Josh Barrie on how Ukrainian chefs are using food to forge community, preserve heritage and find hope in a new home
Britain is a little more blue and yellow these days – London most of all. There are sunflowers on walls, trident emblems – tryzub – and bright purple bowls of borscht warming on stovetops. The influx of Ukrainian restaurants here is bittersweet, a silver lining. As war broke out in 2022, a light shone on a lesser-known European country. Food and drink is so often a lens through which to examine something bigger. In recent years, Ukrainian restaurants have been front and centre, becoming cultural markers, ways to better understand a country in peril and a means of connecting with – and supporting – those in need.
After World War II, new work permit schemes allowed Ukrainians to move to the UK, with many settling in east London and Essex and taking on roles in the greenhouses around the Lea Valley. Existing restaurants such as Dnister, in Leyton, which opened in 2005, and Albina, which launched in 2007, are gaining greater, well-deserved recognition. And there has been a new wave. First, it was the high-profile bistro Mriya, which opened in Earl’s Court in 2022, not long after the war with Russia broke out. At the helm is Olga Tsybytovska, who has used Mriya as a platform to better showcase her country’s food in the capital.
‘It looks like we are witnessing a new global trend evolve,’ she says. ‘Many of today’s popular cuisines were once little known – it seems the time has come for diners to discover something new.
‘The more Ukrainian restaurants there are, the more visibility our cuisine gets. That is our common goal: to make it popular all over the world, and London is a very favourable place to do that. I’m grateful that our heritage is being represented. There should be more and more new venues to show the whole beauty and diversity of our food. And you’ll never taste the same borscht twice.’
Another recent opening is Tatar Bunar, a project in Shoreditch from restaurateurs Alex Cooper and Anna Andriienko. On the menu are traditional dishes alongside modern iterations of old classics, from pork dumplings to stuffed cabbage; barbecued catfish to skewers of cod, rabbit and lamb. Over in Notting Hill, fellow Ukrainians Polina Sychova and chef Eugene Korolev launched Sino (pronounced ‘see-no’) in May. Their dishes include aubergine marinated with dill, fennel and garlic, Jerusalem artichokes with lovage, and a Ukrainian sausage, or kovbasa, spiced with paprika and served alongside dried, grated mussels and pepper sauce.
From terror, it is hoped, comes refuge, and each of these restaurants is a welcome sight in London. We all hope for peace. And our prediction is that these Ukrainian restaurants will continue to tempt our palates far beyond that longed-for day.
