Cheap restaurants
‘You pretend to pay us, we pretend to work’
Kiev has a very dynamic and painfully fashionable restaurant scene, but most observers agree that it remains ridiculously overpriced given the mediocre fare and average service which guests still sometimes encounter, albeit usually in sparklingly ostentatious surroundings.
The Ukrainian capital certainly has pretensions to grandeur, but few venues have yet to find the balance between local flavour and international service standards, with many excellently designed top end venues let down by inconsistent kitchens and below average delivery. The old Soviet adage: ‘You pretend to pay us, we pretend to work’, still rings true on occasion and motivation remains a problem for many sectors of the low-paid hospitality industry. While moody waiters and uncooperative service staff continue to be a common complaint in Kiev, standards have improved considerably since the low ebb of the mid-1990s. Eating out in the Ukrainian capital these days is almost always an occasion and a pleasure, but there is also no point denying that it is doubly so when someone else is paying. People used to London or Paris prices will be surprised to find some venues in Kiev also offering similar rates, but while local elites may be prepared to pay over the odds for prestige reasons, many foreign guests will find Kiev’s most expensive venues to be overly priced.
Middle of the market restaurants
In the intermediate range there are a growing number of great venues which are catering to the country’s growing middle classes and which have also proved a big hit with the Kiev international community. Perhaps the best mid-range burger bars in town are Kiev’s two homages to Americana – global franchise TGI Friday’s (5a Besaraka Square. Tel.: 044-2354264) is hugely popular with the American expat community and young Ukrainians alike, while Arizona BBQ ( 25 Narberezhna Khreschatyka. Tel.: 044-4252438) is a Kiev institution dating back to the mid-1990s, when it served as an unofficial expat clubhouse in the old colonial style. Everyone in Kiev’s expat community has an Arizona story and the place has aged gracefully with regular menu updates.
Cheap canteen style eateries
In recent years Kiev has seen the appearance of a plethora of cheap canteen-style eateries where sign language is more than adequate so even first time visitors on a budget should have no trouble finding a low-cost meal anywhere around the city centre. Visitors will find at least five such venues along the Ukrainian capital’s central strip, Khreschatyk Streeet, while there are also plenty of fast food options on the bottom floor of the Globus shopping mall located beneath Independence Square (Maidan). The only international fast food chain to have a Ukrainian presence is McDonald’s, which has a host of restaurants across Kiev. Other than that, there are a number of home grown chains including the impressive Pizza Celentano franchise which, as the name suggests, offers excellent pizza and a range of salads and side orders in an art deco environment which offers fast food convenience with a little local colour. Other Kiev chains which can be relied upon to provide a tasty snack include the eponymous Mr. Snack restaurants, which offer baguettes with a range of fillings, and controversial recent arrival McFoxy, a fried chicken chain that has apparently decided to take advantage of Ukraine’s poor intellectual property rights record and borrow a little bit of branding from the world’s top fast food empire. Streetside kiosks sometimes offer snacks and a particular local delicacy is the local sausage in batter – you will see Kievites queuing up for these in the early evening.
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