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Kiev is a great city to visit if you are travelling on a budget as there are so many fantastic places to eat and drink really cheaply! Here are some of our favourite restaurants and bars we visited on our recent trip to Kiev:
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Kyivska Perepichka
This fast food hole in the wall is a local institution and sells delicious fried hotdogs for only 18 UAH (0.50 Euros). This place has been around since the 1980s and is extremely popular (there is always a long line but it moves super quickly).
There is a menu on the wall which is only in Ukranian but we just asked for ‘two hotdogs’ and they understood!
Click here to read our ultimate guide to Kiev blog post!
Puzata Hata
A popular chain of self-service buffet restaurants that offers hearty local cuisine, as well as European dishes. Nothing is labelled in English so we just picked out a few dishes that looked good – one woman spoke a bit of English and helped us with our choices.
Our food came to 8 Euros and we had a large bowl of meat dumplings, 2 bowls of borscht soup, a pork/cheese dish and a smoked fish/potato dish.
Varenychna Katyusha
This 24 hour chain restaurant has a very 70s style decor and serves traditional Ukrainian/Russian dishes.
Prices here are a little higher than other places we ate at but they have an extensive menu with English translations, and it has pictures (bonus). Plus they have a huge dumpling selection which made us very happy!
We rocked up around 8pm on a Sunday and the restaurant was fairly busy, however there were only a few members of staff and they all looked pretty stressed.
We had to get out of our seats to wave a waiter down to take our order after waiting for 20 minutes, but the food came fairly quickly afterwards with no further issues – and was pretty yummy.
1 Euro Bars
After a day’s exploring, where better to unwind that at one of Kiev’s famed ‘Euro’ bars that adorn the busy Khreschatyk Street.
Popular with young locals and budget conscious backpackers like yours truly, these bars offer several items on the menu all starting from 1 Euro, including beers, wine and food (generally hotdogs).
We visited the following Euro bars, all within close proximity to each other:
Rozkovbas
Our first experience of a Kiev Euro bar, this offers hot-dogs and fries for ultra-cheap prices as well as a large beer for about £1.50 (1.60 Euros).
With a stupidly long queue out the door on the Saturday night when we first visited for some beers, we returned for a subdued Sunday afternoon session and sat outside in the sun, around one of their outdoor barrel tables munching and drinking for an hour or so.
Bilyy Nalyv
Or as we liked to call it, Hotdog Heaven! We aren’t sure what they put in those devilishly good 1 Euro hotdogs (possibly crack) but they tasted great alongside our 1 Euro ciders.
The décor of this place inside was also the best of the three Euro bars we visited (neon signage galore).
Mushlya
Famed for their seafood (mussels and oysters), this is the top spot for cheap alfresco dining. We had a big glass of house wine, oysters, a hamburger and portion of grilled squid (all delicious although the squid was a little underwhelming) for less than £5 / 5 Euros / $6 USD.
Be warned the outdoor dining area though can get very busy so make sure you pounce when you see a table – once ordered, head back in after about ten minutes to pick up your food.
The Drinkery
This bar offers pints of delicious dark beer in chilled surroundings for around £1.50 a pint (we spent waaaaay too long in there, after a long day of walking all over Kiev).
Click here to read our ultimate guide to Kiev blog post!
Other Europe posts
- Sofia on a shoestring, Bulgaria
- Riga travel guide, Latvia
- Eating on a budget in Riga, Latvia
- Berlin travel guide, Germany
- Madrid travel guide, Spain
- Top activities on a weekend break in Budapest, Hungary
- Vienna on a shoestring, Austria
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