Криївка

Hideout

Useful Information

Location:	Somewhere on Rynok Square, Lviv. (49.841463, 24.032175)
Open:	All year Mon-Fri 11-22:30, Sat, Sun 10-22:30. [2023]
Fee:	free. [2023]
Classification:	Cellar
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Hideout, 14 Ринок площа Lwiw, Oblast Lwiw, Ukraine 79000, Tel: +380-67-310-31-45. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

SEP-2007

restaurant opened.

Description

Криївка (Kryjivka, Hideout) is a restaurant, which was built into the underground hideout of the UPA from World War II. Actually it's a basement which was transformed into a sort of museum for the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). They give "Somewhere on Rynok Square" as address, and there is a secret password required for entry (which is for obvious reasons not so secret as it is published on their facebook page. At the entrance, a man with a machine gun in the uniform of a UPA soldier greets visitors and asks for the password. They created their own machine gun point on the roof opposite the Lviv Town Hall. Inside there are dungeon cells, a shooting range, and lots of other fake partisan stuff. The meals are served in military field dishes and have strange names which sound like paroles. So it's somewhere between a museum and a theme park.

Whether the cellar was ever really a hideout remains unclear. In any case, today's decoration has no connection to reality. But the 500-year-old cellars with several underground levels are quite spectacular. And the restaurant is said to have 100,000 visitor per year, which is a strange way to put it. It is actually as much a museum and tourist attraction as it is a restaurant.

The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) was the armed force of the underground Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), created in 1942. They actually wanted an independent Ukrainian state with a Ukrainian ethnic majority. They committed massacres of ethnic Poles in the Volhynia and Eastern Galicia regions, with the goal to get rid of the Polish minority living in Ukraine. In other words, most of the visitors are probably not aware that the heroic partisans were faschistoid nationalists with a tendency to ethnic cleansing, a synonym for mass murder.

Nevertheless, the secret hideout theme is fun, and they are recommended for their Western-Ukrainian Food, which is actually mostly Polish. The territory of Western Ukraine used to belong to Poland and before that to Austria-Hungary. Western Ukraine also borders Romania and Slovakia, which is why its cuisine is known for a variety of culinary recipes and traditions. A typical main dish is banusz or banoush, well-smoked corn grits, salo (fried pork fat) and bryndza (sheep's cheese), which is incredibly hearty and has an exceptional taste. Another is mushroom soup which is usually served with sour cream. The region, especially the Carpathians, is rich in white mushrooms, so they are often included in dishes. Mazuryky are traditional Ukrainian sausage-shaped meat patties. Shukhy is a traditional Christmas dish made of wild mushrooms and beetroot. Tovchanka is stew made of potatoes, beans, and poppy seeds.

The dishes served here have names like «Гудбай, асвабадітєлі» ("Goodbye, aswabaditeli") which is stewed cabbage with beans. Another is «Взяти Чорногору під будцем» ("Take Montenegro under the booth"), a salad of marinated mushrooms, onions, peas and tomatoes.