My Own Food Tour of Poland

Aside from pierogis, I really didn’t have too much exposure to Polish food prior to my trip.  And even though I knew about pierogis, I didn’t realize that there were both savoury and sweet versions until I got to Poland.

My very first meal in Poland was at Zapiecek in Warsaw’s Old Town.  The place is tiny and even though I arrived at 2pm in the afternoon, there was still a line up.  Luckily I didn’t have to wait long before I was lead to a tiny little table near the back.  Their menu allowed you to order one serving of 9 pierogis or a mixed serving of 10 pierogis.  I decided to go with the mixed option so that I could try more than one flavour and gladly listened to the waitress’ recommendation and chose the Ruthenian and meat & cabbage ones.  I had previously heard about a bacon gravy that was highly recommended so I decided to pair that with the pierogis, but if I had to do it again, I likely wouldn’t order the gravy.  The “gravy” was more like oil and I just didn’t enjoy dipping my pierogis in oil.  The pierogis itself were delicious and really didn’t need the extra sauce.

The next day was a very long sightseeing day for me and I didn’t end up having supper until quite late.  I made my way to a restaurant called Chata, which had great reviews online and when I arrived, the waitress told me that they just received a big order so it would likely take about 20 minutes for my food to arrive.  I was willing to wait and in the end, it didn’t even take that long. 

I ordered a sour soup to start and it was exactly as I imagined – a warm soup with potatoes and sausage that was just the right amount of sourness.  Then came my main meal, a hearty stew of meat and sauerkraut called Bigos.  I could see why this would be a popular winter dish, but it was a bit too salty for me. 

I had heard about these rose jam donuts that are supposed to be amazing and I made my way to Gorące Pączki to order one.  The donut had a wonderful fragrance of rose petals and tasted exactly as it smelled. 

On my last morning in Poland, I finally found my way to Milkbar Tomasza for breakfast.  Milkbars are small, budget, cafeteria style restaurants that became popular after the war.  Many of them started off with menus selling dairy based items but have now revolved to include much more.  I ordered the Irish Breakfast, which was a huge amount of food that ended up costing less than $7 Cdn.

One thing that I wasn’t too fond of was that they charge for using their washroom.  As a paying customer, it seemed ridiculous to have to pay more just to use the facilities.

In my short time in Poland, I was fortunate enough to try a variety of foods, most of which I loved.  Hopefully, more Polish food will be in my future!