Hanna Kachura, a Ukrainian refugee, has been in Melbourne for several years now, but she hasn’t found her home country’s cuisine on any menu across the city – so she decided to open a restaurant of her own. It’s called Otakoi, and it’s coming to the Windsor end of Chapel Street late this month.
The concept, a team effort between Kachura and her husband Michael O’Hanlon, a trained chef, is exactly that. Kachura knows the hearty, warm and welcoming flavours of Ukrainian dishes intimately and O’Hanlon brings them to life in the kitchen, and then into the hands of hungry diners.
Holbutsy, or cabbage rolls stuffed with cured meats and liver-filled Ukrainian dumplings have both made a well-received appearance on the menu, but it’s their beetroot-rich borshch that’s already proving a Chapel Street sensation and selling out each day.
“I’m very proud. I made this crazy step and it’s so rewarding to see that a lot of people were waiting for Ukrainian food,” says Kachura.
The couple are only serving takeaway at the moment and so the menu is a paired back one that travels well, but the offering is set to expand as the restaurant opens its doors as a dine-in destination soon. They’ll be calling on more regional delights such as banush, a cornmeal porridge common in the Carpathian mountains, which comes loaded with feta, porcini and pork fat, and a central Ukraine crêpe dish which is packed with sweet cheese.
“We’ll also have deruny. No one in restaurants here do these potato pancakes. It’s very thin and crispy and and with mushroom sauce,” says Kachura. “We’ll be serving black verenyky with salmon and covered in salmon roe. When I went back to Ukraine, I went to local restaurants to see what they’re cooking and this what they’re doing nowadays. It’s new Ukrainian. Modern Ukrainian.”
And deruny isn’t the only thing unique to Melbourne’s loud and proud Ukrainian restaurant. Uzvar, a non-alcoholic drink made from boiling dried and smoked fruit, scores a spot on the drinks shelf alongside stiffer Ukrainian-style beverages including nalivka – which the team are in talks to produce this fruity liqueur in collaboration with Ukrainian-owned distillers, Recollection Spirits, on the Mornington Peninsula.
From the fit-out to employing fellow Ukrainians on the floor, Kachura’s restaurant is an unmistakable celebration of Ukrainian culture, and you’re invited to experience it – borshch and all – when Otakoi opens on Friday 25 July.
Otakoi, 34 Chapel St, Windsor, otakoi.com.au, @otakoi_ukrainian_restaurant