The Plate It Forward Team Has Arrived in Chippendale with Its New Family-Led Opening Kyiv Social

The historic Broadway building in Chippendale now houses a new Ukrainian restaurant from one of Sydney's favourite hospitality groups and social enterprises. Kyiv Social has taken over from The Two Wolves Community Cantina at the former Reserve Bank location at 202 Broadway to bring Ukrainian food to the neighbourhood.

The opening fills a much-needed gap in Sydney's food landscape following the closure of Soul Kitchen in Rosebery and Mavka in Waitara — two of the only Ukrainian restaurants in the city. This new celebration of Eastern European eats comes from Plate It Forward, the team behind Colombo Social, Coyoacan Social and Kabul Social, a trio of Sydney restaurants that have built a cult following for their tasty meals and for giving back to communities in need.

Traditional offerings on the menu include daily hand-rolled dumplings, holubtsi (cabbage rolls) and green sorrel borscht. There's also a classic chicken Kyiv lathered in a fragrant specialty butter and paired with a fluffy Ukrainian dinner roll, beef and pork sausage made in collaboration with LP's Quality Meats, and rye toast topped with pickled herring and chives.

Young Henrys has created an exclusive Beloved Ukrainian Lager to pair with the European eats, while The Little Marionette has supplied its Blue Kraine vodka to be drunk neat or in a cherry negroni.

Like its sibling venues, Kyiv Social is more than just a place to feast. It employs a group of 15 Ukrainians who have recently arrived in Australia, including several members of the same family. In the restaurant's kitchen, you'll find sisters Ruslana and Olha who bring with them a lifetime of experience with Ukrainian food, while their daughter and niece leads the front-of-house team.

Staff members here were working as doctors, IT developers or economists before moving to Sydney, but are struggling to find work in their profession here due to non-transferable qualifications or limited English.

You can find Kyiv Social by searching for the huge exterior mural of Plate It Forward Restaurant Consultant Nadiia Mohylna's mum on the side of the building.

Mohylna, who arrived in Australia from Horishnye Plavny eight months ago, calls Kyiv Social: "a space in which there will be elements of Ukrainian interiors, décor, music, our national colours of blue and yellow, and most importantly, food through the taste of which you can touch Ukraine, the food that every mother prepared for their children, which we can now share here in Sydney."

Kyiv Social also helps to fund Plate It Forward's charitable works across the globe. To date, the social enterprise has donated 400,000 meals to those who need it most in Sydney and around the world.

The set menu here runs through all of the menu highlights for $70 a head — and it's a treat-yourself dinner you can feel good about, with Plate It Forward donating one meal in Sydney and one in Ukraine for every set menu sold.

Kyiv Social is located at 202 Broadway, Chippendale. It's open for dinner Wednesday–Friday, and both lunch and dinner Saturday–Sunday.