Podil’s Piano Café Music Bar is a non-smoker’s dream. Not only is the food deliciously tasty in this cozy eatery, but it is one of the few places in Ukraine, it seems, that one can spend literally hours and breathe free. As a non-smoker who has struggled to find places where one can enjoy dinner not engulfed into other people’s cigarette smoke, that is a lot to write home about.
Piano Café Music Bar is appropriately named.
Not quite a restaurant, it is more of an intimate bistro, where small lamps cast light on pleasant white table cloths, where piano provides a soothing backdrop (although it might be too loud in the smoking section) and one can whittle away the hours, seeped in conversation.
The cuisine is international: pasta, meat dishes, salads, and an entire Ukrainian menu, beginning with borscht and up.
My dinner companion was a long-time friend who was in town. We both had the Caesar Salad (Hr 58), which could have been a meal in itself.
Filled with chicken and bacon bits, it was a weighty portion, topped by a generous amount of parmesan cheese, a spicy sauce and cayenne pepper.
I have never been a big fan of cayenne. But in this case, it added an unexpected punch to the salad.
My company had bass with sauce (Hr 68) and rice with vegetables on the side for Hr 39. He said the bass was “delicious.”
I’ve never been a fish lover – four decades later, I’m still traumatized by the fact that the one fish I ever caught, my father refused to throw back into the river and cooked it up in a frying pan instead.
I had the spaghetti with mushrooms and broccoli in a white cream sauce (Hr 58). The waiter was honest; he said the café didn’t make its own noodles.
I’ve been to other places both in Ukraine and abroad where staff says the spaghetti is homemade, when clearly it is not. In this case, it made no difference; the dish was very good.
The sauce wasn’t too heavy and boasted just the right amount of vegetables. If there was one criticism, it was that the waiter didn’t bring parmesan with the dish. For me, frankly it didn’t matter.
The Caesar salad had so much of it, I just sprinkled the spaghetti from that dish.
We polished off the meal with two – yes, two – bottles of champagne. The Krym Brut ran for Hr 120 and arrived cold, as should be.
The second bottle, which I admit I urged, was Novy Svit, Extra Brut for Hr 139. The café had run out of the first type and this bottle was a bit warm, but our waiter did bring a bucket of ice and two fresh glasses, as requested. To my taste, Krym is the better brand.
This time, there was no desert or coffee, although the bar hosts a generous menu of desserts. And not only.
The café lists its entire menu on its website. There one can find a generous listing of meals running from breakfast to dinner.
Our total bill, bubbly included, came to Hr 542.
Dining out in Ukraine, particularly in Kyiv, is often a trying experience. Most places are overpriced, staff is uninterested and for the most part, once you get there, you just want to leave.
But not here. The smoke-free environment for me was a huge plus.
The non-smoking room is divided from the smoking with a wall, and the ventilation was good. Nobody hurried us out. We arrived a little past 7 p.m. and were the last to leave – at 11 p.m.
During those hours, customers came and went, while a group of women sat around a table almost as long as we did. They didn’t eat much, mostly drank red wine, and that was okay.
There was another plus. There is a large hook in the bathroom where one can hang a bag or a jacket.
Piano Café Music Bar,
4 Kontractova Ploscha,
425-2474, www.piano-cafe.com.ua.
Kyiv Post staff writer Natalia A. Feduschak can be reached at [email protected].
