Great local experience with a soup popsicle: Restaurant Spotykach (23. July 2016)
If you want to experience the full spectrum of the Ukrainian cuisine, you should definitely pay the Restaurant Spotykach a visit. It is not only centrally located, it is also offering a wide variety of dishes for incredible prices. We started with the “Vinegret Lego (boiled potato, carrot, beet, pickled cucumber, beans, pickled onion, sour cabbage, honey agaric)” (65 UAH) which comes in ten different glasses and is supposed to …
… be mixed all together. While you wonder a bit at first how this can actually taste good – it does!
After that we have had the “Flag of Ukraine dumplings (dumplings mix served with potato, brynza cheese and greens)” (85 UAH) and while it somehow felt like eating a smurf, the blue dumplings were actually lovely. The white ones were rather boring but the blue ones were good but not as good …
… as the “Mine dumplings with smoked food (dumplings with cuttlefish ink and smoked food)” (85 UAH) which were even richer!
I have read about “salo” before going to Kiev so I figured, I should try it. The “potaptsi (rye toast with garlic and salo)” (25 UAH) is, let’s say, blunt! It does not really taste like much, so I did not entirely grasp the ‘greatness’ of salo.
The “zucchini pancakes with sour cream” (65 UAH) are nice but taste a bit like hash browns so not really exciting for your palate.
The “farm goat cheese with marinated peppers” (85 UAH) had a certain variety of quality in it. While some of the cheese was tasty, some of it was way too salty. So it seems like some of it was definitely over-salted. But the not-so-salty ones together with the pickled peppers were actually great.
While the “potato pancakes baked with porcini mushrooms and cream sauce” (95 UAH) were – due to the porcini sauce which was creamy and rich.
One of my absolute favorite dishes that evening was the “black pudding in ancient manner” (85 UAH). The portion was rather large but the black pudding was lovely.
Especially in combination with the “beet root horse radish”, the black pudding was the perfect combination of the intensity of the thickened blood and the slightly stinging taste of the horseradish.
Something which caught my view immediately was the “Borsch Eskimo” which is basically a “red-beet soup frozen on a stick with sour cream” (35 UAH). And while it looks like a completely normal popsicle, it definitely is not! While the first layer is just a bit weird as it tastes salty, it becomes even more special after the first layer when you have whole beans in there. And that is definitely not something you want in an ice cream. So, while it was interesting, it was definitely not my type of dessert.
The Restaurant Spotykach is a lovely place with good dishes, a nice atmosphere, a swift and friendly waiter, and last but not least, very fair prices. Definitely worth visiting and definitely worth booking in advance!
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Contact Details:
Restaurant Spotykach
Velyka Zhytomyrska Street 7
01025 Kiev (UA)
Tel.: +380 44 586 40 95
Homepage: http://www.2k.ua/en/restaurants/catalog/spotykach/
About the Author: Sven
I started the blog in October 2009, while living in Milan which I definitely consider to be one of the food capitals of the world. I was in touch with food since my early childhood (as my father is a former chef). Whenever I can, I travel the world to discover new places, to meet people but mostly to try local dishes and to find hidden gems! If you know a place worth going, please drop a line to: info@thediningexperience.org.
Currently, I am a member of the following food-related associations: Chevalier @Chaîne des Rôtisseurs Zurich-Ville; Membre Gourmet Dégustateur @Ordre Mondial des Gourmets Dégustateurs [OMGD]; Gesellschafter @Goldener Fisch and Member @Slowfood Convivium Zurich City. 
