Kebabs and pide, sarma and dolma, baklava and halva — Kyiv’s Turkish restaurants have it all.
The Kyiv Post has picked some of the best restaurants in the country’s capital serving traditional Turkish cuisine, rich in flavor and spices.
Pasha
Pasha is one of the newest Turkish restaurants in Kyiv, which opened its doors this summer. Located on Shota Rustaveli Street, the restaurant serves Turkish food in a spacious hall with large open grills and stoves. Pasha’s staff recommend starting a meal with a choice of meze, which are small Turkish appetizers often served to accompany alcohol. There is a choice of over 30 cold and hot meze, including cacık — a dip made of yogurt mixed with cucumbers, garlic and mint, hummus, marinated salmon, pastrami with berries and fennel, sarma vine leaves stuffed with rice, veal, pine nuts, and more.
Pasha’s specialties are two traditional Turkish pastries: pide, a flatbread with a topping, and gözleme, a flatbread filled with vegetables, cheese, mushrooms, veal or mutton. Apart from that, there is chicken and veal shashlik, various kinds of kebab (mutton, turkey, veal and chicken) cooked on a charcoal grill, as well as grilled fish and seafood, including salmon, gilt-head bream, European bass, and octopus. Side dishes include grilled asparagus and vegetables, bulgur and rice.
Pasha also offers some famous Turkish desserts — baklava served with ice cream, şekerpare — an almond-based pastry baked in lemon-flavored syrup, kanafeh — a layered pastry with cheese soaked in syrup, kazandibi, which is caramelized milk jelly, and halva, a dense, eet, flour-based confection. The drinks menu includes Turkish and other wines, various spirits, Turkish coffee, tea and lemonade.
Prices: meze — Hr 95–485, pide — Hr 115–145, kebab — Hr 195–265, dessert — Hr 50–175
Pasha. 16A Shota Rustaveli St. Sun-Thu. 12 p. m. — 12 a. m. Fri-Sat. 12 p. m. — 2 a. m. +38050 440 5433
Dash
This restaurant on Bessarabska Square serves Turkish dishes round-the-clock during weekends. In the morning, clients can order a big breakfast, which consists of cheese cuts, boiled eggs, vegetables and sausages. There is a choice of meze appetizers, including acili ezme — a spicy mix of mashed tomato, onion, garlic, cucumber and pepper.
Dash bakes over 15 kinds of pide with various toppings, as well as lahmacun flatbread with minced beef, tomatoes and herbs, cheese, or chicken and tomatoes. They also serve hot entrees — dolma, which are vine leaves rolls stuffed with chopped veal and mutton, served with yogurt, mutton or veal kebabs, and spicy baked lamb with vegetables and cheese. The restaurant treats its visitors to Turkish coffee and tea, and offers a choice of traditional desserts — kanafeh, baklava, baked pumpkin with walnuts, apricots with nuts and cream, and sütlaç, a milky rice pudding.
Prices: meze — Hr 65–75, lahmacun — Hr 60–65, desserts — Hr 110–125
Dash. 2 Besarabska Sq. Sun-Fri. 9 a. m. — 1 a. m. Fri-Sat. 9 a. m. — 8 a. m. +38093 000 2202
Mangal
Mangal restaurant is named after the Middle-Eastern charcoal barbecue grill widely used in Turkey. This place not only introduces Turkish cuisine to its visitors but also holds live music events to showcase Turkish culture. However, the food alone is worth a lot of attention.
Mangal serves a number of meze such as lentil cutlets, and muhammara, a hot pepper dip. Naturally, many of the dishes here are cooked on the mangal charcoal grill — mutton kebab, chicken, veal and mutton shashlik, mutton ribs, chicken wings, and more. Apart from that, they sell traditional pide and lahmacun, grilled fish and shrimp, with bulgur, rice and grilled vegetables as side dishes. Their dessert menu lists şekerpare, which are semolina cookies in syrup, and baklava — a layered pastry filled with chopped nuts and drenched in honey.
Prices: meze — Hr 59–252, kebab — Hr 187–245, dessert — Hr 69–125
Mangal. 33–35 Saksahanskoho St. Mon-Fri. 10 a. m. — 11 p. m. Sat-Sun. 10–12 a. m. +38044 384 0202
Tike
This small but cozy restaurant in Podilsky district has a minimalistic menu and design. Tike serves a variety of salads, two pureed soups — one made from lentils, and the other with yogurt and lamb. They offer hot and cold meze, including hummus, haydar yogurt dip with herbs, mücver Turkish fritters made with cheese, grated zucchini and carrots, and more.
The waitress of the Turkish restaurant Tike brings dishes to customers on Oct. 23 in Kyiv. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
The restaurant also offers stove-baked pide and lahmacun flatbreads, and a number of fish dishes — salmon steak, baked trout and gilt-head bream, Black Sea turbot and European bass. Tike also offers various charcoal grill treats — mutton and chicken kebabs, veal, chicken and mutton cutlets, shashlik, and mutton ribs.
Apart from that, Tike is a lucky find for a sweet tooth — their menu lists 13 Turkish desserts such as kanafeh, kazandibi caramelized milk pudding, along with söbiyet puff pastry and dilber dudağı, made with egg, yoghurt, flour and sugar — both of which are served with ice cream.
Prices: pide — Hr 112–119, fish — Hr 95–340, dessert — Hr 49–130
Tike. 31A Petra Sahaidachnoho St. 11 a. m. — 11 p. m. +38044 482 4819
Döner
Turkish restaurant Döner is the perfect place for either a quick lunch or a romantic dinner. The restaurant serves various burgers, soups and salads, but focuses on its main dish — döner kebab, a type of kebab made of veal cooked on a vertical rotisserie. On the menu are döner kebabs served with vegetables in pita or lavash bread, as well as döner served with hummus, a hot salad with bulgur or pilaf – rice cooked with meat in a broth.
The cook of the Turkish restaurant Döner puts pita bread onto a board, as the restaurant serves their customers at dinner time on Oct. 24, 2018, in Kyiv. (Volodymyr Petrov)
Their meze choice includes acili ezme, hummus, and patlican salatasi — a mix of fried eggplant, tomatoes, onions and bell pepper. Apart from that, the restaurant sells a full breakfast, which includes fried eggs, cheese, vegetables and spicy Turkish sucuk sausage. The drinks menu lists Turkish coffee, natakhtari lemonades, juices, and more. And Döner’s dessert menu tempts visitors with sütlaç rice pudding and pistachio baklava.
Prices: meze — Hr 80–95, döner — Hr 105–225, dessert — Hr 75–350
Döner. 30/10 Bohdana Khmelnytskoho St. 10 a. m. — 11 p. m. +38066 844 8574
