On arrival everybody was treated to a glass of ice bucket chilled sparkling brut wine from the Ukrainian winery Shabo and Terry Pickard, the club Chairman, found that it would be fair to say that the majority were pleasantly surprised with the quality of this wine. In fact, his wife was so impressed by it she went and bought two bottles on Saturday and at a cost of only UAH 92 per bottle it is a bargain.
At 19.45 Chairman Terry rang his infamous little red bell and asked everyone to take their places at their tables. He then gave his usual preamble about the purpose of TUCC and reminded everyone of the importance of completing their questionnaire about their experiences this evening whereupon he advised that it was in fact our evening's TUCC sommelier's birthday today. At this point a couple of members came forward with hugs, kisses, flowers and presents to congratulate Sommelier Natalie.
The first course was forshmak of 2 different blini, a superb chicken pate, a herring pate, a very pleasant cheese and egg combination and an aubergine and tomatoes 'caviar' paired with Reisling, Prince Trubetskoy.
The next course was unfortunately a bit of a disappointment as the deruny potato pancakes with red caviar were overfried and were almost like crisps. The wine served with this was Chablis Style, Don Alejandro.
At this point Terry arose again and called for Natalie to come forward to receive her bouquet of roses and her present of 6 wine glasses from the TUCC and then her birthday cake with candles which she successfully blew out. The members then sang a rousing Happy Birthday.
There then followed the main course which was chicken Kyiv with mashed potato and a warning to be careful when cutting into the dish as it could spurt out hot butter. However there was no butter to spurt out as it was in fact quite dry. The selected wine was Pinot Noir, Prince Trubetskoy.
The final dish was a traditional cherry varenyky served with cherry sauce and sour cream, which was pleasant especially when combined with the sweet wine choice, a Chateau Pechon Sauternes, Les Grand Chais De France.
Overall the members were not very impressed with the food courses but very impressed with the decor and design of this 500 seating restaurant. One member actually commented on the clever way the terrace windows opened in an up and over way which cleverly created a roof for the diners. Another factor which scored well was the professionalism of the waiting staff. And for the TUCC staff members that organised the event the restaurant managers could not have been more helpful.
Photos provided by TUCC.
