TheKarpatyRocks blog offers you several iconic places in Uzhhorod where you can have a delicious meal and relax after walking around the historical sights of this tourist city.
In recent years, Uzhhorod has increasingly become a popular tourist city, chosen not only by Ukrainians but also by guests from abroad. If you have decided to visit Uzhhorod and have decided which places you will visit first, then you will be faced with the question of where to have a delicious meal and drink coffee, tea or something stronger, and then relax and unwind after a walk around the city. That's why the Karpaty.Rocks online portal has prepared for you a selection of the best restaurants in the city with delicious cuisine and quality service.
And let's start with the place that best conveys the local flavor, the ethnographic tavern-museum "Detsa u notarya", whose owners have set themselves the motto: "Don't save what you can eat today for tomorrow".
Every visitor to Uzhhorod does not miss the opportunity to visit the place where you can taste local cuisine and enjoy the lively, colorful humor. Locals call Deca a mini-Odesa in Zakarpattia.
Over the years, the tavern "Deca at the Notary" has become a big stage decorated with life itself.
"100 grams at the notary" is how the name of the place is translated. After all, the word "deca" means "a small glass, a stack" in the local dialect, and "notary" means "notary". The unique Uzhhorod institution got this name because a notary used to live in this house.
The inscription in front of the entrance tells tourists about this: "This building was constructed by farmers of the village of Dravtsi in 1940 for a state notary. There was a live deer in the garden behind the building. In the fall of 1944 the office was closed. They did not have time to replace the notary. The farmers voluntarily surrendered to the Kalinin collective farm. They say the deer was eaten. The garden was cut down by the Komsomol members. The village was turned into a city. 'Detsa at the Notary' is a memory of old times."
If you visit the place, you will not regret anything. You will have a good mood and new impressions - you will be able to laugh and eat your heart out here!
The owners have done everything to revive the concept of the word "tavern", which has long been forgotten in Ukraine and replaced by various "snack bars", "breezes", "shot glasses", "snack bars", "cherries", "glasses", "tea rooms", "dumplings" and "pucks"... It was here that the tradition of weaving fences on the summer terrace was first revived. Perhaps for the first time in Transcarpathia, playgrounds for children were introduced here. For a long time, the restaurant had a kind of mini-zoo with sheep, wolves, roe deer, badgers, martens, Vietnamese black pigs...
A peculiar feature of "Deca..." is the design of the place in a rather controversial humorous style. Once inside, you will not stop smiling throughout your stay here. Every little thing will make you smile.
You will be greeted by funny signs in front of the entrance to "Detsu":
"The cultural monument "Detsa at the Notary" is protected by drunkards, protected by the state, damage is punishable by law" or "On this place on February 6, 2008, the police fought with the police. The police won, because the police are with the people!", "We wish you a safe trip home and a good night's sleep..."
The restaurant's territory is full of things: There is a leaky bucket with the inscription "National Budget", an art gallery of alcohol parodies of paintings by famous artists and their own alcohol stories, and a 640-kilogram ham (or rather ham) from the largest Ukrainian political pig, and a road sign with the inscription "NATO Beer Depot" and the decoding of the abbreviation below it - "Obolon People's Terrace," a tourist chapel, and the rocking caravan "Vesela Erzha" with the first Rusyn corsair Francis Drake (Ferko of Dravets). There is even a "Gypsy barometer" consisting of 18 wooden plates (9 on the left and 9 on the right) with a rope hanging between them. Visitors to the restaurant can take a kind of sobriety test and determine the weather. For example, if the rope is dangling, it means that there is wind outside, if it is wet, it is raining, if it is solid, like at a wedding, it is frost, if the rope is not visible, it is foggy, if it doubles, you are already fine without weather, etc.
Another cool feature of the restaurant deserves a separate word - it is, of course, a humorous cemetery. Usually, people cry at the cemetery, but at this cemetery people laugh. Here, every gravestone is a reason to laugh. The ideals of the Maidan, the fair elections in Mukachevo, Ukrenergo, which could not survive the winter of 2009, a crooked waiter with a tray nailed to a cross, a representative of the truthful media, and someone who did not eat are buried here.
It seems that the entire territory of the restaurant is a continuous "Comedy Club". Humor "haunts" you at every step, even the door of the old barn is not spared a sign - "In this basement on March 8, 1913, Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) and Inessa Armand hid from the persecution of Nina Krupskaya."
The menu of "Deci u Notarya" is worth mentioning separately because it is not only delicious, but also funny. How can you not laugh when you read about the "tears of the Maidan" (orange juice) and "tears of Ho Chi Minh" (boiled white rice). And a kind of warning to visitors about alcohol abuse - "Before mixing all the drinks in the tavern, do not be too lazy to call a notary, a carpenter and a priest."
If you decide to go to the restroom. Don't forget to take your camera with you.... Starting from the entrance, you can safely take pictures of funny caricatures and inscriptions: "The toilet has been restored: 1 UAH for tourists, 00 UAH for customers. Please give us urine (for tea)" and the signature: "Tour-Syk-Ser-Vis Company". The toilet itself has booths "For real women", "For virgins", "For women who consider themselves men", "For men who consider themselves women", and "Booths for secret voting" with a note: "Please do not take used ballots with you."
Who is the author of this humorous Mecca in Zakarpattia? All the ideas embodied in the tavern-museum "Detsa u Notarya" belong to the owner of the restaurant, Pavlo Chuchka, a satirical poet, linguist, businessman, and member of the Uzhhorod City Council. The main goal that Pavlo Chuchka wanted to realize in his establishment was to create an ethno-cultural complex where tourists could get an idea of the life of the Zakarpattia region and its history. "My tavern," says Pavlo, "is designed for a thinking visitor who also wants spiritual food, so he is my most frequent guest. A camera or video camera next to a mug of beer is a typical sight in the Deca.
Every year the tavern-museum hosts the ethnic festival "Carpathian Wordplay" (July 12) and other events.
This is the end of our praise of "Dutsa at the Notary". Although, believe me, we could go on and on about this place, the best thing to do is to visit it yourself. Which is what we recommend you do if you are visiting Uzhhorod.
By the way, Uzhhorod is not only a city of ancient history, but also a city of aromatic coffee, which is perfectly accompanied by incredible Uzhhorod desserts from one of the best confectioners in Ukraine, Valentyn Shtefanyo.
The confectionery "Shtefanyo" is exactly the place that not only the city residents, but also those guests who have already had the opportunity to visit here, recommend to visit.
Why did this place become so popular, becoming a kind of sweet business card of Uzhhorod? Perhaps it is because the confectionery sells only those products made by the owner himself. Like a sculptor, he creates real artistic masterpieces made of chocolate, which have become a kind of brand of the Transcarpathian region: macaroons, eclairs, croquembouche, and the "pearl" of the place, the Uzhhorod cake. To create the right taste and aesthetic appearance, the confectionery uses French chocolate and natural berries and fruits. Steffanyo's products combine French taste and Ukrainian price.
