Old Lviv

Gets kind of a bad rep in the Ukrainian circles but I don’t know why. Perhaps because it’s not very fancy? I guess that’s my type of place.
You walk in there and you’re transported into old Ukraine like coming home to your Ukrainian grandma for a nice warm meal.
It’s simple: yummy home cooked meals in a buffet style and a daily selection of fresh soups. Some of the best Borscht you will find in Chicago!
This place is small, cozy and welcoming. Food is always on point and you can find something for everyone, even the pickiest of eaters or those who are trying Ukrainian cuisine for the first time.

DO NOT COME HERE UNLESS YOU CAN CONFIRM THAT THEY ARE OPEN.
I’ve been trying to come here two times. The first time it was Saturday when I arrive they have a sign that they were closed for that weekend.
Second time, it’s also 11.41am on Saturday. The sign said they were closed until yesterday. But it was still closed when I arrive.

I love this place. Seat yourself and a server will take your beverage order and ask what kind of soup you’d like. They’re all great, but the borscht is my favorite. Server will bring you the soup and then you are free to explore the buffet. Come hungry, you will leave very satisfied.

Something has changed. My spouse works nearby, and is Russian, so we were regulars for years, but in the last year we have noticed a dramatic change in the quality and selection of the food, as well as the general service in the restaurant.
They now run out of food and sometimes close 2 hours early or have very little on the buffet.
Just last week they only had 5 cutleta available 3 hours before close and they were half the size as they used to be. Very little meat is included on the buffet selection now… and they raised their prices. We would be happy to pay more for the Old Lviv from before… But whoever has taken over running this place has not made it worth it… even if they lower their prices.
It makes us sad.

Small little quaint place. Very cosy and home like. Makes me almost feel like I’m back in Europe. The food was pretty good. Nice hot buffet to wrap up a windy day out.

Their posted hours say they open at 11am. I came here for lunch at 11:45am and they were closed. I called and someone inside said they open in 20 minutes. 12:20pm rolls by and they’re still closed. Nobody picked up when I called. What a great waste of time and embarrassment to the friends I brought here! Well, they just lost my business for life!

One of the only places in the city to get Ukrainian food. Nice selection of food at the buffet at a VERY reasonable price. All the stuff is prepared fresh (by a Ukrainian grandma) and tastes great.
Me and my friends, who are born and raised in Ukraine, all think this is as close to home cooked meals as it gets.

I expected more. Waited for borsch more than 15 – 20 minutes. It came very-​very hot. Would not recommend to friend.

Most of the buffet was good, but the chicken melted in my mouth and the stewed cabbage was outta this world. Another big plus: no music!

This was a good experience. We enjoyed dinner here, and staff was so kind and respectful. Me and my wife decided to go here to take some great food, and we got what we expected. Really great quality food, and great service!

Samuel C’s Culinary Law # 346
Eastern European Food + a Grandmother cooking it = A Magnificent Meal.
I saw the cook. She is a genuine bona fide Ukrainian grandmother.
And the food proved Law #346 overwhelmingly.
This place is a buffet.
In most places, buffet equals old stale food.
Ukrainian food is the most perfect buffet food in the world.
Most things are braised or slow cooked —
and most things have a bunch of ingredients and flavors that need to blend.
These are dishes that are «best the next day» —
and Old Lviv lets the flavors mellow the way they really need to be mellowed.
This is Eastern European cooking the way it is supposed to be and
the results are spectacular.
Tremendous kraut. (Here served with no vinegar, no tartness, and no caraway seeds. Pure mellow meat stock goodness.)
Utterly addictive varenyky (Here served long and narrow almost like a mexican flauta — and with fillings to die for. There were multiple flavors on the buffet.)
I am of Jewish extraction and have been served more wretched stuffed cabbage than any human being should have to face.
Old Lviv’s holubtsi (stuffed cabbage) is the patron saint of all stuffed cabbage. There was so much flavor in the cabbage wrapping, I had to convince myself that this wasn’t chicken skin from a really fine home roasted chicken instead of cabbage.
And the sour cream gravy was a reminder that everything in the world is better with sour cream on it — and that sour cream and savory ingredients make the best sauces in the world.
A fine principle in a world where we are all teriyaki-​ed to death.
Mashed potatoes were utterly magnificent. (I think these had eight sticks of butter in them per serving — which of course only made the sour cream sauce taste better.)
An odd touch was Old Lviv’s take on borscht. I am used to cabbage borscht or beet borscht.
And if it is beet borscht, you either make it vegetarian and then pour on the lemon juice or vinegar, or you take the meat option and make it rich with a full bodied beef stock.
This was beet-​AND-​cabbage borscht, instead of just beet or just cabbage.
Plus it was made with a chicken stock and kept on the light side.
What is chicken stock doing in borscht?
My inner 1960s robot was saying «This does not compute. This does not compute.»
But obviously this take on borscht was principled and deliberate.
And in a touch of elegance the cook covered PRECISELY half the soup in a semi-​circle of sour cream and half in a semi-​circle that was au naturel, so you could experience the soup both ways.
So I agreed to listen to grandma here — and the soup had its charms.
I kill for their cabbage, I kill for their mashed potatoes and I kill for anything they make that stuffs something with something else.
(Stuffing something with something else represents the majority of what is on their menu.)
A first rate establishment.

So I might be pushing it by giving this place 5 stars. I have to admit the Ukrainian food tugs at my heartstrings. This is a tiny little buffet style restaurant in the heart of Chicago’s Ukrainian Village. This place feels very mom and pop-​ish. It’s a discreet little place with folksy art on the walls and a chalkboard menu. I’m not sure if anyone inside spoke English as it was so quiet. The locals that were eating there were speaking Ukrainian, so this place is legit. For around $ 12 it’s an all you can eat Ukrainian meal with soup of your choice and dessert. There is a small makeshift bar area with liquor and wine by the front register. Also if I was reading everything correctly it looks like the restaurant is cash only.
The hot food bar featured schnitzel with creamy mushroom gravy, pork in a tomato sauce with sautéed onions, cabbages rolls, cheese blintz, roasted chicken legs, cooked cabbage and some other items. The cold/​salad area had pickled cabbage with caraway seeds (this was not kraut), puréed beets with horseradish, creamy tomato and cucumber salad, an amazingly delicious potato salad with cubed ham and peas, chopped oranges and watermelon, and assorted cake slices.
Our server asked what type of soup we wanted so we tried the borscht. The soup came out of the kitchen very warm and served with a dollop of sour cream and freshly chopped dill. It was perfect! There was also a hearty half loaf of wheat bread and little butter packets for the meal. Everything here tasted great and so authentic, just like my babushka used to make. Loved dining here!

Good Unilocal find!
It is a good find when you can’t read the menu. You can’t really beat a buffet for $ 12. Blood sausage, stuffed cabbage, and Pelmeny are all on the menu.
Ukrainian beer is also available. Having a Ukrainian friend with us to point us in the right direction was definitely helpful.
Great place for cheap and good authentic good

I felt that I was having dinner in someones house in Ukraine! hehe. This place is small but very cozy and accommodating. The server was young gentleman, very courteous and polite. I love their pierogi and as they are homemade they’re so damn delicious. Yum.

An incredibly authentic and delicious experience at this cozy establishment. All family run: the kitchen is run by mother and a great aunt and the tables are served by the friendly son. Home cooking taken to another level, you will leave completely satisfied with a clean and traditional Ukrainian meal. Talk about simple food, ethnic food, and good food, and this place is on the top of the list. I’d frequent if I was from Chicago.

One thing is for sure, you are not going to walk into this restaurant and find a men’s a capella chorus standing in the aisle and singing Silent Night in Ukrainian in the middle of January while the kitchen staff stands around listening and all restaurant functions come to a halt. However that is exactly what happened to me. The voices were beautiful, the guys, all in their 20’s and fresh off the plane, were cute, and this is just one of those things that happen when you saunter about in a great city like Chicago.
They serve an outstanding Ukrainian borscht here, pre-​mixed with sour cream and full of tender sliced cabbage and chunks of potato. Fresh dill floats on top. The tasty rye bread that comes with it has a crispy crust and a soft interior.
I tried a Ukrainian wine and it was way too sweet, so i switched to a Pinot Noir that happened to be standing open on the bar. Great! The buffet can be hit or miss, depending on how recently they have replenished it, but in no case are the offerings extensive. It was pretty depleted by the time I got there – I think the men’s chorus cleaned them out – but I still managed to fill a plate with roast chicken, good mashed potatoes, and a variety of salads.
The waitress was really sweet and helped me identify the dishes – they are not labeled. Head here for a taste of the Old World in pretty authentic (minimal) surroundings.

A couple years ago, this used to be one of my favorite homestyle, grandma-​feeling places to go eat. It just made me feel like I was in an older Ukrainian couple’s home and they were feeding me with pride. The buffet concept is great, too, although I’m afraid it’s the reason the quality of the food has gone so downhill. This past time I went, some of the food was so dry or old that it was practically inedible. The buffet is already kind of pricey per person for what you get, especially considering the pierogi are extra. It still has the grandma’s home feeling, but now it feels more like grandma is on her deathbed trying to cook and run a business. I will say that I appreciated watching Wheel of Fortune while I waited for our check, although it appeared the owners were much more engulfed in figuring out the words than we were and we apparently had to wait until commercial to pay.

Very authentic Ukranian food, buffet-​style, serve yourself, casual, hidden gem!

Three ways in which Old Lviv is like a taste of the Motherland:
1. Administration: Run by an authoritarian commissar lady/​owner, and her subservient yet covertly resentful lieutenant/​son, this buffet brings back the warm memories of the old mess hall. Want to serve your own soup? Good luck fighting a rampaging grandma wielding a giant serving spoon. You do not serve your own soup, you respectfully wait for the soup to be served to you. Why? Who said you could question the wisdom of administration. (I suspect the real reason is that their soups are made in part with pure Siberian snow macaque tears. Why do they cry? Because you are a capitalist pig.)
2. Clientele: Slavs, Slavs everywhere. Dour Slavs, sour Slavs, grumpy Slavs, most people here are Slavs of some kind. They don’t look too happy to see you, the food, the owner, or each other. This also applies to you: no need for affectations of chipperness or enthusiasm. Enjoy your soup and your vareniki; Grandma loves you too, she would just never admit it.
3. Booze: They got it. Like any self-​respecting Slav would frequent an establishment that does not serve alcohol. They manage to smuggle in some pretty good stuff through the front gate: Georgian wine and domestic (as long as Motherland is your Rodina) beers.
All in all, I would choose Old Lviv to spend my exile in as a dissident lolcat, at ~$ 11 cash for a buffet style meal that comes with a plate of soup, even a prole can afford it, and nothing beats a gut busting lunch or dinner made with grudging love by a furious Slavic pensionère.

The perfect little lunch place for a winter that sucks as much snow balls as this one does. It’s small, warm, and cozy with hot soups and a Ukrainian buffet for only 10 bucks.
The spread is stocked with beets, bourscht, babushka, and a bunch of other stuff signature to the Eastern European country. Just listen to the ladies who run the joint and the language on the TV and you’ll realize how authentic you’re eating.
Only problem is it’s kind of tough to communicate so just walking in and you’re a little confused how to go about ordering. It’s only a buffet and they do pierogi for an extra charge, but you kinda have to just figure that out for yourself.
Either way for this cheap of a price on pretty darn good unlimited food it’s well worth the confusion.