Ukraine

Tuesday’s Treats #123

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Pest Pub

Location: Lavina Mall (inside), Kiev, Ukraine

This restaurant is located in the upstairs food court in Lavina Mall. We missed this on our first visit, and we went to the open food court where you sit with everyone, and if it’s busy, it’s loud and crazy. This is a nice and quiet, almost a “no kids allowed” type atmosphere, but not really, cuz there were a few children. However, this is definitely away from the hustle and bustle, and chaos that the other food court can sometimes present.

The atmosphere is very cool, very masculine, and the staff is friendly. There is a plethora of drinks from which to choose; however, if I might suggest the lemonade (non-alcoholic), it was amazing!! Made fresh with s slice of lemon, a slice of grapefruit, a touch of ginger, with a sprig of mint…with ice. 😉 Oh my! It was so light and refreshing. This was so good!!

We just ordered a little snack of Focaccio with 3 sauces: garlic butter, four cheese and branded tomato sauce, and the waiter had brought the sweet and sour by mistake. The garlic butter was my favorite, and the cheese was second. The sweet and sour was definitely an Asian twist, and the branded tomato just tasted funky, more like a canned tomato paste with basil. The bread was so delicious, I ended up eating six pieces before I even realized it!! I felt like a piglet for sure, but it was so tasty!

They have several other choices on the menu, including full pizzas, pasta, etc., but we were just looking for a snack of sorts, and this hit the spot! (The menu below has more food choices on back.)We will definitely return here on our next visit to Lavina Mall.

I couldn’t find a website for them, but I did find a Facebook page, and they have it listed on Google.

Tuesday’s Treats #122

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Culinary Studio Kryva Lypa

Location: Lviv, Ukraine

This place is absolutely the coolest, and the food is amazing! If you are in Lviv, you’ve got to find it, and to find it, you might have to search just a little bit. It’s “hidden away” in one of their many courtyards off from the Main Street, and you have to walk through a little “tunnel,” of sorts to get there. However, it’s not crazy difficult. I just put the address in my gps, and paid attention to my surroundings and found it easy enough. When you go through the “tunnel,” there will be a lounge that looks to be underground (I’m sorry. I do not remember the name, but it’s cool looking with it’s lights and entrance.), and there’s an ice cream shop on the right before you walk out of the tunnel. Then, it opens up to the great big courtyard with lots of restaurants, one of which is Lviv Croissants. That’s supposed to be crazy good and popular; so, maybe these directions will help you find your way. It’s well worth the search!

The atmosphere is amazing, and the staff is gracious, even to Americans who don’t speak a lick of Ukrainian! It’s not a very big place, but there’s plenty of room for moderate size parties, and it’s got so much character packed into such a smaller venue.

The food was absolutely amazing. We started with the cheese plate. It had 3 different types of cheese, grapes, and we had them bring us a basket of bread with it. Yum!

For our meal, we ordered the salmon filet, beef filet and homestyle fried potatoes. Both of these are in pictures on the menu, which they do have in English, if you need it. I was a little hesitant of the blueberry sauce they use on the beef, but no worries needed; it was absolutely delicious and so tender! I’m not sure exactly what the starch was on the side, maybe quinoa, but it wasn’t as grainy. It tasted pretty good with the blueberry sauce. My husband said the salmon was some of the best he’s ever had, and those potatoes were to die for!! We got cappuccinos at the end, and that was scrumptious as well. This will definitely be on our repeat list for our return visits to Lviv!

Here’s their website for menu and location information. At the top, you can choose several different languages for translations. 😉

Tuesday’s Treats #121

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Lviv Handmade Chocolate

Location: various locations Ukraine

The above pics are from the location in Rivne. It is a pretty small cafe, and there’s not as many “shelf” selections as others I have been in, but it’s very cute, and the menu items are more than some of the other locations.

The cafe in Lviv is the absolute coolest place!! When we walked in, it appeared to be a tiny cafe, but we went up the stairs and kept going, and kept going, and kept going! We went up five stories! We ended up in, what I would describe as the attic. It was amazing!!

They even have a Kids Center on the fourth floor where your kids can play while you drink your coffee, and the restrooms with a changing table are right there, too.

Don’t try to go out the Exit! It will beep at you!! …at least, that’s what a friend of mine said. Lol! 😂

Ok, now that I’ve given you a ton of pictures and described to you the amazing place, let me tell you about the amazing drinks and chocolates you can get.

My personal favorite is the white chocolate latte. It is so delicious! A friend of mine got the milk chocolate latte, and several friends have gotten the melted chocolate cup with fruit (See the picture above with bananas in chocolate). This seems to be a real popular choice among Ukrainians. Another drink that I’ve tasted, but have yet to order for myself (because I’m always getting coffee!), is the ginger tea (See pic). This drink is made with ginger, cinnamon, orange slices, lemon slices, and mint, and it’s served with a little bowl of honey. This drink is amazing. It has an actual healing quality to it, which makes perfect sense if you were to read any article on natural healing remedies. They always include cinnamon, lemon, honey and orange.

They have a plethora of other drink options, and that doesn’t even begin to skim the surface of the chocolate varieties. There’s decorative chocolatier items like lollipops and teddy bears, solid blocks of chocolate, truffles, chocolate with marzipan, nuts, fruits, and all kinds from which to choose. Some of our favorites are the white chocolate coconut, the dark chocolate solids, the white chocolate with pistachio nuts, the chocolate square with a coffee bean on top (tastes like hazelnut chocolate inside), and the white veil, which is chocolate dipped in white chocolate.

They also have different Lviv coffees for sale, as well as, a ton of gifts and novelties. The assortment can almost be mind-boggling but all together wonderful to behold! If you find one of these cafes, be sure to drop by and have a cup of “kaba,” and if you’ve already been to one, don’t think you can just skip another. Each one is unique with it’s own character and design. Each one is worth the time to stop.

Here is their website to find all the locations and various items.

Tuesday’s Treats #120

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La Riva

Location: Rivne, Ukraine

Simply AMAZING pizza!! Oh my goodness! I will crave this when I return home! Don’t let the humble appearance from the outside detour you. It is so good!!

(My apologies for this pic! It’s blurry, but I wanted to be able to give you a glance of the outside. It’s just a simple building with a sign.)

We ordered a four cheese “red” pizza with tomato sauce, salami, and peppers. We asked for green, but they gave red, and I told as actually glad once I tasted it. Those in our party got a four cheese “white” pizza with Alfredo sauce and prosciutto (italian bacon). It was delicious as well; however, I am partial to ours.

All the ingredients were so fresh and delicious! Had I not felt like a piglet, I’d eaten so much more! I cannot say enough good about it.

The atmosphere is cool as well. Note, it’s not a real big restaurant; so, on a busy night, I’m sure there’s a wait. We had a party of six, but we were able to walk right in and seat ourselves. There were 3 other tables filled and only one or two left once we put two together.

Here is their website; however, it is in Ukrainian. I didn’t see an option to translate, but you can check it out.

Tuesday Treats #119

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Rebra BBQ

Location: Bukovel-Yaremche, Ukraine

This place is so cool! The atmosphere is great, and the food is delicious. You can sit along the window and watch the skiers fly, or tumble, down the side of the hill. The staff is nice and friendly, and the menu has both Ukrainian and English translations. If you’re American, and you’re looking for some food BBQ while skiing in Bukovel, you’ll want to check them out.

Now, the locals will tell you it’s way too pricey to eat here, and to their standards of food payment, it is. However, for meals in the States, it’s about comparable to a high-end BBQ place. They have lots of sides, several sauces from which to choose, and desserts a plenty.

We had the beef brisket, ribs, cheeseburger, roasted potatoes and fries. The beef is beefy, and the cheeseburger is thick. Everything was delicious. The desserts were different, but yummy! The cronut was not at all what I expected, but it was very tasty. It’s a croissant doughnut, filled with a lemon chocolatey cream, glazed with this strawberry, caramel icing, and this is served cold. The “brownie” is more like a cake, but it is chocolatey good.

*Note to all Americans: upon your entry, if you see a sign that says, “Administration is not responsible for staff,” please know this doesn’t mean what we think it means! 😂 It means they aren’t responsible for stuff! This cracked us up, and I did try to mention it to the staff, but I’m not sure they’re going to change it. So, if you happen to drop in, and you are greeted by this sign as you hang up your coat, just know it’s not a reflection on what you’re about to encounter! 😂

Here’s their website as well; so, you can take a look at stuff.

Tuesday’s Treats #118

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Pasta Mia

Location: Rivne Oblast, Ukraine (Kyivska vul. 84)

Ok, so I’ll be honest. When our translator and driver said we’d stop to eat at a little cafe, along the highway between Rivne and Kyiv, and we pulled up to the gas station here, I was a bit skeptical…well, a lot skeptical. Here, in the US, when you stop for a bite to eat at most gas stations, you better just grab a prepackaged bag of chips and a coke, cuz if you eat in the “cafe,” you may very well wish you hadn’t a later on! Lol!

If you find yourself in this same scenario, and you pull into this cafe/gas station, go ahead and order up a plate! It’s that good! Our translator got the pasta with Parmesan cheese, and I had a bite. Yum! She got a cappuccino as well that looked delicious. I got a latte and an apple strudel kind of thing out of the display case (so sorry. I don’t remember the name of it!). They warmed it, and it was absolutely delicious! They had several pasta dishes and coffees from which to choose, and many more items in the display case, but like I said, I had been skeptical to start; so, I didn’t take in all the choices. The menu is also in Ukrainian; so, I couldn’t read it. The connected store has a nice selection of drinks and snack items as well; so, if you’re not in the mood for pasta, they’ve got you covered. 😉

It was a nice little break on our 3 hour drive in the snow from Lviv to Rivne that day, and I will cherish the memories made with sweet friends. Here is the TripAdvisor site for you to find a little more info, as they don’t have a website that I could find.

*UPDATE 1/2020: the cafe is still there, and I had the original location posted incorrectly. It is between Rivne and Kyiv. However, note this address given above may be wrong, or the restaurant has 2 locations. When above address entered, the location shows inside Lviv city. When only placed restaurant name into gps, location showed outside Lviv toward Ivano-Frakivsk; so, I’m sorry I am unable to give exact location. However, leaving Rivne toward Kyiv, cafe/gas station is on the left, and gas station is a “green one.” (Often these on the highway are either green, blue or yellow.😉) Hope this helps, if you are traveling and searching for it!

Tuesday’s Treats #116

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D’Armoyed

Location: Kiev, Ukraine

This place was really cool in atmosphere. It seems to be pretty new, and I couldn’t find a lot of info on line, but it’s well worth the visit.

The waiter knew just a bit of English, but they did have an English menu, and we were eating with Ukrainians; so, ordering was not a problem. The food was delicious, and the presentation was exquisite.

The Borsch, grilled chicken, potatoes with fried mushrooms and the Greek salad were all delicious. Our party also ordered other salads, dumplings, and some type of potato fritters (See pic), and everything was absolutely scrumptious! My favorite was probably the Borsch and the potatoes, but I think I kind of made those items my “food staples of choice” while in Ukraine! Lol. Hat chicken was amazing also, tasted like it came right out of the smoker!

Next time, we visit Kiev, this will be on the places to eat! They don’t have a website, but there is a Facebook page.