Kharkiv
If you've been to Lviv, this is one of those – ‘emotional restaurants’ – again. Hungry? Get some theatre for starters. To come in, you'll first have to…
Must-see restaurants in Eastern Ukraine
Eastern Ukraine
There is an overcomplicated pun in the name involving mice and a retired Jewish gangster who allegedly left a handwritten book of recipes in this cellar…
Eastern Ukraine
Halushky are inverted dumplings – cubes of baked dough mixed with whatever is used as a filling in conventional dumplings. Come here to sample the famous…
Eastern Ukraine
One level smarter than other restaurants in Chernihiv, this cosy establishment specialises in grilled meat and specifically in pork – think steak and…
Eastern Ukraine
A tribute to the city founder John Hughes, this place is full of shiny brass – that of the mini- brewery pumping fresh brew into the pipes that take it…
Eastern Ukraine
Dark stone, aged wood and the smell of baking khachapuri (cheese pastry) – that's a combination which instantly carries one across the Caucasus range into…
Kharkiv
Rivers of beer cut through mountains of meat to the sound of um-pah-pah music in this Kharkivite version of a Czech pub. There is a microbrewery on the…
Eastern Ukraine
Reporter has three wings: a ground-floor coffeehouse serving breakfasts and possibly the plumpest, tastiest homemade varenyky (stuffed, ravioli-like…
Sharlotka/Varenichna Baluvana Halya
Eastern Ukraine
Sharlotka is a laid-back coffeehouse, good for snacks and light lunches; adjoining Varenichna is an unexpectedly sophisticated but inexpensive cafe…
Eastern Ukraine
This lovely restaurant, with a wood-filled interior and many multicoloured fish-shaped objects adorning the walls, could have easily become our favourite…
Kharkiv
Don’t be fooled by the plain, though pleasant, interior of this place – here the focus is firmly on well-crafted food from Ukraine and the Caucasus with a…
Kharkiv
Varenyky (triangular-shaped dumplings) are the chubby Zeus of the Ukrainian culinary pantheon. Here is the place not only to gorge on them, experimenting…
Eastern Ukraine
With bare concrete walls, this cellar place underneath a Stalin-era apartment block could have been a nuclear bunker, but now it is a lively restaurant…
Eastern Ukraine
This unassuming tiny cafe sets the golden standard for pelmeni (Russian meat-filled dumplings) and their triangular-shaped Ukrainian cousins, varenyki…
Eastern Ukraine
An ubercute 20th-century nostalgia place without hammers and sickles – think visiting a Soviet granny back in the 1970s. Savour your beetroot-and-prune…
Dedushka s Tatuirovkoy Drakona
Kharkiv
With an inviting terrace that lures a smart youngish crowd on hot summer evenings, the Grandad with Dragon Tattoo (a play on words from Stieg Larsson's…
Eastern Ukraine
Turkish expats run this pleasant eatery just off pr Lenina. The convenient picture menu features lots of shashlyks and appetising Turkish snacks. Patrons…
Eastern Ukraine
A vaguely central European cellar pub with chatty waiters who like to show their proficiency in foreign languages (mostly German). Meat in all shapes…
Eastern Ukraine
Studenty watering hole and live-music venue, with weekend rock bands, a long beer menu, and a big and busy summer beer garden.
Eastern Ukraine
Resembling a Ukrainian khutor (a traditional farmstead) with lots of outdoor seating in a lush garden, this folksy restaurant is the place to go if you…
Eastern Ukraine
A riverside farmstead with a population of white geese and a dining room, where they serve hearty borshch and varenyky dumplings with all kind of fillings…
Kharkiv
This city-centre branch of Ukraine's most celebrated fast-food chain is incongruously styled as a warren of thatched cottages bedecked in bucolic knick…
Eastern Ukraine
Right by the entrance to Myrhorod-Kurort, this cellar place serving Ukrainian and East European standards is bland and reliable. Varenyky with sour cherry…
Eastern Ukraine
The best supermarket in the city centre, located on the left as you head from Korpusny Park towards Kyivsky train station.
Eastern Ukraine
A hard-to-miss wooden lakeside terrace brands itself an 'ethnic' restaurant. In fact, it's only real 'ethnic' component is the Georgian part of the menu,…
Eastern Ukraine
With walls draped in Union Jacks and the Beatles for the soundtrack, this food factory churns out tons of European and Asian meals immediately devoured by…
Eastern Ukraine
This strategically located open-air place (in summer) is always full of people. If two Donetsk residents need to meet for a chat, it will probably be here…
