Veselka

A New York institution, frozen and shipped

Veselka is a Ukrainian restaurant that has served food from the same corner of Manhattan's East Village since 1954, and it now ships frozen pierogi, soups and dinner kits across the country. Nothing needs cooking from scratch: the pierogi arrive frozen, and the FAQ gives air-fryer directions for them. The FAQ says orders ship direct from the East Village restaurant. That's fairly new: the company says it shipped through Goldbelly from 2019 to 2023 and has shipped independently since 2023, so orders now come straight from the restaurant rather than through a marketplace.

The About page tells the history. Veselka, which means rainbow in Ukrainian, was founded by Volodymyr and Olha Darmochwal, Ukrainian refugees who settled in the Little Ukraine neighborhood in the late 1940s. It grew from a small newsstand into a 24-hour gathering place, and it's now run by Volodymyr's grandson, Jason Birchard, as a 3-generation family business. The timeline on the About page includes a James Beard nomination for Best Restaurant in 2023 and a 2024 documentary, Veselka: The Movie. The site says the kitchen makes 7,500 pierogi a day and 15,000 gallons of borscht a year. Since 2022 its "Eat Borscht Stand with Ukraine" campaign has raised money for humanitarian relief, and the About page says it reached its 500k goal in 2024.

How ordering works

This is a shop rather than a subscription. The Shop menu splits the frozen range into Pierogi, Soups & Stews, Dinners & Kits, and Desserts & Sides. You add what you want to the cart and it ships right away. The FAQ says orders generally go out immediately, though if you need a later delivery date the team will try to accommodate you by email. There's no order minimum. Each address needs its own order, and for 10 or more addresses the company asks you to email orders@veselka.com. Gift orders go out without a price or receipt in the box.

The Pierogi Pack shows how the larger packs work. It includes 6 8-packs of pierogi that you choose yourself from potato, cheese, rustic chicken and vegetable, braised beef, sauerkraut and mushroom, arugula and goat cheese, and bacon egg and cheese, plus 4oz of fried onions twice over and sour cream. It's rated 5.0 out of 5 from 52 reviews on the product page, and 98% of reviewers say they'd recommend it.

What it costs

Prices are listed in US dollars on the site. The best sellers include The Essential Ukrainian Dinner at $165, the Pierogi Pack at $125, the Ultimate Ukrainian Feast at $399, a single Potato & Cheese Pierogi pack at $24, and Ukrainian Borscht at $27. Shipping is free on orders over $100, and there's no minimum order, so smaller orders pay a shipping fee that the site doesn't state before checkout. The site advertises no first-order discount, though the newsletter promises exclusive deals and there's a Rainbow Rewards program.

Several reviews on the Pierogi Pack describe buying it as a gift: one reviewer sent it to her parents in Indiana for Christmas, another was pleased with the shipping to Illinois, and a third says it will become a holiday tradition. The product page also has a "Want to send this as a gift?" option.

The food

The restaurant's menu is classic Ukrainian comfort food: pierogi (which it also calls varenyky, and uses both words on purpose), stuffed cabbage, potato pancakes, blintzes, goulash and borscht. The frozen shop carries the pierogi range, soups including Ukrainian Borscht and Chicken Noodle Soup, and dinner kits such as The Essential Ukrainian Dinner.

Cooking is simple. The FAQ gives air-fryer instructions for pierogi: 400 degrees on air crisp, oil or spray on both sides, 7-10 minutes until golden. One reviewer boils them and then pan-fries them "a little to get a nice sear."

Dietary information is handled with symbols on each item. The FAQ is careful on gluten: the kitchen is not certified celiac friendly, and items marked gluten free contain no gluten but carry a risk of cross contamination. It also lists what's in the challah and says the kielbasa is pork and beef with seasonings it hopes to spell out in future.

Where it delivers

The FAQ says Veselka ships within the United States, excluding Alaska and Hawaii, and hopes to expand internationally. Orders go by FedEx, using a mix of services depending on shipping speed and address, with tracking emailed on the day of shipment. You don't need to be home, though the company recommends putting perishable items in the fridge or freezer as soon as possible. Gel packs are non-toxic, and the company says some defrosting in transit should be expected; products are safe as long as they stay below 41 degrees Fahrenheit.

There are other ways to buy. The homepage says the frozen pierogi are now in Whole Foods, and in-store pickup is offered in the Northeast, with a FreshDirect link as well. The restaurants are in the East Village, Williamsburg and Grand Central Terminal, plus pierogi bars at Madison Square Garden and a Nashville location. The East Village original keeps long hours, 9am to midnight Monday to Thursday and open overnight into the weekend, and takes limited reservations; groups of 8 or more are asked to email ahead. The restaurants also cater, and the shop sells gift cards and Veselka merchandise alongside the food. The company published a cookbook in 2009, which the FAQ points to for anyone who wants the exact challah recipe.

What's left open, and who it suits

Perishable food can't be returned, so any damaged or thawed box has to be sorted out by email; the shipping policy says the team replies within 24 hours. Shipping costs on orders under $100 and transit times by region aren't published. The site also says cancellations are only possible on the same day as the purchase.

Veselka suits anyone with a soft spot for the restaurant, families with Ukrainian roots who want the restaurant's handmade pierogi, and people looking for a generous food gift that ships nationally. At $125 for the Pierogi Pack and $399 for the Ultimate Ukrainian Feast, the larger kits are priced as treats rather than weeknight staples, and a buyer on a budget has 2 other routes the site names: the $24 Potato & Cheese Pierogi, or the frozen pierogi in Whole Foods.