Borsh — Restaurant in Lviv Urban Hromada

ALERT: the manager called security to threaten us when we tried to send back an item we didn’t order (full review at bottom).

Incident:

Dessert was falsely advertised as “маківник” (a universally known layer cake or roll with expensive poppyseed paste). Instead we got a sponge cake with a few poppyseeds mixed into the batter. We didn’t touch it and asked to send it back and the waitress refused, and when we complained to the manager she called security to threaten us. We said we would call the police and she smiled and told us to go ahead.

I paid the bill with a credit card and then contacted the company to stop payment.

Full review:

Prior to this dinner was passable, if significantly more bland than the already mild Ukrainian cuisine. Green borsch was watery but otherwise OK. Country-style selansky potatoes were dry and lacked the usual garlic, butter, or onion. Meat barenekki were fine if also bland. The “gutsul” meat dish (pork) was tough and dry, but the mushroom cream sauce was flavorful.

Our waitress Marta was nice enough prior to the physical threats and I would have given a 2-star...

Lovely restaurant with lovely interior design and atmosphere. There was a live music as well which was a nice compliment. To dine in this place we were waiting outside for half hour to get sited. Initially we were taking to the room downstairs and were surprised as several tables were unoccupied. The question is: why they didn't invite us to sit sooner but left us waiting outside on the cold? The basement hall had no internet connection and less nice than the main one, so we asked to be moved as some people left. That was ok. We were permitted to stay on the main room. We ordered for 4 people. First arrived one dish for one of us, 30 minutes later arrived another one and 30 minutes after that arrived other two. They were simple dishes. Why should we have waited for an hour??? We probably were forgotten. The 'pork meat Gutsul stile' was nice as well as 'oven baked vegetables with cheese' but the 'oven baked chicken potatoes under chees' was rubbish. Overal experience: tried it once. It was okeish but wouldn't come back. Service and food were very average as well...

Horrible food. The only reason this place still exists is because of all the tourist traffic it gets.

The good: decor, lard

The bad: everything else.

Food was served mostly cold. This included soups, meats and half of the potatoes on the plate. I can only guess whether they were an old batch mixed with freshly reheated ones or dumped from other customer's plate.

All three steaks were dry and horribly overcooked. Worst of the three was the beef steak which was both dry and watery. The meat was overcooked, looked and tasted steamed/boiled and had a funky taste to it. The potatoes ordered with the dishes arrived 15 minutes after the meat. Half of them were piping hot and half were cold.

Dumplings were ok but also mostly cold.

Tea was served in a teapot with a cracked spout which resulted in a lot of spillage.

Overall, if you can avoid the place. You'll be better off going hungry for few more minutes than...