A new restaurant in Dubai offers Ukrainian expats a taste of home

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(Left) A Ukrainian chef prepares mashed potatoes in the kitchen at Yoy restaurant. (Right) Traditional Ukrainian beet stew known as borsch is being prepared. It's the restaurant's most popular dish. Aya Batrawy/NPR hide caption

(Left) A Ukrainian chef prepares mashed potatoes in the kitchen at Yoy restaurant. (Right) Traditional Ukrainian beet stew known as borsch is being prepared. It's the restaurant's most popular dish.

DUBAI — Off the coast of Dubai, on an upscale, artificial island shaped like a palm tree, Ukrainian visitors and expatriates have found a taste of home.

The smell of freshly baked bread and a crackling wood fire permeate Yoy, a new Ukrainian restaurant that's the first of its kind in the United Arab Emirates. The vibe feels at ease, helped by a design aesthetic of neutral colors. Ukrainian music, sometimes in live performance, is playing. Servers welcome guests at the door in Ukrainian. Its popular beet stew, borsch, is prepared by Ukrainian chefs and brought to tables in a heavy black pot supported by a long stick.

In line with the United Arab Emirates' Muslim dietary guidelines, the menu doesn't include pork. Sliced coconut serves as a replacement in one dish. The restaurant does serve alcohol, though, with drinks like "Kyiv nights" mixing the warm flavors of bourbon, spiced rum, apricot whiskey and roasted chestnut.

Yoy opened a few months ago, but some diners say they've already come three and four times because there's no place quite like this in Dubai.

"It just reminds me how much I love Ukraine... it's a piece of home in my heart," says Maria Sokolova, who fled years ago when fighting erupted in her home city of Donetsk in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

Sokolova says the only way to visit her mother and sister there now is to travel through Russia. That's not something she's willing to do. Her trip last year to visit other relatives in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, was pierced by the war.

She's dining at Yoy with Iryna Klevetenko, from Kyiv. Both women have been living in the United Arab Emirates for several years. They're enjoying borsch on Yoy's outdoor terrace overlooking a dancing fountain and the landmark Atlantis resort hotel.

Klevetenko says the bling and luxury of Dubai feel surreal as she grapples with horrors of news from the war in her country. The war changed her priorities.

"Before, you were, like, I want Dolce and Gabbana bag," she said. "Now it's like, who cares about Dolce and Gabbana bag. We just want war to finish, that's it."

Yoy, which means "Wow" in Ukrainian, sits a few doors down from a popular Russian restaurant, Chalet Berezka, that's packed for a game night promising free drinks for the winning table. There are several Russian restaurants on The Palm island, catering to the many Russians who've moved to the UAE and set up businesses since the start of the war nearly a year ago. Some came to escape the draft and others to escape the web of Western sanctions targeting Russia.

The UAE does not release detailed population figures, so it's not publicly known exactly how many Russians have moved to Dubai and other emirates in the past year. But last year, Russians were the top international buyers of real estate in Dubai, according to Better Homes real estate company. In schools, non-English-speaking Russian children flood classrooms.

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Traditional Kosiv ceramic was imported from Ukraine for the restaurant. Aya Batrawy/NPR hide caption

Traditional Kosiv ceramic was imported from Ukraine for the restaurant.

The UAE does not take in refugees or asylum seekers, but is open to skilled workers whose local employers sponsor their visas. New visa schemes allow international investors setting up businesses or buying multimillion-dollar properties to secure long-term residency.