A restaurant that aims to raise the profile of Ukrainian gastronomy is to launch in Notting Hill next week. The first UK project from entrepreneur Polina Sychova, Sino will showcase the cooking of chef Eugene Korolev, the president of Ukraine’s Bocuse D’Or team.
The restaurant takes its name from the Ukrainian word for hay (pronounced ‘seeno’), which has enormous cultural significance in a country with vast swathes of steppe or grassland. Hay is referenced in the restaurant’s menu and in its interior decoration overseen by Polina, who has a background in design and branding.
Eugene interrupted his career as a chef to spend 18 months in the Ukrainian special forces from February 2022, serving on the front line following the Russian invasion. He has brought his core kitchen brigade with him from his restaurant in Dnipro, now closed.
Polina says: “Our mission is to celebrate Ukrainian culture and gastronomy and to help to raise its profile in the west. Ukraine has a rich culinary history, yet its food is sorely underrepresented in the UK.
“We’re combining traditional Ukrainian ingredients and dishes with western techniques, to create something elevated that we hope will feel authentic, innovative and familiar at the same time.”
Main courses will include cherry-glazed barbecued catfish with fried parsley root and samphire, and kovbasa paprika-spiced sausage served with grated dried mussels and bell pepper sauce. The wine list includes bottles from the family-run Beykush Winery on the Black Sea shore, while cocktails have been created by Ukrainian mixologist Ana Reznik.
Sino has taken over the former site of 7 Saints in All Saints Road. It is the second ambitious Ukrainian restaurant to open in London this year, following Tatar Bunar in Shoreditch.