This sort-of-secret Ukrainian restaurant shares space with a sushi spot

In 2019, when he was just 24 years old, Yevhen Salitrynskyi left Ukraine for Toronto to earn a degree in computer engineering. Today, he’s the force behind Borscht Kitchen, a Ukrainian micro-restaurant cleverly concealed inside a Harbord Village sushi spot (in the space that was once Aunties and Uncles). “When Covid hit, it was very brutal,” Salitrynskyi says. “I felt very alone. I was so far from family and friends, and being isolated was no way to make new ones. I was really craving connection.”

While studying, Salitrynskyi began cooking the dishes he grew up with, filling his dorm with the aromas of home. “I have been cooking the recipes of my ancestors with my mother since I was a child,” he says. He even toyed with the idea of opening a bakery, but it felt like a distant dream. By late 2020, he had graduated and started working in his field.

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Last year, Salitrynskyi earned permanent-residency status. “At that point, I decided I wanted to start my own business,” he says. “I’d been an entrepreneur back home, and the itch was still there.” He also knew exactly what kind of business he wanted to build. “The war in Ukraine was ongoing, and I knew there were many refugees in Toronto—including my own parents—who missed the food back home, just like I did. So I decided I was going to create it for them.”

The first step was to find a space. He’d heard about a small team running a ghost kitchen that specialized in Ukrainian sushi (yes, it’s a thing), so he tracked them down. “I went to the kitchen they were operating from, then ate their food in my car,” he says. “I was so excited by what they were doing that I literally banged on the door and asked them how they got set up.”

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Within a few weeks, Borscht Kitchen was born. Its first incarnation was a modest cloud kitchen operating right next door to its current “housemate,” Sushi Hub, which eventually evolved into the micro-restaurant he runs today. The space may be tucked away, but the food is in your face: deep-red beet soup enriched with house-made stock, hefty varenyky (pierogies), golden chicken cutlets served with kasha, and holubtsi (cabbage rolls) filled with pork and beef and braised in a rich tomato sauce.

For Salitrynskyi, the project is as personal as it is professional. “More than once, I’ve had customers try the food and cry,” he says. “Some of them tell me it reminds them of leaving their country. Others think of grandparents who have passed. Every dish has a memory attached.” His parents, now settled in Toronto, visit often. “My mom critiques everything,” he laughs. “But that’s how I know it’s good.”

Borscht Kitchen, 74 Lippincott St., borscht.kitchen, @borscht.kitchen.toronto