Any regular readers of this blog will know that food is a very important part in my life. I love eating it and I love making it. I thought i'd put together a little guide about my favourite places we ate out in Warsaw as I always find things like this so handy when I visit a new city.
Brooklyn Burgers and Wings - ul, Nowy Swiat 36
I eat a lot of burgers. Especially with the friends I went away with so I thought it was only fitting that we hunted down a burger while we were away. This restaurant is owned by an American chef and has consistently received rave reviews. As we sat down we were surrounded by American accents which was only a good thing. We thought it was hilarious when we were present with plastic gloves to eat with - getting messy is part of the fun right? Being a cheese lover I opted for the speciality of 'Juicy Lucy', a impressive patty stuffed with four types of cheese. My only gripe was the bun was rather large for the burger and I had a lot of spare dough to content with. The chips were incredibly moorish thanks to the cajun seasoning. Not bad for a burger Warsaw, not bad.
Unfortunately I can't remember for the life of me what this little place was called but it was about halfway down Nowy Swait (the main posh road) and looked like a little french bakery with a shabby chic furniture and baguettes outside. We were staving hungry having missed breakfast so we randomly stopped here as it looked quite nice. The service isn't too friendly to be honest but the food was lovely. As well as yummy filled baguettes, there are various tasty looking pastries and cakes on offer. It's certainly somewhere to look out for if you're looking for a quick bite to eat before continuing on with your exploring.
Zapiecek - ul. Nowy Swiat
This is chain of restaurants throughout warsaw that you'll see as you wander around. They specialise in dumplings - both the fried type and soft type. There are also various other types of traditional Polish food. They make the idea place to stop off for a bite to eat at reasonably-priced lunch. The portion size of 12 is just the right size to keep you going until your evening meal. I recommend the meat and cabbage fried dumplings with the side of sour cream. Keep in mind if you decide to have 'gravy' with them, it's just oil with bits of bacon and makes the dumplings taste extremely greasy and sickly.
Folk Gospoda - ul, Walicow 13
A word of warning. This is quite some trek from the Old Town. It didn't help that there were roadworks - lots of building work in Warsaw - and the direct road was cut off so we had to walk to through a suspicious looking estate to get to our destination. When we arrived it looked a bit run down but once you step inside it's suddenly transformed. It's all traditionally decked out and is huge! The portions were fairly large so in hindsight we didn't really need to order a starter but it gave me the opportunity to sample potato cakes which got a massive thumbs up. The service was very attentive and the waiter offered some good suggestions on what side to order with the mains. He really did know his stuff! I'd advice you splash out on a taxi to find this gem of a restaurant.
Everywhere you look in Warsaw someone is munching away on a ice cream. Keep an eye out for the word 'lody' as this indicates it's an ice cream shop. We ate in various different places and my personal favourite were caramel and vanilla although I can vouch for the chocolate chip too! It makes a great dessert option as it gives you time to walk off your meal while you find a shop that catches your eye. It's so cheap at around 50p per scoop it would be a crime to only have one scoop in a cone!
Frida - ul, Nowy Swiat 34
I'm a complete sucker for Tex-Mex and fajitas are one of my favourite dishes to eat and cook. There's just something comforting about stuffing your faces with endless spicy chicken and vegetables. Plus it's always nice to create your own dish right? We decided to head to Frida for an early dinner one night as we had to dash to a bar to catch the Manchester United game - boys eh? We shared a starter and I decided to pump for the chicken enchiladas. It was nice, nothing mind blowing but it was nice. It had a ridiculous amount of cheese but I would have preferred a bit more tomato sauce. The decor was amazing - I'm all over floral toilets - and I should think it would have a cracking atmosphere should we visited later on.
