Otakoï Brings UNESCO-Listed Borshch & Ukrainian Soul To Chapel Street

Fancy a UNESCO-listed soup? At Otakoï on Chapel Street, dishes like borshch (a “Ukrainian icon”) are given pride of place by co-owner Hanna Kachura. 

Arriving as a refugee from Ukraine with her son in 2022, she brought flavours to share with her new Australian home. “Each country represents themselves through food and songs,” Kachura says. “I can’t sing, but I always liked good food and hosting guests!” 

“Otakoï’ is hard to translate because it's an “old word”. It’s an exclamation, like ‘Wow!’ or ‘What?’ 

“When people tried to make us forget our language, we lost this word,” she says. “We’re bringing it back.”

Otakoï’s dishes have traditional roots, with new twists Kachura developed with partner, co-owner and chef Micheal O’Hanlon. Ukrainian varenyky dumplings come stuffed with classic potato or “hearty meat” as well as Kachura’s innovation: smoked salmon and cheese in squid ink dough.  

Beefy beetroot borshch is served with fluffy pampushky garlic bread, and chicken Kyiv bursting with herb butter is already a standout. Homey holubtsi cabbage rolls join regional specialties like Carpathian banosh, creamy polenta topped with mushrooms, pork and cheese. 

Finish on medivnyk honey cake or syrnyky cheese pancakes with sour cream and blueberries, and sip vishnivka cherry liqueur and Ukrainian vodkas and cognac.

Otakoï is deeply Ukrainian. Not just in style—the wheatsheaf decorations and traditional dress—but in substance. Everything that could be sourced from home or made by refugees has a Ukrainian hand in it, from art and embroidery to a cabinet of folk crafts and jewellery for sale and snacking sunflower seeds on every table. 

Kachura mixes modernity and home comforts, where Ukrainian pop music plays and diners are greeted with ceremonial black bread and salt. “I'm trying to present our culture in each detail,” she says.

Kachura, a former banker, had the idea in March. With funding assistance from Thrive Refugee Enterprise, they refurbed and opened the space by late July. This quieter end of Chapel Street beside Windsor station has already drawn crowds of Ukrainians, among others. 

The menu will expand with the new space upstairs, currently in renovation, with a late-night bar where “people can continue the fun”.

Find Otakoï at 34 Chapel Street, Windsor. The restaurant is open Tuesday to Sunday for dinner and for lunch and dinner on the weekend.

Image credits: Julia Tkach