In Kyiv, the elite steakhouse BEEF operated without power outages as critical infrastructure until February

In Kyiv, the elite steakhouse BEEF operated without power outages as critical infrastructure until February

The elite Kyiv restaurant, steakhouse BEEF, was classified as critical infrastructure until February 2026. This allowed it to operate without power outages and feel quite comfortable while other establishments in Kyiv were going bankrupt and closing down. However, as soon as BEEF was disconnected from the "critical" status, problems began - in February, it did not operate for three days due to Russian attacks on the capital, resulting in a loss of about 1.5 million UAH in revenue.

This was reported by Informator.

This was stated by the co-founder of BEEF steakhouse and restaurateur Ruslan Shybayev during an Instagram live broadcast, hosted by hospitality expert with over 25 years of experience in the restaurant industry, former partner of LaFamiglia Restaurants, Svitlana Mironova. The conversation between the restaurateurs was quite specialized, focusing on issues in the restaurant sector and the economics of establishments, until Shybaev suddenly revealed a few secrets about the survival of his own business. In particular, he noted that the profitability of BEEF in 2025 was at a level of 19.88%, which is normal for wartime.

"But that was 2025, and 2026 has just begun. And it started, as they say, not quite following the same trends. January was better than February... And in February, my restaurant was cut off from critical infrastructure. It didn’t operate for almost three days. So, I lost about 1.5 million in revenue," Ruslan Shybayev complained about professional setbacks.

In addition, the restaurateur shared that he received "simply astronomical" electricity bills for January. For February, he expects "planned figures," to which the costs of maintaining generator operations will be added (which is logical, as BEEF was disconnected from critical infrastructure, and now it has a need for "resilience" that it didn’t have before).

"Utility costs will only increase, and prices will rise accordingly. Suppliers constantly send ’letters of happiness.’ But we are trying to work with this," the restaurateur explained about BEEF.

It should be noted that BEEF steakhouse is indeed an elite and extremely expensive establishment. It is located at 11 Shota Rustaveli Street, opposite the central Kyiv Brodsky Synagogue. Its menu starts with a breakfast for two with lightly salted trout and red caviar for 3,900 UAH. A "simple" ribeye steak from Ukrainian beef will cost 1,900 UAH/400g, an Argentine chateaubriand will set you back 3,500 UAH/400g. The most expensive item in the establishment is the Wagyu Tenderloin steak (from Japanese Wagyu beef) - 100g of the product will cost 2,950 UAH.