Cafe Kiev

This is NO LONGER the name or the management of this café. It is NOW called «Café Globalis». I could not find it here on Unilocal because I am guessing it just recently «reopened». Wish I took pictures of the place too but anyways…
Went to this café location Saturday, May 14 2016 in the mid-​late afternoon. Wasn’t all that surprised of the name change and management because I used to know the old, old owner Eugene, and he gave up on Café Kiev after 4 – 5 years being in business (since the Gravesend neighborhood is becoming increasingly Asian and other changes of the times). The former owner after him tried to keep Café Kiev going but only after a year or so I guess gave up too.
Still having being a frequent visitor of the area, I decided to give this now ‘new’ place with ‘new’ management a try. Sad to say it failed tremendously to impress me. Let’s start with the new name, «Café Globalis»…which would perhaps say to any customer there would be a variety of various café foods and drinks from around the world besides Russian or Ukrainian, right? WRONG… SO VERY VERY WRONG. It is still a Russian or Ukrainian owned business and from looking at the menu, not much is new from the old menu.
Anyways, I went inside and of course the décor remains mostly the same as well. But this place also seems to have a further identity crisis. A café usually doesn’t have fancy chandeliers and 3 waiters/​waitresses waiting to sit you down on a table and to take their order. They are dressed as fancy Manhattan servers, yet have no real clue what they are doing there or really how to satisfy a customer as I am about to further explain.
Since I was in a rush to get home after a bad event day in Manhattan & felt sleepy, I ordered a SMALL regular coffee to-​go. It’s like I had to repeat this order in 3 – 4 different ways throughout my whole 5 – 10 mins there while the waiter seemed clueless how to make coffee and the other 2 girls not knowing how to even use their digital cash register. I felt like leaving shortly after that happened but I had to use the restroom and figured perhaps they would figure it all out by the time I returned. I was severely mistaken, ugh. The guy confused kept asking me how many sugars and what kind of milk I wanted with my coffee and I told said, everything regular with the addition of 3 sugars. On top of that he pours in a bigger cup than what I asked for and I said, «No, I want a SMALL size cup of coffee». The girls proceeded to tell me that they don’t have a small cup and that I would be charged 3.50 plus tax. I said, «Are you serious? That’s how much it costs? Why didn’t you tell me before you didn’t have a small sized cup and, no I am not paying for something I didn’t ask for or that’s not even like a expresso». I looked at the menu to see how much a coffee costs and they only have one set price, which is 2.59 (which is still overpriced for a regular type of coffee) so they tried to charge me more and caught them on their deception. I was so ready to just walk out and the girls said, «No come back» and they gave me a receipt for 2.82 to pay for the coffee. I still wasn’t happy about this but told myself, «FINE».
The coffee didn’t taste like anything special for the regretful price I was forced to pay. It was terrible actually, and I didn’t finish it all since it was such a large serving that would have kept me up all night perhaps. It was a 16 oz cup. I remember Russian coffee being a bit better than how that was made. Couldn’t taste the 3 sugars I asked for even. Deli places make coffee MUCH BETTER than these people, at a much cheaper price.
Under the new management, Café Globalis needs to understand the neighbors around them, dumb down its expectations of being a fancy restaruant when it’s clearly not or never going to be like the place across the street, not advertise as something is not, should aim at better customer service and the overall quality of what is expected out of an actual café if it wants to be a café. Never going back again!

Café is out of business. The sign is off the exterior wall and place is being renovated.

Got excellent lunch yesterday. Simple food, but so tasty. Very comfortable price, and good selection of the dishes. Trying get there each time when staying at that area.

I went out here to experience some Ukrainian/​Russian food. It turns out that this place isn’t that bad. I ordered my favorite salad olivee along with other dishes such as an omlette and pelmeni which did reach my expectations. Although the portions can be bigger, the food is still made fresh and does make you full. This is a great place for family and friends as they do provide big tables for special occasions. You might want to check this place out if you are in the mood to experience some Russian/​Ukrainian food for the first time as this place will give you a good impression. The staff is pretty friendly and take care of the place pretty well.

I order online a lot from them for awhile now. I got to say that their food is amazingly delicious. Avocado salad, Ukrainian borscht, vareniki with meat… Ugh everything just remind me home

Love this place and my picky toddler loves their food. Best homemade soups and homemade fruit punches in Brooklyn. Fast delivery, friendly workers, and nice calm atmosphere. Highly recommend!

Nice place. Good food. Small portions. We had Borscht, chicken and Beef Strogonoff. The coffee was as good as it gets and a very good apple pastry with ice cream. The waitress was terrific and owner very personable. Both extremely polite.

Very poor service. We’ve ordered delivery for $ 70 and the whole order was messed up. it took more then an hr&a half to deliver it to us. They brought Olivier salad instead of Kiev, chersi drink instead of sprite (didn’t bother to call us and aware they are out of sprite). And so you know pincher of compote is a 4 regular ones which is become $ 3 more then to order 4 compotes as it self.
We called to the store to ask to fix the order. as an answer we didn’t get any other explanation then we happened to be a liars and they made everything right.
We are very very upset with such a poor service. we are a long time regular customers but the food become worse and prices went unreasonably higher.

Just try it! You will go once and you will back always. I’ve been there few times, and I can’t remember when something was not good. Everithing is VERY GOOD!

not sure about the review that says they dont speak english or russian. I have been there several times and the owner is a Russian man (as is his partner I believe). I had the pelmeni, borscht, and sauteed potatoes. It was so delicious, I think I practically rolled out of there bc i was so stuffed.
The décor is quite cute. Its not in your face, but you can enjoy it.
Cant wait to go back soon!

I used to be a regular customer at Café Kiev. Like I would come almost every time I could since it opened in ²⁰¹⁰⁄₂₀₁₁. I don’t live in the Gravesend area but when I do come and visit my aunt and cousins there, I always go there afterwards for take-​out.
I read some of the most recent reviews & I feel sorry for everyone that had a OK to a negative bad experience with the customer service & the food. I somewhat acrossed this as well. Most of Café Kiev customers are natives of Ukraine or Russia so perhaps they know what to come or expect when it comes to this cuisine & this joint. But used to appeal everyone I know who went there regularly too.
I recently had a somewhat bad experience taking out, after months of being sick, broke & not mobile. It saddens me that Café Kiev are under new management now. They did not really welcome me very friendly (excluding trying to conversate & the offering of Andres chocolates… My fave). They didn’t even know I was a regular. The new owner even questioned my decision to take out my food & coffee to go. Like as if I was insane. The original owner before perhaps had most of his family as his staff, and they were much friendlier I must add. Not to mention they all spoke decent English & they all knew who I was.
The owner now (for me as a Non-​Russo/​Non-​Ukrainian) doesn’t understand English well enough, got my coffee order wrong for an expresso (he probably charged me more for that too) & he didn’t hear me or understand I guess when I wanted everything take out (as I don’t live in the area & it’s a long journey home for me within Brooklyn). Perhaps the new owner doesn’t how to run a restaurant entirely. However, I must there is MORE VARIETY to the menu now, even in drink selections perhaps as well. He thought I hassled him about the coffee after he made it for me to stay when I told him it was OK after wanting it to go & that I would spend my time drinking it at the café.
But regardless, I ordered my usual (Greek Salad) to go. I dont know how it tastes yet but its sad to learn in that instance that the original owner is no longer there. But he did tell me he was moving to NJ so I knew the end was coming some time this year.
I am happy to see Café Kiev not closed down, because it was or still can be good, depending. If the new owner can make improvements on the menu & décor of the place, I hope he can learn how to be more welcoming to his customers, especially ones that don’t speak Russian or Ukrainian. I hope the salad they made for me now is still the same. I will be very disappointed if it isn’t, as I come to know it’s wonderful taste.

Passed by this place numerous times. Looks nice and cozy so decided to try it this past Saturday. I ordered the Golusby, which was not the best. Then I ordered the baked bassa filet with home fries. My food came out with lukewarm mashed potatoes and my fish was lukewarm also. It did not taste fully cooked so left half on the plate. Did not bother complaining because there was a large party and we were the only other table eating at the time. Wanted to leave asap. Very disappointed and needless to say will not be going back again. No wonder the restaurant is always empty when I pass by and that is quite often.

Russian restaurants in Brooklyn are usually pretentious over-​priced… NOT the case with this place.
It really tastes like my childhood (if not better) with all the dishes prepared with love and experience. There must be a mother back there somewhere whipping up old Russian classics like katleti, pelimeni, and olivie salad.
The service is also incredibly friendly, fast, and always very pleasant.
I usually order over the phone but the one time I did dine in, it was a great little café.
Highly recommend to everyone either looking to try russian food or those tired of the same old lazy and pretentious brooklyn russian eateries.

Nice place, food is delicious. Fast delivery. Always fresh and truly home made taste. My favorite is Ukrainian borsch, best in Brooklyn. Oh, I forgot to mention cappuccino!!! Mmmmmm!!! Yummyyyyy. When I wanna Russian food– Café Kiev is my choice :-)

I’m used to order from this place for a couple of years already and i really liked it. But now it is totally different, the staff is not friendly. I came in, said Hi, they just ignored me. They cut the portions like in half or even more. Before I always left some food on the plate, and now i have to order 2 portions. They are VERY greedy about sour cream, they put less than a teaspoon in a container, which was aways full before. and now, obviously it is not enough even if you get two of them. the same with bread. And I believe they change the cook, cause it is not delicious anymore. I am really upset, cause I loved this place, it s in my neighborhood and I love russian cuisine.

Today I ordered whole chicken with buckwheat and Greek salad it was delicious!!! I’ve been ordering here for over a year now an can’t complain. I’ve tried almost everything on the menu it’s all great food. An to finish it off you have to try their cappuccino the best that I’ve tried. I’d recommend this place to anyone.

Not my type of food. I ordered for blintzes with eggs, onion and mushrooms and another one with meat. I can admit that the food is homemade which is great, but I didn’t like what I chose to eat. The meat was so bland and tasteless and the blintzes with eggs, onion and mushrooms were okay if I’d had it for breakfast. The service was pleasant, not bad at all. Probably I should give it one more try to see if I like more specialties because it was my first time going there.

Just finished up my take-​home meal from here. My boyfriend swore he didn’t like Ukrainian food, so it took some convincing to get him to come here. He’s now comfortably resting on the couch with his full belly up, I guess he enjoyed that after all.
What we got: borsch, golubtsy, vareniki with meat, blintzes with potatoes and mushrooms, compote, and baklava. It all tasted good and home made with plenty of fat and butter.
My only wish is that they had vareniki with cherry.

If you are looking for home-​made Russian food and not looking to spend much and a cozy low profile place then Kiev is the spot to go. I am a loyal customer I come here often with my boyfriend and my family, we are hooked.
The staff are really friendly and helpful, the food is delicious and so fresh.
I recommend the Borscht it is so good and has large chunks of meat unlike some places. The portions are pretty big.
I also recommend the Kiev Salad and olivie.

At Café Kiev, courses are the most important part. Bring a bunch of friends, move the tables together, and order as much as possible. I was lucky enough to be dining with one Ukrainian for this meal and a few other friends, so we let him do the ordering and settled in for a good night. Three hours later we were practically needing to roll ourselves down Kings Highway when we left.
The small dining room just off the main road is trying hard to be trendy and sleek, but fails just enough (in a very awkwardly good way) to make you feel comfortable for your home-​cooking. The odd color scheme, glass chandeliers, maps of Kiev and Ukraine, and various random art, as well as tables of Russian and Ukrainian-​speaking groups make this a legitimate excursion spot even before you look at the menu.
The order seemed a tad strange, but I present the meal as it was presented to us.
COURSE #1:
Solenya ($ 3.95) and bugenina ($ 5.95). The solenya is a grouping of cabbage and onions and pickles, really just a way to get your mouth warmed up.
The bugenina was listed on the specials board, so I was a bit surprised to see it come out on the first round. It is a cold dish though, and is served with some very special «Russian wasabe,» a beet and horseradish mixture that really added a nice pop to the slices of pork.
#2:
As we were finishing up the first dishes, two more arrived in the form of the fresh cabbage and cucumber salad ($ 3.50) and the salad olivie ($ 3.95). The former looked amazing but had a bit less taste than expected. Never fear, a dash of salt and pepper and a squeeze of the lemon was zest enough. I think it could have stood a more liberal sprinkling of dill as well.
The olivie was a very familiar taste, like a potato salad and egg salad in one. It was thoroughly laced with mayonaise, but not overwhelmingly rich somehow. The Ukrainian amongst us commented that it was like eating another family’s olivie, simply saying it was not like mom’s. We all sort of tasted it and probably were a little afraid to admit our pleasure seeing as how «low class» we might have felt, but the dish disappeared quite rapidly nonetheless.
#3:
The third round was devoted to soups, and we sampled three. The first to arrive was the kharcho ($ 3.95), which I overheard described simply with «It needs more crap in it.» Dark red broths usually lead to amazing results, so I think all of our expectations were built up very high. The soup is good, but definitely the weakest of the three given how good it can be.
A definite winner was the frikadelki ($ 3.95), a chicken meatball soup with an excellent thin broth. The firm meatballs were good for cutting up and sharing, eating alone, or with the broth. If it were my bowl, I would have even gone so far as to place a big dollop of sour cream inside of it.
Luckily, I was able to do just this with the third soup we sampled, borshch ($ 3.50). This was my hands-​down favorite of the round, and had me smiling from its not too beet-​y but just beet-​y enough deliciousness. This general good mood lasted for a nice digestive intermission before the next foods started arriving.
#4:
Things started getting real serious the moment our two plates of vareniki ($ 5.95 w/​meat, $ 5.50 w/​potatoes and mushrooms) arrived. These little guys were the real deal, nothing like you will find frozen and thawed in hipster Eastern European restaurants in Cobble Hill.
Although the cabbage was a bit soggy (an unfortunate consequence of not making them right when ordered), the golubtsy ($ 5.95) were otherwise spot on, bursting with flavor unlike any other restaurant-​bought version. These stuffed cabbage rolls were very good.
Our final entrée was the meat cutlets ($ 6.95), two beef-​veal-​chicken patties served with buckwheat. This is not actually an accompaniment option, but we had an insider who asked for it instead of the available home fries, mashed potatoes, or rice. This made for a far more interesting dish.
#5:
With no room in our stomachs left, the table made the bold decision to order more. Out came an odd rendition of baklava and a nice pancake dish served with strawberries and bananas (below). The edges of the pancakes were nicely crispy, something I had never seen before.
Even if you do not order dessert, go ahead with a pot of tea, which is served like you see it below, with sugar, lemons, and a bowl of sour cherries. These cherries are good for eating alone or with the pancakes, but also are traditionally dropped into the tea themselves. The syrup of them sweeten the tea enough so you don’t need the sugar cubes, which are not supposed to go into the tea, but rather held between the teeth as you drink so that the tea passes through it.
The whole ensemble and process of this tea time was very rewarding and felt good. We ended up prolonging our stay by at least 30 minutes because of it. As we poured second and third glasses, we were told stories of the golden gate of Kiev and the horse chestnut, the city’s official flower.