Odessa Restaurants

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This pub located in the old historic street downtown is very popular among foreigners.
It has two floors (one half floor) and a large bar decorated with banknotes from the whole world glued to the ceiling. They bear autographs of the customers who presented the bartenders with those banknotes.
There is also a computer with Internet ($2 an hour) to the left of the entrance for you to work on the Internet, if need be.
This Irish bar is a unique establishment not only in Odessa, but also in the entire Ukraine.
They say the pub's chef was trained by the Irish chef Davids Lowror for two years. The chef makes miracles with the dishes. You can taste true Irish dishes here and imagine you are in Ireland for a while. It was very striking for me as a first-time customer.

Favorite Dish: Charles Grill Steak –
roast beef with garlic oil, mushrooms, Irish spices and vegetables.
Pork Ribs Barbeque – the ribs are pickled in barbeque sauce and are frilled medium. They say it is good with Guinness.
Buffalo Wings – chicken wings cooked in Irish style (pickled in sauce consisting of tomato pasta, honey, broth, leek, oil, vinegar, chili sauce and soya sauce. It is served with Buffalo company sauce (“Taco” sauce, “Chili”, “Tabasco”, soya sauce and ketchup).
They also serve different sorts of beer here: six sorts of beer, among them one Ukrainian :
Obolon Magnat and also: Guinness, Kilkenny, Paulaner Turbid, Heineken, Harp.
Tequila Sinrise is the company cocktail there.

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Traditional Czech cuisine plus some improvised dishes from Ukrainian and Russian cuisine. I was pleased to find that they make their own sausages, pickles and smoked fish. In my opinion the best beer in Odessa is brewed in Bohemskiy. There are 3 constant varieties of beer: lager, red beer and dark beer. One variety swings from firefighter ale to wheet beer. Live music on weekends, live football etc... Very beautiful design, Prague train station hall is the one that i remembered the most.

Favorite Dish: Vepřové koleno
(pork knee, cooked using an old czech recipe. Served whole. Weight of one portion 600-1000 g.)
Chech pork knuckle, it is so delicious, one cant resist finishing it all even though it is so hefty to tackle towards the end.

Kumanets attempts to re-create a traditional Ukrainian menu, such as would have been eaten by the native folk a century ago - this is the theme for the restaurant & the decor & dress of the waiters & waitresses, reflects this. Their traditional costume is one of the delights of the place, especially the chaplets the 'dyevooshkee' wear in their hair, causing some to compare the venue to a 'Ukrainian Disneyland'! I think is unfair, because the place is authentic enough, even if it is a romantic vision to assume that peasant folk ever eat this well or in such culinary conditions...

Favorite Dish: THE highlight of the menu for me are the flower infusion green & black teas served in a ceramic pot - food is fine & fair portions, a bit too salty for my taste, but so it is always in Ukraine...

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this is a very convenient spot to have a bite while heading to Langeron beach on Uspenskaya St. Located across the Polish Consulate, this place positions itself as a coffee house and claims to have the best coffee in time. can not confirm or deny it as I didn't have a coffee there. but can definitely attest that they have very decent wraps (sandwich in lavash) to kill your hunger for couple hours.

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a very cozy and stylish place in the very center of the city. variety of dishes in menu, with the strong accent on meat and wine. so it's totally crazy to have something else, like... just a salad :). BUT if you are in a hurry and/or looking for a quick lunch, or a vegetarian dragged to this place by hungry meat-eaters, go for the salad bar. you will not be disappointed. The salad bar has 5 different salads and fruits. A small plate will cost you 20 UAH ($4), the big – 28UAH ($5.5). as for steak, I will have to try it next time. My friends said it was absolutely delicious.

P.S. oh, completely forgot. don't leave the restaurant without checking the bathroom (even out of curiosity).

Favorite Dish: Finally, this September (2010), I had a pleasure of having the meat and wine expereince. I tried their Chicago steak with a bottle of Australian Syraz. after dinner we went for Aftersteak, a lemon sorbet based on Limonchello di Capri, and for hot dark chocolate souffle on caramel ice-cream. I have to confess this was one of the BEST dinner experiences I had in a long time.

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we both agreed that this was the best place for breakfast. delicious breakfast menu and surprising 20% off for those who come for breakfast from 9 to 11 am (Odesites must breakfast after 11 am), together with an excellent ambiance (British style ) and a cute waiter who said in Russian "Gortsitsy nema." our only advice goes to female waiters: please change or at least hide your disappointment with the fact that customers do come to breakfast early :) other than that, this is a definate "come back."

Favorite Dish: French toast with home-made sausage and pauched egg was really good and very generous. I combined it with another special, capuccino and croissant. two breakfast cost UAH 48 ($6)

besides that, the breakfast menu included ususal suspects including: crepes and pancakes, omlet and cappucino and croissant.

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this place has been recommended by a colleague, who visited it before. the place is very nice and pleasantly decorated (I have never been to Lebabon, so the interior reminded me of Turkey). It’s quite big - two levels inside and the terrace outside. we chose the inside.

Favorite Dish: were looking for "group" offer but didn't find it, so we have ordered 4 different starters (hummus, tabulli, labneh and something else which I don't remember). naturally, it came with pita bread. for the main dish we all got different kinds of kebabs. the food was very good and portions were pretty generous (according to Ukrainian standards :) the whole dinner (with beer) cost us around $15 per person.

P.S. the place has been closed and is currently occupied by Top Sandwich, which seems to be very popular chain in Odesa. (Sept. 2010)

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This artsy street cafe, decorated with hand-made fabric dolls and cats, cried to stop by, at least to admire the creativity and ambiance. the decor is well-thought to details. Besides the dolls and pieces of fabric, every table has a signature flower pot with green basil.

the place has a comprehensive lunch menu and a good dessert list. I opted for the latter. I had a fragrant fresh basil-leaves tea with a generous slice of the lemon cake. it was a good experience, though a lemon cake was a bit too lemony, but in the combination with the coconut-based crust it was good.