Don’t be fooled by the bare wide parking lot as you approach Spasska pier, to which Khutorok is moored. (You can also arrive on foot, walking along the Dnipro from Poshtova Ploscha metro station, as we did, or along Skovorody street from Kontraktova Ploscha.) As soon as you descend toward the restaurant, you enter another world. A boat hung with lights and potted flowers bobs gently on the river, while open-air terraces reveal diners enjoying the surrounding views. A welcoming path leads guests across a little bridge and into the main dining rooms.

If you want to eat outside, catching a summer river breeze, make sure you call ahead to reserve a table. Since we had not, the Friday night crowd relegated us to an indoor non-smoking room. But we were promptly shown to one of the warmest and coziest (but don’t worry, fully air-conditioned) tables east of my family’s village farmhouse in the foothills of the Carpathians.

Khutorok’s log-cabin walls are hung with earth-toned rugs. The interior is packed with eye-catching relics of traditional Ukrainian village life, from embroidered natural linen tablecloths to ceramic plates on the walls to embossed copper plating glinting from the windowsill, revealed by parted curtains tied back with perky green ribbons. The space came alive when shortly after we sat down a quartet of folk musicians decked out in embroidered finery sauntered up to our table. The two singers accompanied by fiddle and accordion chirped a medley of traditional tunes, circling the room and transporting us to an era that only exists in grandmothers’ stories told around a warm kitchen table after a hearty Ukrainian meal.

Distracted by our storybook atmosphere, we nearly forgot about the hefty menus our waitress had placed before us. True to Khutorok style, they were also full of things to look at, beginning with a sizable array of traditional Ukrainian dishes – borscht, pelmeny, varenyky, potato pancakes, shashlik, pancakes with caviar… The menu is interspersed with pages of turn-of-the-century advertisements and photos of old Kyiv, as if pulled from a pre-revolution newspaper. Our attentive waitress had to be shooed away a few times as we carefully made our selection.

The wine – a dry red Mukuzani (Hr 36) for me and Inkerman Cabaret (Hr 20) for my guest – was served promptly, and generously full! Little did we know, our waitress had decided without consulting us that we each wanted a double portion (200g), with the requisite double price which we only discovered after the bill had arrived. A basket of bread shortly followed the wine. Its assortment of white, dark, and grain looked promising, but a bite revealed that it had been sitting sliced and covered under a light napkin for an indeterminable period of time before reaching our table.

The dishes arrived in order of preparation, so the first was a side order of cauliflower in cheese sauce (Hr 28). A nice start to a summer meal: the vegetable was soft and juicy under a tangy melted cheese, which complimented its creaminess. Next a plateful of grilled vegetables (Hr 29). There were sliced zuchini, tomatoes, yellow pepper, carrots, and eggplant. A light smoked flavor was the only distinguishing feature to the hot juicy veggies (except for the tough eggplant, which could have used a few more minutes on the grill); I had hoped for a bit more salt and spices.

Waiting for the tempting veal shaslik we had chosen from a plentiful list of grilled items, our gaze was drawn to what looked like half a village house – white stucco walls, thatched grass roof and all – standing in the further half of our dining room. Its real glass windows are backlit for a warm glow. Directly across from it is a traditional clay-tiled stove like those used, even today, in some Ukrainian homes for winter heat. Enjoy the outdoor summer terrace, it whispered, but come back in winter! Eavesdropping on the various parties around us, trying to place accents, we realized that Khutorok is a favorite among the international crowd.

Then the long awaited veal shashlik (Hr 76.50) arrived, and everything else was forgotten. A full plate of tender chunks of meat, lounging in their juices, garnished with lemon, and served with a spicy tomato sauce. The meat was perfectly seasoned and grilled to a crisply charred outside while the inside remained soft and juicy; the hot sauce offered just enough flavor to nudge the excellent meat to superb.

After this high point, we hardly had room for any more, but our hungry eyes had been big, so stomachs were destined to follow. The last dish, a side of fried potatoes with onion and bacon (Hr 18.90), was simply that. In spite of the long wait, the sliced taters were undercooked. “Home style,” said my guest, making an excuse for the greasiness and lack of additional spices, but “cafeteria-style” may have been closer to the truth.

The dessert menu is laden with classics like honey cake and apple charlotte, but after our satiating meal, we passed up the tempting array, deciding instead to feast our eyes on the surrounding decor, which over a few hours had grown no less delightful. Over espresso with milk (Hr 14.40) and green tea (Hr 17), we continued to discover exquisite little details, like authentic metal farming tools hung from the ceiling and an old-fashioned record player in the corner.

An evening on this enchanted boat, lightly rocking on the mother of Ukrainian rivers, surrounded by authentic artifacts and swirling folk music, while filling your belly with solid, side-splitting fare allows initiates to sample the many flavors of Ukrainian folk culture in the space of a single meal.

KHUTOROK

Naberezhno-Khreshchatytska, Spasskiy prychal # 1, 463-7019

Open daily from noon till midnight

English menu: Yes

English-speaking staff: Noby Larissa Babij, Editor