Although we think chains are boring and soulless, some of them are not. If you have only time for Kyiv in Ukraine, you should drop by Lvivski Plyatski in any of 4 Kyiv locations, but my favourite is the one shown here. 

The name is translated as “strudels from Lviv”, and so it is. The front floor-to-ceiling window of every place is the cook’s working area where he rolls the dough and plays with it, puts the filling inside, sends strudels into the oven. The dough is paper thin, fillings are juicy and different: salmon-spinach, seasonal 4 cheeses and pumpkin, cherry, poppy-seeds and walnuts, apple and dried fruits.

Apart from the strudels, there is a variety of what we call “syrnik”: sweet cottage cheese pies. Plain with raisins, poppy-seed, chocolate syrnik, or one with chocolate dough. Great idea for breakfast. Lviv coffee is also here, together with some cakes.

You can buy nice books, coffee, or biscuits as souvenirs for friends.