You're reading: Enjoy window views, hot drinks at these Kyiv cafes

The best way to enjoy the colder weather in Kyiv is to sit in a cozy cafe, sipping a tasty hot drink, and watching the world go by through a large picture window. And Kyiv has plenty such venues to choose from.

The Kyiv Post has picked out some of the best cafes in the capital offering pleasing window views along with the best selections of hot drinks and desserts.

Kachorovska na Lva

This cafe located on the busy Velyka Vasylkivska Street near Lva Tolstoho Square metro station is easy to miss, but it’s worth tracking down. The place combines a store with shoes and accessories by Ukrainian brand Kachorovska and a cafe that has a couple of tables right next to its large, wall-sized windows.

The cafe’s drinks menu includes ten kinds of coffee, including classic espresso, cappuccino and latte, and the rare flat orange (espresso with fresh orange juice). They also sell matcha latte, cocoa, cascara tea, and seasonal teas made with berries, fruit and herbs, such as sea buckthorn and grapefruit, raspberry and sage, and ginger with lime and cardamom.

People visit Kachorovska na Lva, a place that combines a cafe and a store of shoes and accessories by Ukrainian brand Kachorovska. (Oleg Petrasiuk)

Kachorovska serves breakfast all day, offering two kinds of French toast, oatmeal, scrambled eggs and a large English breakfast with eggs, bacon, mushrooms, vegetables and toast. They also make syrnyky, Ukrainian pancakes made of cottage cheese, salads, hot sandwiches and soups. To accompany hot drinks, the cafe offers various desserts – Napoleon cake, cheesecake with passion fruit and coconut, profiteroles, and granola and chia pudding.

Prices: breakfast – Hr 85-130, syrnyky – Hr 87, flat white – Hr 52, tea – Hr 50-80
Kachorovska. 14 Velyka Vasylkivska St. Mon-Fri. 8 a.m. – 9 p.m. Sat-Sun. 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. +38097 987 9900

One Love Coffee

At One Love Coffee, visitors can view Bessarabska Square from on high – the cafe is located on the sixth floor of the Pinchuk Art Center contemporary art museum and boasts lots of tables beside a long wall with windows.

One Love Coffee serves over 20 kinds of hot and cold brewed coffee, demonstrating the passion for coffee that inspired the cafe’s name. The coffee choice includes all the classics, filter coffee, and coffee drinks with alcohol. They also offer regular and house-mixed herbal teas such as sea buckthorn, ginger, mint and lingonberry, as well as milk cocktails, cocoa, matcha latte, and fresh juice.

The cafe has a wide choice of desserts – various cakes, pies, mousses, cookies and marshmallows. They also serve breakfasts, open sandwiches with vegetables, meat and fish, and a range of salads, soups and appetizers. The cafe’s specialties include baked sweet potatoes with blue cheese, chicken with couscous, baked salmon with cheese sauce and filet mignon with grilled vegetables.

Apart from that, One Love Coffee sells a variety of alcoholic drinks, including red, white and rose wine, and cheese and meat platters to compliment the drinks.

Prices: aeropress – Hr 60, tea – Hr 65, dessert – Hr 22-98, sandwich – Hr 140-165
One Love Coffee. 1/3-2 Velyka Vasylkivska St. 10 a.m. – 11 p.m. +38044 585 0758

16.coffee

Those who want to escape the busy central streets of Kyiv and enjoy a hot drink in a quiet yard should head down to Kropyvnytskoho Street and visit 16.coffee, a small cafe that tempts in passers-by with its two large windows and minimalistic design. The place has two long counters and high chairs standing along the windows. There, visitors can enjoy cocoa, cascara and regular tea, matcha, and matcha latte. The choice of coffee here includes espresso, doppio, hand brew, cappuccino, flat white, latte, and more.

A man receives his order, as he visits 16.coffee cafe located on Kropyvnytskoho Street in Kyiv on Oct. 18, 2018. (Oleg Petrasiuk)

The cafe’s design matches its minimalistic menu. 16.coffee serves two kinds of sandwich: one with mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and pesto sauce, and the other with chicken. They also offer various pastries – croissants with chocolate, raspberries and almond, turnovers with apples, and a Danish pastry with cherries. They also sell other desserts – banana bread, éclairs, macarons, vegan candies and Portuguese egg tart pastry with cinnamon pastel de nata.

Prices: cascara – Hr 50, flat white – Hr 48, croissant – Hr 30-65, sandwich – Hr 70
16.coffee. 16 Kropyvnytskoho St. Mon-Fri. 8 a.m. – 9 p.m. Sat-Sun. 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. +38066 400 1104

City-zen Cafe

Located not far from the downtown area, on Velyka Zhytomyrska Street, this venue is a great place to enjoy a cup of hot coffee sitting right next to its huge window. The café, the fourth in the City Zen chain, opened in August 2018.

The breakfast menu of the place includes pancakes with salmon and cream cheese, poached eggs with avocado, hummus and tomatoes, as well as cheese pudding and traditional espresso with figs. Breakfast is served until 12 p.m. on weekdays, and until 1 p.m. on weekends. The lunchtime menu offers a two-course meal Monday to Friday from 12 until 4 p.m. for Hr 129.

City Zen`s special fall menu includes pumpkin soup with bacon and pumpkin seeds, as well as pumpkin cheesecake and a selection of five hot alcoholic beverages, such as classic mulled wine, tangerine mulled wine, and hot Aperol Spritz.

On the coffee menu, City Zen has about nine options, including Raf coffee and cappuccino in different flavors. Clients can accompany a cup of hot coffee with some sweets – City Zen offers a range of desserts such as apple cake with ice-cream, carrot and ginger pie, chocolate Napoleon cake, honey cake, and waffles.

Prices: pancakes with salmon and cream cheese – Hr 139, pumpkin soup – Hr 75, tangerine mulled wine – Hr 85.
City-zen. 20 Velyka Zhytomyrska St. Mon-Sun 8 a.m. – 10 p.m. +39067 547 4466

Visitors chat at the City-zen cafe in Kyiv on Oct. 18, 2018. The cafe serves nine kinds of coffee and offers a view onto Velyka Zhytomyrska Street. (Oleg Petrasiuk)

Varenie

This cozy little place offers seats by a wall-sized window with a view of Symona Petliury Street. The name of the venue (“jam” in English) is reflected in some of the options on the cafe`s menu: there is a Varenie salad, with grilled chicken fillet and eggplant, feta cheese, tomatoes, and citrus fruit homemade jam as a salad dressing.

Breakfast is served daily, from 9 a.m. until 12 p.m. with six options to choose from, including omelet with tomatoes and basil, and pancakes with cream and maple syrup.

Varenie serves nine types of coffee and six kinds of homemade tea, including ginger-orange tea, viburnum-mint tea, cranberry-cinnamon tea, and others. The drinks menu also offers juices and lemonades, milkshakes, hot drinks like cacao and hot chocolate, and a variety of alcoholic drinks such as cocktails, beer, and sparkling and mulled wines.

On the appetizer side, Varenie has plenty of bruschettas with meat, cheese, and vegetables, as well as pâtés, salads and varenyky – traditional Ukrainian dumplings.

The cafe also has a piano, which visitors who play this instrument are welcome to use.

Prices: espresso – Hr 27, cheesecake with ice cream and cherry jam – Hr 86, Ceasar salad with chicken and bacon – Hr 133.
Varenie. 22 Symona Petliury St. Mon-Sun 9 a.m. – 11 p.m. +38044 288 2877

Bassano Dolceteka

This confectionery is a great choice for those who want a view of the lively streets of the capital. Located close to Sofiivska Square, Bassano Dolceteka can seat nearly 20 people by its large, wall-sized windows, which offer an excellent view of the capital’s historic center.

Offering a wide range of desserts, including marshmallows, éclairs, honey cake with halva, mint cheesecake mousse and many others. This venue also has a selection of coffee drinks to accompany them, such as classic espresso, filter coffee, as well as cacao and hot chocolate.
Bassano Dolceteka also serves main courses, such as spaghetti, salmon or rabbit fillet, and a range of soups, including mushroom soup, chicken broth, and pumpkin puree soup.

Apart from that, the confectionery serves breakfasts until 12 p.m. on weekdays, and until 2 p.m. on weekends. The breakfast options include sunny-side-up eggs, eggs Benedict or scrambled eggs, together with mozzarella or other types of cheese, and oatmeal with five different fruit flavors.

Prices: oatmeal with fruits – Hr 70, pumpkin puree soup – Hr 75, honey cake – Hr 35.
Bassano Dolceteka. 8/14 Velyka Zhytomyrska St. Mon-Sun 9 a.m. – 10 p.m. +38044 351 1710