar Shevchenka on my way home. At some point I made a mental note to check it out, hoping to discover an inexpensive Chinese restaurant which doesn’t get much publicity, and spread the news around. However, when I searched the net to see if it was listed among the Chinese eateries in town, I found out the place was actually Du Long, one of Kyiv’s veteran Chinese eateries, once even chosen best of its kind by the Kyiv Post. Besides, what I was seeing when passing the place on the street was its fast food section – the restaurant itself was hidden from sight, located inside the arch next to the cafeteria. Still, I thought, though it wasn’t going to become the discovery I expected it to be, it was worth checking on the place anyway to see if it still lived up to the high marks the Post once gave it.
Upon entering we found ourselves in a small hall with just a couple of tables plus an unlit adjoining room with a round table for a large company. The stairs lead to the second floor, but the two ladies clad in Chinese dresses behind the bar informed us the upper hall was closed. Seeing laughing people come down from there from time to time throughout our dinner, I figured “closed” simply meant a party was going in there. As one of the smaller tables downstairs was occupied we had no choice but take the second one. The interior of the place was that of a typical Chinese restaurant, which usually means slightly overdone and sort of seedy. As always, there were lots of red, traditional patterns and a pagoda over the bar. The two tables were separated from each other by screens, so we could neither see nor hear our neighbors. The latter was due to music – mostly traditional western pop, coming out of apparently worn speakers, which produced an echoing sound.
Though our table stood next to the window, there was nothing to see – after all it was just a dark inner yard, so instead we concentrated on the menus. As always at Chinese places the number of dishes was overwhelming so we spent at least 10 minutes flicking through the pages.
My plan was not to order anything I was well familiar with like Kung Pao chicken, “Squirrel” fish or soy bean sprout salad. Still, I didn’t dare to go as far as ordering jellyfish and picked quite safely – a seafood soup (Hr 20), chicken with cashews (Hr 42) and fried rice (Hr 22). Also, due to some stressful moments I had had that day, I felt like a drink, and decided on a glass of sweet Chinese plum wine (Hr 15.20). After my friend made his order, hardly 10 minutes had elapsed and I’d only just started sipping on my wine – sweet and pleasantly flavored – when the dishes started arriving at our table in small intervals.
First I got my soup – a jelly-like substance filled with what seemed like bits of celery and egg, as well as shrimp, squid and mussels. It was very hot and moderately tasty, but the seafood wasn’t too fresh and that jelly-like concoction didn’t exactly appeal to me either. While I was coping with the soup, my friend was chewing on pampushkas (Hr 3) – small fried pastries with no filling. Being something commonly had with soup or other hot dishes, pampushkas can hardly be expected to be served on their own, yet they were. Luckily the rest of his order was arriving before long – fried eggplant (Hr 46), asparagus (Hr 46) it was actually called beans on the menu, so not what he expected at all), noodles with seafood (Hr 26) and Chinese dumplings (Hr 16). Then he had to ask for chopsticks – for some reason they weren’t on the table – and started on his meal. According to him, the eggplant was fine – cannot saying anything for my part, as I rarely like eggplant – but he hardly touched asparagus, and said the noodles were OK but the seafood wasn’t very fresh (couldn’t disagree with him on this), and dumplings were once again fine.
As for my main dish, the fried rice with vegetables was pretty much the way it should be and the bits of chicken with fried cashews and vegetables were quite enjoyable – I hadn’t had Chinese for a while, and that’s what I mostly like it for – rice with various mixes of chicken and other ingredients.
By the time we were done – it was about 10 p.m. – the party upstairs was apparently over, people from the table behind us left, and as if it to let us know it was time to leave, the music was turned off altogether, which made the place frighteningly silent. Not so much because we took the hint, but because the atmosphere started to work on us, we indeed quickly asked for the bill.
Du Long (46V Bulvar Shevchenka, 235-7350). Open 11 a.m. till 11 p.m.
English menu: Yes
English-speaking staff: Some
Average meal: Hr 100
