Sevastopol' Restaurants

The wife & I stopped by Fiesta Pizza for a quick bite to eat the other day. We have eaten at this brightly orange painted-Bob Marley/reggae decorated spot a number of times and it has always been satisfactory.

For my wife & me Fiesta Pizza has always been a little bit overshadowed by Celentano Pizza/Potato House (more on that here) since they basically share a parking lot. Celentano is bigger/has more seating and the location closest to Fiesta Pizza has a more extensive menu since it is a combo Potato House with its eclectic menu of fake Tex-Mex.

This time I was pleasantly reminded of the fact that Fiesta Pizza offers ready to-go pizza by the slice! One thing that always irks me a little at Celentano is that no matter how busy (or not) they are, it always takes SOOO long just to get a simple cheese & pepperoni pizza, even if you order it to-go.

Fiesta usually has one or two pizzas ready made and available to purchase by the slice, so you can pay and go! This is great if you are not attempting to make an event out of eating or have places to go and things to see. Of course your options for the ready made pizza are limited to whatever they have prepared at the moment as far as toppings go, but we happened upon a tasty cheese, ham (Canadian bacon?) and mushroom pizza.

We got the last two slices and they seemed pretty fresh. I asked the girl behind the counter how long it had been out and she said 5 minutes, which may have been a bit generous, but the pizza definitely wasn't old! It was actually better cooked (with a crispier finish) than the Celentano pizzas usually are - which will sway me back to Fiesta next time I walk down to the boardwalk to get a bite to eat.

The cost was a more than reasonable 10 Grivna ($1.25 at the moment) per piece and one slice was enough to satisfy my lunch time hunger.

Remember: Take your phrase book if you want to order a pizza with custom toppings - there is no English menu!

Bottom Line: Probably the tastiest pizza in Sevastopol (but don't set your standards too high) actually available quickly and by the slice for a reasonable cost!

Favorite Dish: already prepared pizza by the slice

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I wanted to share my experience at a new gelateria here in Sevastopol on Aivazovkova street just off Nakhimova St. This was actually my second time to visit Buonissimo - which I will share about in a moment.

My first experience was great - I had my favorite flavors of coffee and stracciatella and I was thinking that this gelato was so tasty that there had to be a real Italian involved somewhere! I chatted with Alexei the manager (who speaks some English by the way). He was extremely friendly and told us that the gelato was made on site! It was a warm day so we unfortunately skipped the coffee drinks. We left happy.

The shop is very inviting, well decorated in a fitting Italian theme and extremely clean. There is plenty of seating and customers can order at the counter if they are on the run or seat themselves and wait for a waiter/waitress to bring menus and choose their deserts and drinks.

Now I must backtrack for a moment and mention that I have visited Italy twice and took advantage of the readily available gelato and coffee drinks at every turn! So lets just say I'm not easily impressed with just any gelato & espresso.

So today my wife and I were out for a walk with our baby girl and we visited Buonissimo for a second try. As soon as we walked in Alexei (the manager) immediately recognized us and we began to chat. He explained a little more about their gelateria. So we were little surprised when in walked one of the owners - a real Italian guy named Roberto! He was dressed to the nines as Italian guys do better than anyone and was very warm and cordial. We had a good time talking to him about Italy, Sevastopol and his shop in a mix of English & Russian.

This time around I tried a very legit cup of espresso along with my double scoop of gelato. It was great! This was the strongest brewed espresso I have ever had in Ukraine - it was as authentic as it is going to get this far from Italy. Best of all the prices are very reasonable. 6 Grivnas per scoop of gelato and 6 grivnas for a shot of espresso! We walked out the door having spent only 30Gr (just under $4!)

Find Buonissimo on a sloping street just off the bay where the fairy parks - in between the Sevastopol Hotel and McDonalds - Tell Roberto and Alexei that Andy the American says "Ciao!"

Bottom Line - Great authentic Italian gelato and coffee drinks for a bargain price!

Favorite Dish: gelato, I prefer a mix of coffee & straccitella flavors and a shot of espresso :-)

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Balaklava's boardwalk has a variety of restaurants, most looking like they catered to tourists. We stopped at many of them to see what kind of food they served, some of the menus were heavy on fish, some didn't have English menus or staff that spoke English so we moved along to the next one.

We stopped at the same restaurant twice as they were able to dig up an English menu, once for pizza at lunch and again for dinner. I didn't catch the name of the restaurant and they didn't give me a receipt I could keep but the sign had the word Pizza on it and a picture of a pizza.

Favorite Dish: The pizza was OK, I had salami and olives (35 uah) and David had bacon, corn, tomato and onion (35 uah), total with included service and 1 drink each was 108 uah.

Dinner was a different story, the waitress forgot to bring our appetizer, the pork was tough, the chicken cordon bleu didn't have cheese or ham and the french fries were greasy. She also overcharged us but her English was very limited and it wasn't enough to worry about.

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Both Lonely Planet and Bradt listed Traktir as a good place to stop. To stay with the nautical theme of the city, the wait staff is dressed in spiffy sailor outfits. Since it was a nice day, we ate outside on the patio on the big wooden picnic tables.

Favorite Dish: They were able to locate an English menu for us, most of the dishes were Ukrainian specialties. I ordered pancakes with meat for an appetizer which they were out of, a chicken cutlet with sour cream which I think was actually gravy. David got the meat pelmeni, which are a smaller version of a pierogi and fried potatoes which at 1st they said they were out of but somehow managed to deliver some of them to the table. The meal with one drink each was 63UAH, the portions we had were on the small side but we saw some of the more expensive entrees and there was ample food on the plate.

We needed a break from the heavy, filling Ukrainian food that we had been eating and if you've looked at any of my other pages, you know that we love to eat pizza. Celentano is a chain of pizzerias throughout Ukraine, we saw branches of it in Kiev and the attached website shows the other cities they have restaurants in.

You order at the counter and they give you a number to place on your table so they can deliver your food. They have an English menu and will hand it to you if you start speaking in English. The pizzas came out really quick, the restaurant is clean and cheery, we liked it so much we went back the following night. You can easily walk to the branch at vul Bolshaya Morskaya 52 from the Panorama.

Favorite Dish: I ordered a cheese, salami, tomato pizza (27 uah) and David got one with cheese, salami, tomato and pepperoni (34.50 uah) which are actually peppers, not the meat pepperoni that Americans get on their pizzas, total bill with two soft drinks was 75.50 (currently around $10US). The pizzas are thin crust pizzas and while we saw people sharing this size pizza, we ordered one for each of us, I finished about 3/4 of mine and David finished all of his.

The 2nd time we visited, I also ordered a banana nutella crepe for dessert, I think that was around 7 uah, less than $1. The menu has plenty of other things besides pizza and pancakes, I think there were salads and soup and other dishes but we were here for the pizza.

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if you craving fresh fish while in Ukraine, Sevastopol is the place to have it (though locals prefer to go to Balaklava). but since we were a bit short of time, we chose to go to Barkas (launch), which is in the Art Bay. though I am trying to avoid restaurants in the tourist area (and the Art Bay definitely is one), the number of people in the restaurant (Feb. is off the season and restaurant was full) and smell of grilled fish did the trick, so we decided to give it a try.

the place it very nicely decorated (with fishing nets). the service is ok, though could be a bit slow if the restaurant is full. in the evening there is live band, which plays all kind of music, but mostly Russian songs.

Favorite Dish: I had an excellent fish version of "Caesar" salad (chicken is replaced by anchovies) and grilled squid, which I thought were pretty decent. A colleague of mine had a local fish called pelengas, which she liked. Since she wanted to try Ukrainian wine, we went for Inkerman’s Chardonnay (1999). it was ok as a table wine to go with fish, but I would not drink it without a meal – it would be just too dry (sour) for my taste.

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The Food, Service and Decor are the best.... Do I need to say anymore? A meal here will set you back around $20 - $40 and is worth every penny/cent...

Favorite Dish: I had the mutton ribs and they where to die for....

ONE WORD..PERFECT..PERFECT DECORATION,PERFECT SERVÝCE,PERFECT TASTE-PERFECT MUSIC..if oneday u go there its in the port next to bar callipso..the musicians especially play good..they played a turkish song and they made us say wow..meet temur one of staffs he knows english..one of the places u must try..

Favorite Dish: krivietki (shrimps) salad..perfect..