As a multicultural city, Kyiv offers restaurants of all kinds of cuisines, including Chinese restaurants. Two that stand out are are Kitaisky Privet (Chinese Hello) and Han Yuan.
Kitaisky Privet sits at the bottom of Afanasyev Yar on Ivana Franka Street, surrounded by lush vegetation and adorned with bamboo sprouts that make the restaurant seem Southeast Asian on a muggy May day.
The restaurant opened in August. Chinese characters written in neon decorate the interior as do Russian-language signs mimicking the mistakes of Chinese native speakers.
One sign in the bathroom informs guests, referred to as “dear China friend,” that “paper hand towel and other material into toilet throw do not!” while the napkins have “wipe face so sauce no flow” printed on them.
Getting past Kitaisky Privet’s jokes grants access to the restaurant’s colorful menu. Broad, technicolor photos accompany each dish. A separate drinks menu offers a dozen kinds of Chinese tea.
Szechuan soup like Dan-Dan noodles are on the menu, as well as many spicy beef and chicken dishes. Fried tofu and other vegetarian options are also available.
On the appetizer side, visitors are greeted with many options, including an intriguing looking bowl of fried maggots (locally sourced, according to the waiter). The menu’s picture shows a huge pile of the fried insects in a large bowl, almost ready to wriggle out at a hungry guest.
But while the other portions were huge, there was a bit of false maggot advertising – visitors are left with a measly 10 fried flesh eaters, a shame given their crunchily delicious taste.
But if Kitaisky Privet is a hip establishment with cocktails on offer, Han Yuan is the dive bar of Kyiv Chinese food.
Situated in the basement of a National Aviation University dormitory miles from the nearest metro stop (Shuliavska), it seems more like a place where one might find a local university’s frat house than Szechuan cooking.
Visitors have to enter from the back of the dorm after walking through a spacious student courtyard. Dumpsters are parked in the alley where the restaurant’s entrance is located, but the kitchen’s appealing smell overpowers the trash reek, giving guests a way to find the entrance.
Han Yuan is sparse on decor, with wood panels along the interior and scattered Chinese lanterns. It is favored by Asian foreign exchange students. The menu is large and bilingual, in Chinese and Ukrainian, separating out dishes into veggies, fish, chicken, beef and specialties. The food is tasty and offers more authentic and spicier Chinese than nearly anywhere else in Kyiv.
Han Yuan is an unlikely contender on a Kyiv culinary scene that appeals more to opportunities for Instagram than to cozy, down-home cooking. And as badly as I want Han Yuan to beat out Kitaisky Privet’s crypto-racist bougie facade on the culinary merits, it falls short.
Kitaisky Privet wins on taste and whatever I can discern of authenticity. The food is often too spicy, but tasty enough to be worth the burn to the tongue and throat. That said, both joints offer food far spicier and as deliciously fatty and greasy as the best that Ukraine has to offer. Give both a try.
Selection of Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese restaurants improves in Kyiv
Harbin (Chinese)
33A Artema St. 12 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Kitaisky Privet (Chinese)
7 Ivana Franka St.
12 p.m. – 11 p.m. +38095-556 9977
Han Yuan (Chinese)
12 Nizhynska St. 12.30 p.m. – 10.30 p.m. +38093-690 8298
Chang (Chinese, Vietnamese)
23 Yaroslaviv Val St.
11 a.m. – 10.30 p.m. +38067-8737878
Dyu Long (Chinese)
46B Tarasa Shevchenka Blvd.
11 a.m. – 11 p.m. +38044-3310710
Sapa (Chinese, Thai)
61/2 Mykoly Zakrevskoho St.
11 a.m. – 11 p.m. +38044-5303663
Bite & Go (Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai)
1 Tarasa Shevchenka Blvd.
9 a.m. – 11 p.m. +38098-1188911
Kitai (Chinese, Thai)
29 Vyacheslava Chernovola St.
10 a.m. – 11 p.m. +38098-177977
