(Kiev, Ukraine)
Grant and I wanted to celebrate an event and the challenge in each new location we visit is finding a nice restaurant with decent food on the first try. This means we want to find the “right” place with a good atmosphere (and good food) without having tried the restaurant beforehand. And in far-flung places like Kiev, internet review sites may be sparse or unreliable.
So, Grant and I decided to take our chance on a restaurant called BEEF located across the street from the city’s main mall, Gulliver. Grant did the right thing in making a reservation first, or we would have been out of luck getting a table when we wanted.
BEEF advertises itself as an “American Steak” restaurant but to our relief, they also had locally sourced, grass-fed beef as well. I have been enjoying eating steak in Kiev as it’s so much cheaper than getting it in the rest of Europe. Sometimes the cost restriction of eating steak dinners in the other places we’ve visited made ordering this dish a special occasion. But in Kiev, especially at Ukrainian cuisine restaurants, you can order steak for inexpensive prices. So as I browsed through the menu at BEEF to decide on what to eat, I noticed that they offered locally grown filet mignon for 370 hryvnia (which comes out to about $13.70). They also offered beef flown in from America and these ranged in price from between the “classic marbled American beef” steaks at 1200 hryvnia ($46), which is comparatively sized to the Ukrainian filet mignon, to the “Kobe New York Strip” steak and “Kobe Rib-Eye” both going for 3850 hryvnia (about $142). Needless to say, I think the locally sourced beef is a much better deal and the “fresher” option. And it was very flavorful and tender.
Grant ordered the classic marbled BEEF burger (not sure where the meat was sourced from) and the potato wedges smothered in gravy. According to Grant, the proportion of meat, bun, and vegetables was perfect and the burger was “delicious!”.
I thought the interior architecture was a combination of modern restaurant design and a typical American steak restaurant design. Grant looked up the designer of the restaurant and found that he is an architecture professor from Colombia University. Grant’s professional opinion of the restaurant design was… “meh”. If you want to know more, just ask!
The meal was very nice, we had a couple of drinks, and we didn’t feel rushed at all and could relax and take it easy. We had a cozy spot by the window that was semi-enclosed and felt very private. We recommend this restaurant if you are in the mood for beef and/or just want to celebrate and have a nice dinner out.
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Grant, Care to elaborate on the “meh-ness” of the restaurant’s interiors?
Restaurant websites don’t typically announce their designer, but the BEEF website is pretty particular about discussing it’s overall mission, design, etc. The place was nice, but the design didn’t jump out to me as being that special.
There are places where you walk in and something in particular (or several things) catch your eye and you think “that’s pretty cool”.
With this place, I didn’t have that initial reaction and instead found myself thinking “oh, another supergraphic mural made of words” and “the cow-shaped back-lit cutouts in that metal planter box is too kitch for me”.
The food was excellent, the ambiance was comfortable, the company was amazing, but I would call the architecture standard.