In the first days of the full-scale invasion, many businesses faced a simple yet brutal choice: shut down or take the risk. The Turkish restaurant Ottoman in central Kyiv chose a third path – to stay open and keep working, even when it made no commercial sense.
When the city was almost empty and supply chains had collapsed, the team cooked food for free. Within just a few weeks, they fed around 5,000 people – soldiers, territorial defence volunteers, medics, humanitarian workers, and vulnerable civilians.
This wasn’t a marketing campaign. It was a decision – human, value-driven, and courageous.
TURKISH CUISINE WITHOUT COMPROMISES – AND WITHOUT EVACUATION
Ottoman isn’t an “adapted” version of Turkish food. It’s a restaurant that stays true to Turkish ingredients, authentic recipes, and traditional techniques. A wood-fired oven, a tandoor, an open grill – everything is prepared in full view of the guests. The chefs are from Turkey.
And the key point: not a single one of them left Ukraine after February 24, 2022.
For the restaurant industry – especially with a foreign team – that’s almost unheard of. But this is where the line between a business format and a philosophy becomes clear. The Ottoman team doesn’t just work in Ukraine – they believe in its future and have tied their own lives to it.
BUSINESS AS A LONG GAME
From a numbers perspective, running a restaurant during wartime is a constant risk zone: falling foot traffic, rising costs, and ongoing problems with power supply and logistics. Ottoman chose not to downsize, but to double down on quality and stability.
The menu wasn’t simplified, ingredients weren’t replaced, and the concept wasn’t “watered down.” On the contrary – the restaurant leaned even harder into its identity: authentic Turkish culinary culture as a source of comfort in difficult times.
For guests, this sent a clear signal: if the restaurant isn’t cutting corners on flavour or principles, it’s a business built for the long run.
Today, Ottoman is no longer just a restaurant. It’s a place with a story and a reputation. Many guests return not only for the food, but for the feeling – this was a place that stood with them in the hardest moments. Ottoman demonstrated something simple yet rare: resilience isn’t only about finances, but about the decision to stay.
And perhaps that’s why today the dining room is full again, the fire burns in the oven, and the kitchen runs as if the future has already arrived.
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