饮品[edit]
Shed any stereotypes you have about poor quality alcohol in Ukraine. Particularly since the Revolution of Dignity in 2014, there has been an explosion of excellent craft beer, wine, and liquor to rival any in Europe. Downtown Kyiv is full of excellent brew pubs, wine bars, and cocktail spots where you can enjoy excellent drinks for far cheaper than elsewhere in Europe.
Notable craft beer brands include Varvar, Tsypa, Mova, Pravda, and Underwood.
A standard, mass-market pint should be less than 2 EUR (unless the place is particularly exclusive). A craft-y, expensive beer can run as high as 4 EUR.
Coffee houses[edit]
Capu-orange drink in Kyiv.
If you are not keen about alcohol, try one of the abundant coffee houses. They are always neat places with similar menu featuring all imaginable versions of coffee, a good choice of tea, fancy milk shakes and smoothies, and a selection of cakes. Their main advantage is free Wi-Fi, while on the downside are the prices that are rather high on Kyiv standards. Coffee and piece of cake start from 20 грн each.
Kyiv is famous for it's coffee culture. Capu-orange drink, a mix of espresso and orange juice, is a local Ukrainian specialty, served in every coffee shop.
When you urgently need a shot of espresso, you can also try coffee sold on the street. Basically, every second kiosk will offer some kava (Ukrainian word for coffee), but its quality is at best iffy. A safe choice would be special cars equipped with coffee machines. These cars can be found in most public places and next to entrances to the metro stations. They offer decent take-away coffee for 8-10 грн.
If you prefer places that do not look the same in each town and are not owned by big companies, you should try the café "Living-Room" in the vul. Spas'ka, 6, near M2 "Kontraktova Ploscha". The small but cozy place is organized by some enthusiasts and musicians. Two pianos and some other instruments can be used by the staff or guests! While most cafés would close at 22:00 this one is open as long as the staff wants to work. Besides excellent coffee they offer a wide range of very tasty teas, original cakes (e.g. beetroot-chocolate cake!), Beer and so on (no vodka). The kitchen will help you out for the small hunger.
Bars[edit]
Like a Local's Wine Bar, 二十六街26号, ☏ +380 93 682 2626. 16:00-23:00. 该场所专门提供乌克兰葡萄酒和小吃（菜单上错误地称为“tapas”），还提供葡萄酒搭配的馅饼。询问员工其他可用的餐点以及葡萄酒的建议。这是一个小而热闹的地方，有很棒的音乐和友好的员工。 每杯40 格里夫纳起. (2017年5月更新)
Pubs[edit]
Bar Fidel, 4B Mykhaila Hrushevskoho Street. Well worth checking out. DJ plays late on a Friday night and there is some serious moshing and crowd surfing in what must be Kyiv's lowest bar/club. Great fun, open till 05:00. (updated Jan 2024)
Blyndazh. (Блиндаж, means "entrenchment") at the basement of 15 Mala Zhytomyrska Street (200 m off Maidan sq.) Military-themed bar (it has changed its signboard to Blind Age with a cartoon mole with shades on it). Small, cheap and popular, mostly student types. (updated Jan 2024)
Orech (Walnut), 126 Velyka Vasylkivska Street. Small, good selection of local beers, used to serve unlimited free walnuts if you drink beer, but the walnut servings are now limited (updated Jan 2024)
Trolleybus. A decent pub on Prorizna Street. Their design may look strange until you take a ride on an old USSR-type trolley-bus and fully appreciate the charm of this transport. The pub offers some fancy Ukrainian beer and a selection of home-made vodka-based spirits as well as the full row of typical snacks (dried salted bread, salted fish, calamaris, etc.) (updated Jan 2024)
Viola's Bierstube, 1a Tarasa Shevchenka Boulevard. Well hidden behind a dark door in a small alley. (updated Jan 2024)
Irish[edit]
There are several Irish pubs, none authentic, but OK if you're in need of a Guinness and expat company. One is located near Golden Gate (Zoloti Vorota) on Volodymyrska Street (called, eponymously, The Golden Gate Pub). Another (and the first in Kyiv) is O'Briens on Mykhailivska Street (one of the streets running west off Maidan sq., the one to the right, with a branch of OTP Bank on the corner). Both are expensive by Kyiv standards. A new one has opened in Podil, on the corner of Gostyny Dvor, near the Dutch embassy (can't miss it as it's close to the bottom of Andriivskyi Descent) called the Belfast Pub. Other than these centrally located ones, others lie scattered around Kyiv, they do not cater to the ex-pat crowd and have better prices than you expect to find in any 'western' country. Keep your eyes open. Also try Dockers Pub.
Belgian[edit]
There are two Belgian beer cafés.
Le Cosmopolite Belgian beer café, Volodymyrska Street (located across the road from the Golden Gate,close to the South Korean Delegation). Service is in perfect English usually and they do serve Belgian beer and traditional Belgian food (expensive). 52 грн for 0.5l of Stella Artois and 180 грн for 0.33l of Leffe Blond.. (updated Sep 2023)
Belle-Vue Café, 7 Saksahanskoho Street (Olympic Stadium). Service is in perfect English usually and they do serve Belgian beer and traditional Belgian food (expensive). 52 грн for 0.5l of Stella Artois and 180 грн for 0.33l of Leffe Blond.. (updated Sep 2023)
Clubs[edit]
Kyiv has a nice club scene. Ranging from very cheap to overly-expensive, you can find what you want.
Faberge Club, 22 Rybalska Street. Also an upscale club, similar to Chaikovsky Deluxe. (updated Jan 2024)
Club Forsage. One of the most known clubs has 3 floors with different music genres, is supposed to have strict face control but you can find some underage students inside, they only look at shoes and make sure it's not sport shoes. Entrance on the weekend is 70 грн for men and 50 грн for women. (updated Sep 2023)
Patipa. This is one of Kyiv's dinosaurs, but still one of the most trendy and best visited clubs in Kyiv.
Stolytsia. An upscale lively place close to the Water Museum. Expensive and pretentious, but beware of the face control, e.g. no sport shoes allowed.
Xlib-club, Frunze 12. Brings what is called cutting-edge music to Kyiv. The club is neither expensive nor pretentious and exceedingly crowded on Friday and Saturday nights. It's in Podil one of the romantic districts near the Dnieper river.
A few popular venues are at the Mandarin Plaza shopping mall (Arena Entertainment complex), rumored to be owned by the Klitschko brothers. The clubs include Arena, Sky Bar, Barsky and Grotesque. They're right next to Bessarabsky market; most of the clubs are accessible from the court.