Olivier vs. sushi: what Ukrainians will choose for a festive table in the face of time and electricity shortages
26 December 2025 15:19
This year’s New Year’s Eve will be celebrated without days off, as the government has decided. In addition, local authorities have not eased curfews, meaning that in most cities it is forbidden to go out after 23:00 and before 05:00. It follows that most Ukrainians will celebrate the New Year 2026 in their apartments and houses, in a close family circle. But the question is what will be on the tables of Ukrainians for whom even December 31 will not be a short working day. Komersant looked into how to prepare for the celebration if you have no free time.
The first option is to set the New Year’s table yourself by buying the necessary products in the store and standing by the stove and oven. However, if the stove and oven are electric, you may have problems with cooking. In addition, according to experts from the Institute of Agrarian Economics, this year’s New Year’s Eve feast will cost Ukrainians for a family of 4 10.7% more if we take traditional food and dishes as a basis. In hryvnias, this will amount to about UAH 4 thousand.
For example, an Olivier salad (3 kg of products according to a traditional recipe) will cost UAH 406.87. This is 5.8% more than during the New Year’s Eve celebrations in 2025. The most expensive ingredient in this year’s dish is sausage – UAH 180 per 0.5 kg (a 12.5% price increase depending on the manufacturer). Vegetables have fallen in price, but eggs, peas, and mayonnaise have risen in price.
According to analysts, due to inexpensive vegetables, the cost of Herring under a fur coat salad (1.570 kg of products) is 174.83 UAH. However, compared to last year, when the same portion cost UAH 168.20, it has risen by 4%. This year, the price of herring went up.
But meat products have increased in price by 23% over the year. You will have to pay UAH 410 for 350 g of Brunswick smoked sausage (22% more compared to 2024 prices), UAH 276 (21%) for half a kilogram of baked bacon, and UAH 339 (15%) for a kilogram of fresh pork chops. For 1 kg of fresh chicken fillet, you will have to pay an average of UAH 244 (a 40% increase in price over the year). In total, the cost of 2,850 kg of meat products on the New Year’s table will amount to UAH 1,269, experts have calculated.
Hard cheese (300 g) will cost 176 UAH (19%), and a pack of butter (200 g) will cost 118 UAH (14%). Fruit will cost 200 UAH. Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages are available to choose from, so the price is different.
And if you add delicacies, you’ll have to pay about 813 UAH extra. Depending on the manufacturer, a jar of red caviar (100 g) will cost an average of UAH 469, and 180 g of red fish will cost UAH 344. Therefore, the cost of a New Year’s table with delicacies will amount to UAH 4793 (10.6%), analysts have calculated.
Restaurants are preparing takeaway menus
But if you can’t cook traditional dishes due to lack of time and electricity, you can find an alternative if you have the money. First of all, you can order a New Year’s basket in a restaurant where professional chefs will prepare everything for you.
“This year, restaurants, unless they are out-of-town and have a hotel attached, will not be open on New Year’s Eve. If anyone dares to open in the city, it will be for their own regular customers, because by law, establishments must close at 11 p.m. Because of the curfew, which has not been reduced, and because the staff needs to be paid extra at night, especially from December 31 to January 1, restaurateurs decided not to work, giving their employees a few days’ rest. The only thing is that they will take orders for New Year’s baskets and boxes, and many restaurants are already offering festive menus and taking pre-orders,” Olga Nasonova, a restaurant critic and co-founder of the National Restaurant Association of Ukraine, tells Kommersant Ukrainsky.
If you order holiday boxes or baskets in a restaurant, the table will cost about 2700 to 7000 UAH, depending on the weight of the dishes. So to speak, for a small and large company.
For example, the Mafia restaurant chain offers a 3.5 kg minimum:
- Baked chicken – 500 g
- Olivier with salmon – 860 g
- Liver cake – 600 g
- Chicken jelly – 500 g
- Tangerines – 1 kg
- Gingerbread
- New Year’s drink “Mafia”
But you can also take a large New Year’s basket weighing 5-7 kg:
- Duck baked with apples and oranges – 1500 g
- Olivier with smoked chicken – 880 g
- Herring under a fur coat – 600 g
- Liver cake – 600 g
- Chicken jelly – 500 g
- Tangerines – 1 kg
- Gingerbread
- New Year’s drink “Mafia”
Or, for example, the Buffalino restaurant offers a standard New Year’s basket for UAH 3250 (5 kg). A large New Year’s basket from this chain will cost 5500 UAH (8 kg): everything is the same, but the portions are twice as large.
At the same time, as the restaurant critic noted, for several years in a row, in addition to the traditional menu, Ukrainians prefer sushi on New Year’s Eve, which has taken the place of bay fish and other fish products on the table. Therefore, this year will not be an exception – people will order such dishes as well.
Retail and cooking are replacing restaurants
But, as Olga Nasonova noted, today restaurants are facing a lot of competition from retailers in supermarkets with self-cooking kitchens. They have long since begun to organize food halls of a good level.
“Ukrainians are now buying more takeaway food not in restaurants, but in the kitchens at Silpo, Epicenter, Novus and other supermarkets. Their sales are growing. Because it is convenient: the buyer sees the finished product, and you can buy everything you need literally running to the store for lunch or after work,” says Olga Nasonova.
Orders in restaurants have recently taken up about 20% of the market. Supermarkets account for the bulk of New Year’s food. According to the expert, restaurants have always been distinguished by the fact that they decorated their baskets beautifully: if someone went to visit, they were not ashamed to take it with them and give it as a gift. But nowadays, no one visits, people stay at home with their families, so retailers today not only offer products for cooking, but also cook and sell them.
Author: Alla Dunina
