Ole Kyiv (Старий Київ) — Restaurant in London

Visited this newly opened restaurant on Sunday and overall me and my family really enjoyed it.

The staff is amazing, very attentive, polite and happy to help.

The food was great, the taste brought back the memories of a homemade food I tried in Eastern Europe. On our first (and for sure not last) visit we tried mushroom soup, chicken khlodnik (may spelt it wrong), deruny, chicken Kyiv, honey cake and more. All was very tasty, nicely served and portions were just right.

Also restrooms were tide and pleasant to walk in. Many restaurants do not pay attention to this funny, but very important detail.

There are a couple of downfalls, but they are really easy to be fixed tho. First in my opinion is the menu, printed as a newspaper, easy to get dirty and because of it not eco friendly as you will use it once or twice. Also, content is way too extensive. Nice, but not suitable for a busy place. I get the idea of educating your guests about Ukraine and Ukrainian culture, but I'm not sure it is the right way. Basically I forgot what I wanted as a starter before I got to the mains 😉 It is also extensive when it comes to the number of dishes, way too many and the Italian dishes like pasta Bolognese or Risotto is not something I was expecting. Give us more Ukrainian food or kids menu. 😀

The second thing in my opinion the venue is a bit too formal with white table cloths and waitresses wearing white gloves 😱. Some of those touches are like from a Michelin Star restaurant, but not exactly everything else. Many top restaurants leave the concept of table cloths, so not sure why there is a such prominence given to a formal setting. Maybe it's just me being weird.

Also it was a little bit too bright, and music was a bit weird. I think lounge, easy listening, traditional Ukrainian or even top chart Ukrainian music would do better than some soft pop/club tunes.

Nevertheless all of them small "doom and gloom" points everything is being outshined by positives, so keep it up with good work and see...

The short: i would happily go here every week if i lived closer, absolutely amazing service, the food is exceptional and atmosphere is warm and welcoming.

The long: Ole Kyiv is situated in a borough of London that's a little more effort to get to for non-locals, but it is well worth the trip! On the outside the building has a unique beauty to the area and inside it is both elegant and welcoming, which is a difficult balance to pull off.

Upon entering the building we were seen to very swiftly, even though a wedding party had arrived at the last minute. I was very impressed with out waitress who served us in a very lovely and attentive manner. We were told there would be a bit of a wait on food due to the wedding, but the staff really did their best to facillitate our orders and we waited no longer that 10 - 15 minutes for food to come to the table.

My partner and i had a selection of dishes including the aubergine rolls, varenyky, holuptsi and shashlik, all were cooked to perfection, presented very nicely and tasted incredibly flavoursome to put it lightly.

The drinks selection was vast and i would recommend trying some of the Ukrainian options, unfortunately they had no more horyilka, but i would advise to try this to get a more authentic Ukrainian experience.

The cost was very much reasonable, totalling just over £80 for 4 dishes and 6 alcoholic drinks.

I would urge anyone to give this a try and explore the tastes of Ukraine if it's something you're not familiar with, you will be pleasantly surprised at the variety and tastes of the food, which this restaurant pull off in spectacular fashion.

Thank you again for such a wonderful evening! Слава...

Unfortunately we had a very poor experience at Ole Kyiv last night. Eleven of us went for a birthday meal and everything about the night was a disaster. The restaurant was understaffed and there were 3 poor women trying to run around and do everything and apparently only 2 chefs who weren’t the normal ones who cook. A drink was spilt over my son, which could have happened on any given night but started the night as it went on. Cocktails took forever to come after being ordered, the food order took forever to take and despite reminding them 3 times only 9 of the 11 orders were taken as the waitress was getting pulled left right and centre. Starters came out one at a time about 40 minutes later, then mains were probably the same again. 4 pizzas came out first. and they were all finished before any of the next mains came, with the last main, a seafood pasta probably coming 45 minutes after the first pizza. Not all of the sides arrived either, broccoli and asparagus missing. The poor service, was blamed on the management and staff being at an event in london and a high number of non booked walks ins leading to the kitchen not being able to cope. The management of this restaurant need to take note and listen to the staff who were there last night as there were multiple unhappy groups, all of which had the same problem as us. Close the restaurant if you have an event or staff it accordingly to offer the food and service we had previously heard about from...