While Kyiv doesn't lack restaurants and bars, the demand for quality venues is far from being fulfilled. Mr. Zuma, a relatively new restaurant on Kyiv's map, purports to be one of the best.
Mr. Zuma sports the name and the interior style of the Zuma restaurant chain that includes eight contemporary Japanese cuisine restaurants across the world. The Ukrainian restaurant’s website mentions the chain, but doesn’t directly say that it belongs to it.
Martina Wilk-Nowicka, the reservation administrator in Zuma restaurant in London, told the Kyiv Post that Ukraine’s restaurant has nothing to do with the Zuma chain.
Despite the doubts about the restaurant’s authenticity, I went to check it out this September.
Located on the fifth floor of recently-opened Gulliver mall in central Kyiv, Mr. Zuma offers a spacious terrace. One early evening in the middle of the week I found it to be almost full. The hostess hesitated before escorting me to the terrace table, offering a place inside instead.
Besides regular tables, the restaurant offers seats at the bar and around an open kitchen. Lounge music, a lot of green plants and soft lightning works for a calm and charming atmosphere.
Remembering that the restaurant specializes in quality seafood from eating there in Dubai, I ordered a shrimp and quinoa salad (Hr 119) and waited with high expectations. Unfortunately, the shrimp not only turned out to be tiny, but looked like they had a hard life. The shrimp were promoted as Japanese-produced. Well, maybe the poor shrimp walked their way from Japan – that would explain why they looked so rumpled.
All jokes aside, the shrimp I saw were hardly acceptable for a restaurant that specializes in seafood. Also, the quinoa that came with the shrimp tasted like it was cooked for too long.
The coffee was a relief. Mr. Zuma serves regular latte (Hr 42), but for an extra Hr 23 one can get sprinkles of real gold specks on the coffee. The gold is fully edible and impossible to distinguish while drinking.
The menu prices were average for a restaurant that positions itself as a place for upper middle class Kyivans. A noodle soup with chicken goes for Hr 155, oysters begin at Hr 90, and a cheesecake is available fro Hr 85. The restaurant also serves cocktails and hookah. Fresh orange juice is available (Hr 65), as are mojitos (Hr 98), and water-based hookah (Hr 220).
My coffee took just three minutes to serve, and food arrived in 15 minutes. It would seem like good service, but the staff ruined the impression by taking 25 minutes to bring the check.
Still, the service, along with the beautiful terrace space, was the best feature of Mr. Zuma. The big staff of stylish-dressed waiters was helpful and paid attention to the visitors’ requests.
While Mr. Zuma aspires to be a high-class venue, it still has a lot to improve before it can really count as one.
Kyiv Post staff writer Julia Kukoba can be reached at [email protected]
