Ukrainian restaurant Tatar Bunar launches next week in Shoreditch, showcasing home-style regional cooking from Bessarabia in the south of the country.
It takes its name from Tatarbunary, close to Romania on the Black Sea coast and the hometown of co-founder Alex Cooper, and has a menu inspired by his grandmother’s recipes for such classic comfort dishes as borscht and chicken Kyiv.
Co-founder Anna Andriienko has relocated to London to run Tatar Bunar with Kate Tkachuk in charge of the open kitchen while Alex remains in Ukraine, where his restaurants provided thousands of meals for soldiers in the early days of the Russian invasion.
The founders said: “We believe there is still work to be done in showing London how wonderful Ukraine food is, which is why we have decided to open Tatar Bunar. We can’t wait to show London what Ukraine cuisine has to offer.”
The restaurant has taken over the former site of Tapas Brindisa on Curtain Road, and features ceramics handmade by Svetlana Sholomitska during the blackouts in Kyiv. The interior is fitted out with reclaimed wood from the Carpathian mountains and stone from Bulgaria.
Tatar Bunar is scheduled to open next Thursday, 6 March.
