Discover the best Ukrainian restaurants worldwide: Top 7 picks

When you're far away from your home country and feeling homesick but can't go back, where would you go? You'd probably go to a restaurant serving your national cuisine. You'd go there for childhood nostalgia and all the dishes your grandma once cooked for you that you've been missing — to feel like you're back.

For decades, many migrants from Ukraine have felt the same longing for home, so they have opened Ukrainian cuisine cafés and restaurants to create little corners for themselves and their fellow Ukrainians. 

Since Russia unleashed its full-scale war against Ukraine in 2022, even more Ukrainians, torn from their homes by the invasion, have been in the same nostalgic place. They could find refuge and community in Ukrainian restaurants abroad and, with time, even open their own venues — pieces of their home.

If you want to discover traditional Ukrainian food and support Ukrainian businesses, which often employ refugees from Ukraine, explore our list of the top 7 Ukrainian restaurants worldwide. Your city may have one as well.

1. Veselka (New York, US)

Veselka, one of the most legendary Ukrainian restaurants in the world, was founded in 1954 by Volodymyr and Olha Darmochwal, a couple of Ukrainian war refugees. The restaurant, which was even featured in popular movies and whose story was made into a documentary, grew from a newsstand and a candy shop in the lovely Little Ukraine neighborhood in East Village, NYC, to a center of traditional Ukrainian food and a welcoming space for the Ukrainian immigrant community.

Veselka offers all the staples of "Ukrainian soul food" — borscht, varenyky (Ukrainian dumplings), deruny (Ukrainian hashbrowns), and more — and special Stand With Ukraine Bowls, proceeds from which are donated to Ukrainian relief efforts.

The family-run restaurant has three locations: Veselka (the oldest), Veselka Grand Central Terminal, and Veselka Williamsburg.

2. Mriya Neo Bistro (London, UK)

Mriya Neo Bistro is another big-city restaurant on our list that serves Ukrainian cuisine. Opened in London in 2022 by Ukrainian chef Yurii Kovryzhenko, the restaurant is both a social project meant to hire Ukrainian refugees who fled the war to the UK and a "gastronomic embassy of Ukraine" to promote Ukrainian cuisine internationally. 

Londoners and world travelers can discover traditional Ukrainian food, like borscht, Chicken Kyiv, and fermented vegetables, at Mriya, recently named one of the best restaurants in London. Because the venue positions itself as a neo-bistro, it offers a fresh contemporary spin on authentic Ukrainian cuisine with unique dishes created by Kovryzhenko.

You can find Mriya Neo Bistro in London at 275 Old Brompton Rd.

3. Smachnogo (Tokyo, Japan)

Ukrainian cuisine restaurant Smarchnogo also opened its doors in Tokyo as a social project. After Russia started its full-scale war, the restaurant's owner, Takana Ezoe — a Japanese artist and actress — wanted to help Ukrainian refugees, so she decided that the best way to help them would be to give them jobs. Before the war, she knew very little about Ukrainian cuisine, but she consulted with Ukrainian chefs, hired an entirely Ukrainian team, and opened the restaurant in September 2022.

The restaurant's menu offers a fusion of Ukrainian and Japanese cuisines — traditional Ukrainian food, like varenyky, holubtsi (cabbage rolls), Chicken Kyiv, and borscht, but adapted to Japanese tastes. 

You can visit Smarnogo in the Japanese capital's neighborhood of Minato at ACN Toranomon Building 2F, 1-19-8 Nishi-Shinbashi.

4. Pan Varenik (Tbilisi, Georgia)

Pan Varenik, a Ukrainian cuisine restaurant in Tbilisi, was opened by Natalia Tsutskiridze and her Georgian husband in early 2022 after they decided to relocate from Kyiv out of fear of the war starting. The family opened Pan Varenik to share Ukrainian cuisine with Georgians, who warmly welcomed many Ukrainian refugees when the invasion began. 

The restaurant started offering varenyky, borscht, and other traditional Ukrainian food and found great success among Ukrainian and Georgian customers, who began embracing Ukrainian flavors.

Visit Pan Varenik and try authentic Ukrainian dishes at 2 Alexander Kazbegi Ave, Tbilisi, Georgia. 

Also, read our article featuring Pan Varenik about Ukrainian women building bridges of friendship between Georgia and Ukraine.

5. Casa Uсraniana (Valencia, Spain)

Two Ukrainian women, Svitlana and Iryna, originally from Bucha near Kyiv, opened Casa Ucraniana, a traditional Ukrainian food restaurant, in early 2023 in Valencia, Spain. They decided to establish a venue to serve the local Ukrainian community and offer jobs to newly arrived refugees.

The first Ukrainian restaurant in the center of Valencia offers a welcoming space with traditional Ukrainian cuisine, including dishes like meat and mushroom pot roast, varenyky, borscht, deruny with sour cream, and liqueurs imported from Ukraine. About 60% of customers are Ukrainians, while 40% are Spanish visitors curious about Ukrainian food and culture. 

Find Casa Ucraniana at 5 Padilla Street in the Valencian city hall neighborhood.

6. Oranta (Paris, France)

Founded in 2021, Oranta was the first solely Ukrainian restaurant in Paris, France, where you could try traditional Ukrainian food. Restaurant founder Alice Wolf, who moved to France from the Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk at age 10, opened Oranta to promote Ukrainian cuisine among the French, who didn't know much about Ukraine at that time, and to show that Ukraine's culture is distinct and differs from that of Russia. 

The Ukrainian restaurant near the Louvre serves traditional dishes like borscht, five types of varenyky, roasted ribs, banosh (polenta with cheese), deruny, and more. Visit Oranta at 1 Rue de Marivaux, Paris, France.

7. Krym (Warsaw, Poland)

Poland has a huge Ukrainian community, so it has many Ukrainian restaurants to offer. You may encounter one in each Polish city, like Kraków, Warsaw, Wrocław, and others. However, we want to highlight one even more unique than a traditional Ukrainian food restaurant: Krym, a Crimean Tatar cuisine restaurant in Warsaw.

Crimean Tatars, Ukraine's indigenous people, lost their home region of Crimea to Russian occupation. They have a rich and delicious cuisine, which you can try outside Ukraine, particularly in Krym. It made headlines in 2023 when it opened because of its location near the Russian embassy in the Polish capital. Elmira and Ernest, a Crimean Tatar couple who founded the restaurant, said opening Krym in front of the Russian embassy and cultural center was a sign of their protest against the aggressor. 

You can support them by visiting Krym and trying the traditional dishes of Crimean Tatar cuisine, like chiberek and yantyk (types of turnovers), bercimek şorba (red lentil soup), sarma (grape leaf rolls), nohutli ash (chickpeas and beef stew), and more.

Find the Crimean Tatar restaurant Krym in Warsaw at 44 Belwederska Street.