Dozens of restaurants did not survive the strict COVID-19 lockdown in Kyiv that lasted for almost two months, from March 17 to May 11.
But some owners saw an opportunity in crisis and opened new places after the government allowed eateries to operate – from summer terraces since May 11 and indoors since June 24.
Some hatched plans for a new restaurant long before the pandemic and did not let it spoil them. Some reinvented their old cafes to fit the times, yet others thought that now is the best time to open something entirely new.
What unites them is an aspiration to create something original. The Kyiv Post has picked out five cafes or restaurants that have opened since the quarantine started in Kyiv, and have the best concepts, food and location.
Nu Age
Igor Ivanov dreamt of running a restaurant ever since he started cooking for his parents at the age of nine. So when he finally found the right team, place and idea, he didn’t let the COVID-19 crisis stop him.
“There is never the ‘right’ time – there will always be economic crises, pandemics or something else entirely,” Ivanov told the Kyiv Post.
In fact, the pandemic helped make the restaurant better, he says. Under lockdown, Ivanov, a beauty salon owner, found the time to better analyze and plan the restaurant. His team also got a chance to make the restaurant safe with regard to the social distancing requirements in advance.
“The quarantine gave me the resource to launch the project better and faster,” Ivanov says.
So in July, he opened Nu Age, a vintage restaurant of European comfort food with natural wines and a great collection of art. At its heart is Marina Korsun – an experienced chef who worked at some of Kyiv’s most beloved restaurants, such as Zigzag, Favorite Uncle and Kosatka.
“She formed her own team and esthetic sense for years,” Ivanov says. “So what we have now are absolutely unique dishes.”
Some of these are beef bourguignon stew with truffle oil, duck breast with gooseberry and grape sauce or mezze appetizer with sweet peppers, nuts, eggplant, egg yolk and labneh cheese. Besides culinary art, there is fine art on the walls collected by Ivanov from around the world.
“Nu Age is like the home of your beloved friends where you can have delicious food, where you will feel good and safe,” Ivanov says.
Nu Age (11 Pushkinska St.) 12-11 p.m. +38099 033 3899
A waitress explains the menu options to the visitors of the Tell Me About China cafe on Sept. 15, 2020 in Kyiv. The authentic Chinese cafe opened in August 2020. (Volodymyr Petrov)
Tell Me About China
COVID-19 interfered in how Arman Andreasyan wanted to open his cafe even before the lockdown. In February, Andreasyan, a developer in the hospitality industry, had to cancel a research trip with his business partner, an IT executive Igor Byeda. Their destination was China.
Andreasyan and Byeda wanted to get insights and meet cooks in China before opening their authentic Chinese cafe in Kyiv. But China became off-limits for Ukrainians by then, and a month later Ukraine itself went into lockdown.
Instead, Andreasyan and Byeda studied how the restaurant market was changing under quarantine. People had less to spend, and many restaurants would close. But this would make room for new projects better fit for the new demands, Andreasyan says.
“So we decided to enter the market in this transition period with a new brand, with a recognizable and highly-demanded cuisine,” Andreasyan told the Kyiv Post.
In August, they opened Tell Me About China (or Rozkazhy Meni Pro Kytai in Ukrainian) – an authentic Chinese cafe that aims to tell visitors about China through its “food, stories and people.” Its two chefs come from different Chinese provinces, and an expert in Chinese teas developed its tea collection.
But while there are other restaurants with dishes like Di San Xian potatoes and Gong Bao chicken cooked by Chineses nationals in Kyiv, Tell Me About China prides itself on also having a great clean service and spiffy design. It’s a rarity with Chinese restaurants in Kyiv, Andreasyan says.
“We make authentic food, but we also provide Kyiv’s modern, world-class service.”
Tell Me About China (68 Velyka Vasylkivska St.) 11 a.m. – 11 p.m. +38068 677 0066
A waitress carries Mediterranean mezze appetizers at the Chayka cafe in Kyiv on July 22, 2020. Chayka opened in June where there used to be the Forever Young bistro. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
Chayka
When it became clear that Ukrainians won’t be able to go on vacations to most Mediterranean countries this year, restaurateur Igor Sukhomlyn came up with an idea for his next project.
Sukhomlyn and his business partner Valeriy Galperin decided to transform their Forever Young bistro into Chayka – a cafe with mostly Greek cuisine that tries to emulate some of that vacation experience by the Mediterranean Sea.
“During the lockdown, we learned we couldn’t work as we did before. We had to change,” Sukhomlyn told the Kyiv Post. “So two weeks before reopening, we changed everything.”
Chayka offers a variety of Greek wines and mezze appetizers to go with them, like Tzatziki cucumber yogurt sauce, Taramasalata whipped cod’s roe and Turkish Imam Bayildi roasted eggplant. For main dishes, Chayka serves Souvlaki meat grilled on a skewer and a variety of seafood, like sea bass with roasted tomatoes and grilled octopus.
When it opened in June, Chayka only had a terrace. The cafe gradually added indoor premises as they were remodeled, and expanded the menu. Sukhomlyn says they had to open fast because in the downtime they were losing money each day. But they already had a house full in the first weeks.
“Our whole team was mildly depressed during the lockdown without a restaurant rush. And it was cool to have those rushes right from the new start,” Sukhomlyn says.
Chayka (5B Baseina St.) 9 a.m. – 11 p.m. +38063 348 1152
Dyletant
Another New York-style coffee shop sprang out in Kyiv in June, in a place that could really use one. Dyletant (or Dilettante in English) opened by the Tarasa Shevchenka metro station, a neighborhood where many people work in IT by day and dance in nightclubs by night.
Dyletant has a simple menu with eggs and oatmeals for breakfast, soups, salads and sandwiches almost just as hearty. It has good coffee, as one might expect, and some tea variety, including matcha. For evenings, it has cocktails and natural wines.
Dyletant also has a simple but elegant interior design, created by a popular Kyiv architect Slava Balbek. Balbek owns the cafe together with business partner Roman Tatarsky. Having designed some 50 restaurants, Balbek finally wanted to make his own.
“It’s an ideal format for me – a small neighborhood cafe with quality coffee and super clear and simple food,” Balbek told the Village Ukraine.
Dyletant (57/17 Yurkivska St.) Mon-Fri 8:30 a.m. – 10 p.m. Sat-Sun 9:30 a.m. – 10 p.m. +38097 370 3969
Delhi Delhi
Delhi Delhi curry bar, a new restaurant format for Kyiv, also opened in July. Although it has an Indian chef, Delhi Delhi doesn’t market itself as an authentic Indian restaurant, but rather as a restaurant with modern Indian cuisine for the city, like those in the United Kingdom and France.
The restaurant has seven curry dishes, including the Indonesian Rendang with chicken, Thai green curry with shrimp, and Shahi Paneer with baked cheese, cream gravy, and cashews. There is also a variety of meat cooked in the restaurant’s tandoor, an Indian clay oven.
Delhi Delhi is also worth visiting for the unusual interior design. The yellow, brown, and red curry colors are ever-present, and there is furniture, decor, and silverware brought from India and Southeast Asia. But the most trippy part of the interior is its furniture that resembles hands, eyes and lips, custom-made to emphasize “India’s tactility.”
Delhi Delhi (34 Velyka Vasylkivska St.) 11 a.m. – 11 p.m. +38068 717 1715
