A Summary of my Warsaw eats
Sklep z Kanapkami (translate as Sandwich Shop)
Krakowskie Przedmiescie 11
No website
Sunday 29th May 2011
Price of meal 25 pln (approx £5.60)
I had a medium salad with roast meat (i.e. ham) with chive sour cream a bread roll and a banana and cherry smoothie. Young vibe cafe with tables on the street it has a multi coloured neon sign and modern art on the wall. It does light bite food – quiches, sandwiches, cakes and an assortment of drinks. The menu is in Polish and English. The young waitress who served me was very nice. The food was good for the price; the salad was fairly fresh – I saw no brown bits although there were some soggy leaves. The smoothie was excellent, enough banana and cherry and you got a decent size glass for your money. I would return and recommend it.
The salad with bread roll and smoothie and dressing in background
Zapiecek Polskie Pierogarnie
ul Swietojanska 13
http://www.zapiecek.eu
Monday 30th May 2011
Price of meal 26 pln (approx £5.75)
Stumbled on this when looking for somewhere else. Was ignored by the waitress speaking to her friend at the front (learnt later on that Poles just plonk themselves down at a table, it’s not wait to be seated as in England). Met a very nice Pole who is now an ozzie who told me about the pierogi. The interior was decked out in chintzy ye olde log cabin style which was actually quite cute. The waitresses are dressed in red dresses covered with small white flowers and a blue with lots of white flowers waistcoat/ corset style top over it. I suppose this is to make everything fit into this ‘traditional Polish’ theme. I had 9 pierogi (you can also get 11) filled with meat and sauerkraut with ‘gravy’ which is actually deep fried pork bits in oil (probably straight from the fatty pork bits) which was actually a very nice accompaniment. The pierogi were very good and better than the pierogi I had in Krakow. My drink was still water. There is a large choice of pierogi sweet and savoury and a choice of accompaniments. This is part of a chain of which this is probably the smallest branch and they speak English here as it is in the tourist district. They also do salads, soups and desserts amongst other things.
Interior of restaurant
The pierogi with 'gravy'
Pierrogeria pierogi z pieca
ul Krzywe Kolo 30
http://www.pierrogeria.pl
Tuesday 31st May 2011
Price of meal 30pln (approx £6.65)
Small but cute little restaurant inside one of the cute little house. It is simply furnished and keeps the feel of the building and right next to the Barbican walls. They specialise in pierogi and have a decent list of boiled and baked ones, they also do other Polish specialties and I went for pancakes with turkey and apple with a grapefruit juice. I thought it was be the potato pancakes but it was actually a crepe-like pancake filled with turkey and rice with some grated apple and apple sauce on top. The pancake you get is huge and filling. There were many bits of turkey that were very over roasted and were just hard dark brown bits that I couldn’t eat but all in all it was decent food. The staff speak English because it is in the tourist area.
Turkey and apple pancake
Salad Story
ul Nowy Swiat 18/20
http://www.saladstory.com
Wednesday 1st June 2011
Price: 18.50 pln (approx £4.10)
Everytime I walk into town I walk past here and have wanted to go in. I normally don’t get a chance to get lunch with the busy schedule I have in Warsaw but I had time today so I popped in and it was very busy. It’s a production line where you tell the staff what you want – there are set salads but you can change parts of it such as the carbohydrate – pasta or potato and the sauce and you can ask for something to be left out etc… I picked out a set salad in size medium (it’s medium or big) which looked good on the photo and I could just about pronounce but I couldn’t actually read the ingredients for any of the salads but could guess at some of them. Luckily the waitress who served me spoke English and asked me my base and sauce and between my rubbish Polish and the bit of English the guy at the till spoke I managed to get my food and drink and pay. The salad was very nice and fresh. They get through the ingredients so quickly that I didn’t get anything going brown. On my first visit I had a full veggie health salad with potato, mixed lettuce, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, peppers, cucumber, red onion and pumpkin seeds. The sauce I had was called green goddess and I think it was crushed basil, lemon, garlic and oil, it was very nice and went really well with my salad – I enjoyed the whole thing. I would certainly recommend here and have been back several times, it is nothing fancy and not a place to hang about in but good value for money and healthy. They also do soups and jacket potatoes.
The first salad I had - I had many more
Wiking
ul Nowy Swiat 28
No website
Wednesday 1st June 2011
Price: 21.80 pln (approx £4.80) no drink
This is the type of place that reminds me of a food court. The food is all cooked and set out in front of you behind a glass partition with a label and price. There is fish, chicken, vegetables, salads, soup etc Luckily for me the waitress spoke English again and I got a large chicken, pork and vegetable kebab with boiled vegetables. They are microwaved whilst I pay and by the time I had got my changed the microwave had binged, I was given my food on a large tray and went to eat. The vegetables were over cooked and so was the chicken which was tough and the veggies on it were soggy but it was edible. The chicken was marinated in herbs and I was impressed that I actually found a large chunk of bay leaf on the chicken. Not bad and a good choice if you want to see your food before ordering and can just point at what you want.
The kebab
Pierogi Na Bednarskiej
Ul Bednarska 28/30
http://www.pierogarnianabednarskiej.pl
Thursday 2nd June 2011
Price: 19 pln (approx £4.35)
This quaint and quiet little piergoi kitchen is located off the main street but gets lots of Americans, who must have it in their guidebooks or are staying locally, as well as Poles. It is a real treasure of a find. On the reverse of the Polish menu is an English menu and there are savoury and sweet piergoi which you can have as a half (3) or full portion (6) as well as one or two other polish specialities. You order at the till, pay there, grab cutlery and sit down and the food is brought to you nice and quick. If you are not sitting by the window or door it can get pretty stuffy and the tables are large squares for 2-4 or longer canteen tables. I opted for a half portion of Grandma’s piergoi which are pork, beef, cabbage herbs and garlic and whilst looking at the drinks section the very nice lady points to Birch water which I say ‘Tak!’ to as I am always up for trying something new and interesting. The Birch water is virtually clear and poured from a jug making me think it was tap water but actually it was slightly sweet and very refreshing – I loved it. My pierogi came covered in the ‘gravy’(this is automatically put on, there is no choice of topping here). It was delicious. As there were only 3, this meant I had room for more so I placed my finished plate and cutlery on the kitchen counter as others had done and went back to the till to order. The lady at the till smiled at me – yes I was hooked. This time I went for dessert – half a portion of apple and cinnamon pierogi and another glass of Birch water which she again smiled at – hooked on that too! Sweet pierogi comes with condense milk poured over it and it was very good again but I think the savoury ones are better. When I finish I clear up and leave not overly full but very satisfied. Again another good find and better than the other two pierogi restaurants I visited because it is cheaper but just as good and because you can get half portions meaning you can get dessert and not feel so stuffed. It is cheap because it is subsidised by a local monastery so I definitely will be back here for more – eating good for cheap and helping the local monastery. I really am turning into a pierogi junkie. In Krakow it was Milk bars and here it’s piergoi…
The savory pierogi
The sweet pierogi
Update: I came here again and this time had a vegetarian pierogi set and it still came with the bacon and pork fat gravy. I thought it might come with sour cream but it didn’t – note to vegetarians, you will have to tell them no gravy.
To Lubie (translated as ‘I like this’)
ul Freta 10
http://www.tolubie.pl
Friday 3rd June 2011
Price: 20 pln (approx £4.50)
A great little cafe with an outdoor seating area. It was so relaxed and quaint, the young waitresses speak English and always have a smile on their face and a desire to please. I had a grapefruit and mint juice which was unusual but very refreshing and whilst reading through some work I decided to try this famous Polish cheese cake – Sernik. It was a baked cheese cake with cherries on top and mixed in. It wasn’t very cheesy or creamy, I think it must have had cake or bread crumbs in the mix as it was fairly spongy. It was nice but I think I would try something else next time. I really love this little cafe, such a great way to spend time on a sunny and hot evening. I will certainly be back to try something else especially as I think it is excellent value and have a English version of their small (drinks and cakes) menu.
Grapefruit and mint
A large slice of cheesecake
Update: I did come back and sat in the ground floor window seat (there is a 1st floor too) and has granola with natural yoghurt and a iced coffee both of which were very good. I sat there read and working for 3 hours not rushed at all and great service as before. Toilets are on the first floor.
The granola, yoghurt and frappe
Kiku
ul Senatorska 17/19
http://www.kiku.pl
Saturday 4th June 2011
Price: 55 pln (approx £12.40)
I came across here as I was wandering a little lost around the back streets near the Old Town, it is near the National Theatre. I saw that they had a well priced lunch set (much better than the sushi restaurants on Nowy Swiat) and that it looked very nice so I decided to go here for dinner and treat myself to a well priced sushi meal. Even though the set menu was a lunch menu I got it here for an early dinner and went for the Maki Bento set which is the cheapest of the bento boxes at 45pln and an aloe vera juice. I was given a dessert appetizer soon after the aloe vera juice arrived. My appetiser, something akin to a banana dough ball, covered in syrup. It was cold and fairly nice but just a little strange to have it as a starter. My miso soup, which is part of the set lunch then came. This was very good, full of flavour and with fresh generous cubes of tofu and bits of seaweed. As I was having my miso soup the bento box arrived. There was quite a lot of food in the bento box – small rolls of salmon and of tuna, futomaki rolls of tofu, salmon, avocado and a bit of mayo, rolls with crab stick and avocado, sesame spinach, salad with dressing and slices of chicken, wasabi and large mound of pickled ginger. There were 2 sushi chefs, one was Japanese the other was a very moody verging on rude Pole. The sushi tasted nice, for the price it was great especially the amount that you get. The ginger in particular was very ginger and not too sweet like the stuff you get in England. All the food was very nice. The restaurant is classic black imitation feel lacquer with bamboo, straw and home-made-pressed-with-flowers paper as decoration. The toilet is unisex and is a single large cubical with bamboo and paper to continue the feel. A very nice restaurant and a bargain once you convert the price back to pounds and think how much you would pay in London – highly recommend.
My sweet appetizer
Contents of the bento box
A Bilkle
35 Nowy Swiat
http://www.bilkle.pl
Wednesday 8th June 2011
Price: 16 pln (approx £3.60)
This is the ‘famous’ cake shop where General de Gaulle came when he visited Warsaw and had one of their doughnuts, because of this they have a cake named after him called ‘The General’, can’t remember what it actually was but I think it was something chocolate related. There is a shop and a cafe on the same site. I brought something from the shop as a gift and the cakes looked pretty good so I wanted to give it a try. It was not this particular occasion I wanted to try it but as I was passing I thought I would look at the menu and as I entered the outdoor seating area I was given a menu and a seat and didn’t feel I could say ‘I just want to look at the menu’ in Polish (although the staff spoke English) so plonked myself down and ordered a grapefruit juice and Paczek – a legendary light dough parcel with candied orange peel and glazed topping. They eventually came (lucky I wasn’t in a rush but wanted to relax and go at a leisurely pace) and I have to say I was rather disappointed. Grapefruit juice was from a carton – I had no expectations there but the Bilkle legendary doughnut was light, had the glaze, candied peel had a little bit of some sort of filling (perhaps a chestnut jam) but all it wasn’t impressive at all, Krispy Kremes are much better. Still can’t complain as once you convert the zloty back to pounds it’s rather cheap and is a nice place to sit and relax.
The 'famous' doughnut
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