Da Vinci restaurant on European Square has been a Kyiv culinary favorite ever since it opened two years ago. With its central location, swanky interior and quality Italian dishes, it lures diplomats and young professionals alike.
So it’s no surprise that Da Vinci’s second restaurant, Fish Club, is already shaping up to be a success after just a month in operation.
Fish Club is also in a prime location near Sofia Square. Housed in the first two floors of the Millennium Business Center, the Club gets its share of foot traffic. Even around 11 p.m. on a recent weeknight, the restaurant was hopping.
The ground floor of Da Vinci is dominated by a large, round bar in the shape of a hot-air gondola (a la Da Vinci) – with thick ropes and a “balloon” rising to the high ceiling. The interior is a mix of contemporary chrome and Italian classic decor – like ceramic tiles, pale-yellow stucco, exposed brick and plenty of wrought iron. There are a couple dozen tables on the main floor as well as a couple dozen more set up in the loft and the second-floor corridors and backroom.
We found ourselves at one of these small tables in the upstairs hall, which proved to be an interesting spot – private, yet offering a great view of the main floor below. The Fish Club is filled with such interesting nooks and crannies.
The efficient wait staff quickly brought freshly baked brushetta and breadsticks. But at times the service went overboard. Our waitress hovered over us, waiting for that last sip, slurp or bite to be consumed so she could whisk way used dishes lickety-split.
But the food was to be savored, so we took our time.
The Duke’s minestrone soup (Hr 25) lacked the usual throw-everything-you-can-find-into-this-concoction approach that I am used to. It was more chicken-broth than rich tomato. It was clearly more refined and more subtle, yet satisfying.
We followed up on our first course by seeking, like the restaurant itself, to combine the best of both worlds: Italian cuisine and seafood. We ordered entrees of spinach cannelloni with smoked salmon (Hr 59) and pike perch with juniper sauce (Hr 55). The cannelloni consisted of two large, deep green tubes of pasta stuffed with a pureed salmon-broccoli mixture covered in a heart-stopping thick cream sauce and grated Parmesan. The fish was no slouch either – flaky, tender meat in its own cream sauce and festooned with small black berries.
The Fish Club servings were generous enough and the food rich enough that we overdid it a little in our choice of side dish. The roasted potatoes with rosemary (Hr 27) made for the perfect garnish, but the boiled beans with celery (Hr 14) proved to be too much. They were a little too simple, even as an accompaniment, a little too cold and too much to finish.
Fish Club has a lot more to offer. We saw a server thoughtfully place flowers belonging to one diner in a champagne bucket with water. That bucket, on other nights, might be used to hold a Hr 3,000 bottle of French champagne. The restaurant also stocks French wine, South African, Georgian and Italian – a bottle of Bardolino red going for Hr 126.
Other appetizing offerings included the mussel soup (Hr 55), Risotto dishes including saffron rice with green peas and crayfish (Hr 67), lobster at Hr 100 per 100 grams and more than a dozen kinds of grilled fish, like swordfish (Hr 78), wok-fried fish and sushi.
It mystifies me that anyone would have room for dessert after a three-course meal at Fish Club. For those who do, Fish Club has sweets in the Hr 45 range, including ice cream with fruit liqueur.
Nibbles
As if Kyiv did not already have a disproportional amount of basement restaurants, two new subterranean eateries have opened up near Ukraina Palace.
Bulldog (99 Chervonoarmiyska)is modeled after the famous chain of Amsterdam coffeeshops that bear the same name. Alas, there’s no green herbs on the menu. But the pub fare is both edible and affordable. Management promises an expansion in the next few months.
Capuchin (81 Chervonoarmiyska) features mid-priced French food in a quirky medieval setting – save the VH-1 blasting from the telly.
DA VINCI FISH CLUB
12 Volodymyrska.
Tel: 490-3434.
Open: 8 a.m. to midnight.
