Chopin Hotel

The building is lovely, but the rooms barely meet a three-star standard. I expected a light, pleasant room, but got strong red and yellow colors that made it hard to relax. The wallpaper was peeling in places, and there were scratches and dark marks all over. The bathroom smelled moldy, and the only toiletries were hand soap and shower gel 😐. I asked to move from room #401, but they refused. I wouldn’t recommend it if comfort and looks matter to you.

It’s a cozy place, though expensive by Ukrainian standards, even if European visitors might not find it so. The food is ordinary but presented very nicely, and the place is clean. There’s a good wine selection, mostly local, though a lot of it is overpriced. The French and Italian wines are especially expensive. The menu has traditional dishes with good sauce pairings. One downside is that lots of people smoke on the terrace, which makes it unpleasant when you’re trying to enjoy a meal. I think the waitresses should be better trained to stop that, since a restaurant isn’t a place for smoking. Maybe they’ll come to understand that with time. Cheers.

There were lots of kids running around, and the restaurant was extremely noisy. The food tasted okay overall, but was very fatty. For context, even the least greasy main course was duck breast. My salmon arrived partly frozen, with ice crunching between my teeth. The tomatoes in the salad had that same grainy texture, so maybe they’d been frozen too. Why freeze the salmon, though? Service was poor. The servers rarely came by, and brushed off what we said about the food.

The Chopin was my favorite of the three hotels I stayed at during my visit to Lviv, and it felt very classy. My sister and I shared a lovely suite with a balcony facing a city park across the street, with beautiful geraniums. We had a very nice dinner of traditional Ukrainian food, served by a wonderful waiter, Alex, and the front desk staff were very accommodating. I did leave a sweater, scarf, and some favorite haircare bottles at one of the hotels. I forgot to check the tub and closet before leaving :(