Taste of Ukraine has been on my radar for ages but I’ve never been able to make it out there because they’re one of those restaurants strictly open for dinner. Boo to that. Well, my pal from Vancouver was in town visiting and we were trying to pick a spot that neither of us have been to. A surprisingly hard feat. Well, we ended up settling on Taste of Ukraine, which is one of the few places in town that specializes in Ukrainian food. The only other Ukrainian place that I know of is Uncle Ed’s.
The interior is quite spacious with lots of seating and there are several murals/paintings lining both sides of the walls. We came on a Thursday evening and picked a seat way in the back, which was nice but the lighting sucked and the staff kept on coming to the back and opening random doors near us. Whatever, not a big a deal. Our waitress was very friendly and checked on us several times. I like how they wear the traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirts (known as vyshyvanka). Nice subtle touch.
The menu is quite expansive and has several options to choose from. Our waitress gave us lots of time to look at the menu but she didn’t really give any recommendations. A little insight would have been useful. If you can’t decide, you can ball out and go with the four course meal, aptly called the Ultimate Cossack Feast ($32.95/person).
Chicken kyiv ($23.95)
Delicate chicken breast coated in bread crumbs and deep fried to seal in the seasoned herb butter inside. This is their signature dish and the chicken kyiv is topped with a creamy mushroom sauce. It was freakin’ delicious – the kyiv was moist and tasty. You also get to choose two side dishes – we went with sauerkraut pyrohy and nalysnyky (cheese crepes with dill cream). Never had the cheese crepes before but they were excellent. I’d get them again. The sauerkraut pyrohy were also great. You could tell they were homemade and had a nice amount of sauteed onion, green onion and bacon sprinkled on top.
Remember how I said the lightning sucked? I guess it was pretty dark because my friend had to take her phone out to see what she was eating. That or she’s just blind as a bat. Possibly both haha.
Shashlyk ($18.95)
Your choice of skewered pork or chicken breast that is seasoned and marinated in Taste of Ukraine’s special secret ingredients and then slowly char-broiled to perfection. We went with the skewered pork which was decent but I thought two skewers was somewhat stingy. I’m not sure what “secret” ingredients they use but nothing exciting or flavourful popped out at us. We picked potato with cottage cheese pyrohy and holubtsi (sour leaf cabbage rolls with no sauce) as our sides for this entrée. The cabbage rolls were great with the slightest hint of sourness to them. The cottage cheese pyrohy were good but I personally enjoyed the sauerkraut ones more.
Another good restaurant find in St. Albert! Just wish they were open for lunch so that I could eat there more often. Entrées are on the pricier side ($17.95 to $25.95) so consider going with a bigger group so that you can try more things. Overall, solid place to satisfy your Ukrainian hankerings.
Taste of Ukraine
http://www.tasteofukraine.com/
#40, 516 St. Albert Trail
St. Albert, AB
(780) 458-5444
CHERRY BOB-OMBS 