Hot pasta with melting parmesan and fragrant basil — the signature Italian food is a versatile ingredient, and Kyiv’s Italian restaurants now offer a wide range of authentic pasta dishes, from smoky spaghetti carbonara to creamy lasagna.
The Kyiv Post has picked out some of the best Italian restaurants in Ukraine’s capital serving up the best pasta and ravioli. Buon appetito!
Vino e Cucina restaurant serves fourteen kinds of traditional Italian pasta dishes. (Courtesy)
Vino e Cucina
The three-story restaurant Vino e Cucina in Podil district works from early morning until late at night, offering a wide range of wines and dishes prepared with fresh mozzarella cheese. The restaurant serves fourteen kinds of pasta dishes, including traditional carbonara, spaghetti Bolognese, and lasagna. They also serve penne arrabiata cooked with a spicy tomato, dried red chili pepper and garlic sauce, pappardelle with porcini mushrooms and mozzarella, and tagliolini (a long, ribbon pasta) with white sauce and black truffle.
There’s also a choice of pasta with seafood: spaghetti alla puttanesca with tuna, cannelloni (large rolls made out of pasta) with crab meat, and spicy spaghetti with octopus, fresh tomatoes and capers. Vino e Cucina also makes three kinds of ravioli: with rabbit, with ricotta and spinach, and with veal cheeks and black truffle.
Apart from that, the restaurant’s menu includes various Italian antipasti (appetizers) such as carpaccio, tartare and bruschetta, as well as breakfast meals, pizza, soups and salads, hot fish and meat entrées, and desserts. Vino e Cucina also serves six kinds of fresh mozzarella and its own house baked goods. Match an Italian dish with a glass of wine from the restaurant’s wine list, which has over 200 options.
Prices: penne arrabiata — Hr 149, tagliolini with black truffle — Hr 335.
Vino e Cucina. 82 Sichovykh triltsiv. 8–12 a. m. +38044 499 1413.
Panna Pasticceria
This Italian cafe is located close to the city center and offers a view of Velyka Zhytomyrska Street, one of the busiest streets of the capital.
Panna Pasticceria serves nine various kinds of pasta and ravioli, such as spaghetti with mussels, shrimps and squids, traditional Italian parpedele noodles with a meat and tomato Bolognese sauce, macaroni with Italian asiago, parmesan and gorgonzola cheeses, and a lasagna Bolognese with beef, tomatoes and a crusty cheese topping. There are also homemade ravioli with duck, and ravioli with spinach, ricotta and sorrel, and pine nuts.
Like any traditional Italian cafe, Panna Pasticceria also offers different kinds of pizza including classic margarita with tomato, basil, and mozzarella, four cheese pizza, pizza with prosciutto and arugula, and pizza with prosciutto and champignons.
On the dessert menu, the cafe offers 16 kinds of traditional Italian ice-cream, as well as mango and pineapple sorbet, tiramisu, and a number of mousse desserts.
All dishes can be accompanied with a glass of Italian wine or lemonade.
Prices: ginger lemonade — Hr 42, spaghetti with seafood — Hr 289, lasagna Bolognese — Hr 189.
Panna Pasticceria. 6/11 Velyka Zhytomyrska St. Mon-Fri 8 a. m. — 10 p. m., Sat-Sun 8 a. m. — 11 p. m. +38093 757 7577
Kyiv restaurant Fabius serves traditional Italian dishes such as pasta and ravioli. (Courtesy)
Fabius
This restaurant is run by a real star Italian chef, Gianni Tota, who has cooked for such celebrities as singer Sting, fashion editor Anna Wintour, and the tennis-playing sisters Serena and Venus Williams. Located on the outskirts of Kyiv, Fabius is worth the trip. The restaurant combines five dining halls, an open kitchen, a bakery and creamery, and can seat up to 350 guests at a time.
Fabius offers Italian dishes with some signature twists. Their pasta menu includes spaghetti carbonara, pappardelle with porcini, black tagliatelle with cuttlefish ink and seafood, lasagna, and penne Bolognese. The restaurant also serves two ravioli dishes: one with spinach, ricotta and gorgonzola cheese sauce, and the other one with veal cheeks and mushroom sauce.
Apart from that, the restaurant offers house-made baked goods and nine kinds of cheese, various antipasti, pizza, salads and soups. There is also a choice of main courses — steaks, poultry, fish and seafood. And there’s a wide choice for those with a sweet tooth: various ice-creams, sorbets, panna cotta (sweetened cream thickened with gelatin) and more. To accompany the dishes, Fabius offers cocktails, spirits and a range of wines.
Prices: spaghetti carbonara — Hr 285, lasagna for four — Hr 860
Fabius. 70 Stolychne Highway. Sun-Thu. 11–12 a. m. Fri-Sat. 11–2 a. m. +38050 324 4046
Pastateca
Located at the heart of the capital on Lva Tolstoho Street, the venue serves 14 types of fresh Italian pasta made to the exclusive recipes of the restaurant’s chef, Duchcho Orlandini.
Pastateca offers traditional Italian pasta, such as tagliatelle with four types of cheese and black truffle, tagliatelle with tomato sauce and olive oil, linguini with tomato sauce, and many others.
Apart from the traditional pasta with cheese and tomatoes, Pastateca serves vegetarian pasta dishes with chestnuts, ravioli with turkey and cream-cheese sauce, tagliatelle with shrimps, zucchini and garlic sauce, and a variety of ingredients to be added to pasta, including mushrooms, poultry, fried salmon, scallops, squid and mozzarella cheese.
Pastateca also has a variety of salads, soups, bruschetta, and wine snacks, such as guacamole, oysters, cheese plate, eggplant with vegetables and mozzarella, and bruschetta with salmon, avocado and olives.
The restaurant’s drinks menu is divided into sections for all occasions, so visitors can select the appropriate wine without a sommelier’s help. It includes wines suitable for romantic dates, meetings with parents or friends, celebrations and even for lonely evenings.
The venue also serves lemonades, alcoholic cocktails, beer, and cider.
Prices: ravioli with turkey and cream-cheese sauce — Hr 115, pasta with chestnuts — Hr 105, citrus sorbet — Hr 45.
Pastateca. 11/61 Lva Tolstoho St. 8 a. m. — 11 p. m. +38067 333 5579
Italian restaurant Mille Miglia offers a choice of pasta and ravioli cooked to recipes from all over Italy. (radissonblu.com)
Mille Miglia
This Italian restaurant is a part of the Radisson Blu hotel located in Kyiv’s historical center near the Zoloti Vorota metro station. Mille Miglia’s kitchen is run by Fabrizio Righetti, a chef from the Italian capital Rome. The restaurant offers a choice of pasta cooked to recipes from all over Italy: classic cacio e pepe with pecorino cheese and pepper, which is recommend with a glass of pinot grigio wine, scolio with seafood, tomato sauce, white wine, garlic and parsley, and ajo e ojo spaghetti with anchovies, pecorino, parsley and chili pepper. Mille Miglia also serves pasta with traditional Bolognese sauce, alfredo with parmesan and butter, fettuccine alla papalina with prosciutto and parmesan, and many more. And they make traditional Italian ravioli dumplings with ricotta, spinach and sage sauce.
Apart from that, Mille Miglia offers various antipasti, risotto, soups such as stracciatella and minestrone, fish and meat entrées served with free side dishes, desserts including coffee-flavored tiramisu and ricotta e pere (cake with ricotta cheese and pear). The restaurant’s drinks menu offers tea, coffee, fresh juice and a choice of wine.
Prices: cacio e pepe — Hr 300, ajo e ojo spaghetti — Hr 200
Mille Miglia. Radisson Blu Hotel. 22 Yaroslaviv Val St. Mon-Fri. 12–11 p. m. Sat. 5–11 p. m. +38044 492 2255
Mercato Italiano is located on the sixth floor of Gulliver shopping mall in Kyiv. (Courtesy)
Mercato Italiano
Located on the sixth floor of Kyiv’s Gulliver shopping mall, this pricier restaurant is a cozy place with a relaxed atmosphere.
Mercato Italiano has a decent pasta menu that includes tagliatelle with rabbit in a cream sauce, spaghetti with a carbonara or Bolognese sauce, ravioli with ricotta cheese and spinach, as well as black linguine with salmon in a creamy sauce, and traditional Italian ravioli with stewed pork and Parma ham.
Besides pasta and ravioli, the restaurant also serves risotto with truffles, seafood, shrimps, or cheese, together with four types of soup, such as minestrone with vegetables, chicken broth with homemade pasta, seafood soup, and goulash soup.
Apart from that, Mercato Italiano offers pizza, main courses with side dishes, and various starters.
The desserts menu has 13 items, including lemon tart, traditional tiramisu and pannacotta with raspberry souse and fresh berries.
Prices: black linguine with salmon in a creamy sauce — Hr 295, truffle risotto — Hr 205, grilled asparagus — Hr 330, lemon tart — Hr 120
Mercato Italiano. Gulliver Shopping Mall. 1A Sportyvna Sq. +38067 400 7550
