The Week we Ate Krakow...

I last visited Krakow in the mid 1990’s. In those days, Poland had only recently emerged blinking and hesitant into the free market, so many of the restaurants were basic. Choices in Krakow were generally restricted to traditional Polish, or basic pizza places.

Of course, time marches on, and our recent visit found us eying up a whole range of different food options. One of the tour guides at the Wavel told us there were over 1000 different restaurants in the city centre; I can believe her!

We were keen to sample good traditional Polish food on at least one evening of our visit, and after a five minute wander from the Rynek Glowny (Krakow’s main square), we found our place, the artfully distressed form of Nostalgia on Ul Karmelicka. Nostalgia has been opened since 2001, and has become well established on the dining circuit.

Nostalgia is just down an alley off the main street, giving it a quiet and sedate air. As the road is a busy one, I much prefer its off road location. There is an outside courtyard, which must make for pleasant dining in summer. We weren’t quite so keen to take advantage of the facility in sub-zero January, and preferred a table closer to the open fire inside.

While the restaurant is lovely and perfectly formed, I found the look just a little too forced, with its prefect distressed yellowed walls, and deliberately aged fixtures and fittings. I guess the pretend distressed is far more hygienic than actually sitting amongst authentically peeling paint and plasterwork!

The restaurant is on two floors and they offer both smoking and non-smoking areas. As I live in a non-smoking country, I was a little shocked to see indoor smoking, but I’m pleased to say that none of it drifted in my direction.

We decided to skip the starters on offer, although we got some gratis bread, and garlic and herb butter. Instead, we just went for some hearty main courses, with a couple of side dishes to keep hunger at bay. I elected for the Bigos, with a side dish of Gnocchi (small pasta type dumplings), and a salad of cucumber, sour cream and dill.

Bigos is one of the most traditional of Polish dishes; while it doesn’t look pretty (you wouldn’t want to step in it on the pavement!), it is a complex meal of sauerkraut, chopped cabbage and five different meats. The Nostalgia version of Bigos was both smoked and salty, and so the smooth cucumber refreshed my taste buds perfectly, while the simple and bland Gnocchi toned down the intensity perfectly.

My beloved enjoyed her wonderfully intense garlic chicken breast. The meat was plentiful, and the garlic sauce couldn’t have possibly contained any more garlic. This dish isn’t for the cautious diner, and note, you can still taste garlic the following day!

I remember from my last visit, that the Polish have a long and intense relationship with the mushroom. I have memories of taking a walk, and coming across the “grandmothers” of the village wandering the woods with wicker baskets of freshly picked mushrooms. Our dining companion just had to choose the vegetable stuffed dumplings in a wild mushroom sauce. The dumplings were pretty much like large stuffed ravioli, and the mushroom sauce set them off perfectly.

Although we have healthy appetites, the main and two side dishes each was enough to keep the wolf from the door, and we left the restaurant happy and full. I’m pleased we hadn’t elected for a starter.

Our service was prompt, friendly and attentive (a common thread of our Krakow experience), and I didn’t feel that the wait staff were keen to get us out of the door. We enjoyed quietly and slowly finishing off our beer and wine without disruption.

While I would describe Nostalgia as being one of the "better" Krakow dining choices, our meal, with a couple of drinks came out at around £15 per head. While I know one can dine in Krakow for much less (£2 will get you a laded pizza slice in a basic but clean restaurant), I thought the experience and quality of the food was excellent value.

We had heard that the Kazimierz district was a good place to find unusual and excellent restaurants in Krakow. As we always try to find a restaurant off the usual tourist track (as they have to make more effort to get diners through the door), we decided to take a trek down to Kazimierz one evening.

Kazimierz was home to the old Jewish quarter. After the war, only around 6,000 Krakow Jews has survived (the pre-war population was around 65,000). Almost left to wrack and ruin, the area was only restored after the collapse of the iron curtain, when surviving relatives could claim the old family home. Today, the place is a strange mix of restored and dilapidated, but it is a lively place to wander.

As it was sleeting, we didn’t want to walk any longer then strictly necessary, and so found the Cosa Nostra on the edge of Kazimierz, on Ul Dajwor, almost opposite the Galica Jewish Museum. As you might expect from the name, the Cosa Nostra specialise in Italian dishes.

From the outside, the place certainly looked promising; a well-maintained building set right onto the street. Inside, the restaurant was clean and tidy, and invitingly painted in a cheerful peach. An English-speaking server greeted us. We put the sluggish number of diners down to the weather, the slightly out-of-the-way location, and the mid-week in January. The restaurant has a ground floor and basement, together with smoking and non-smoking sections. Our table was next to a wall-pained fresco of Italian scenery.

While the food was OK, I was disappointed that the Cosa Nostra didn’t serve us what was described on the menu. For starters, we decided to share a couple of garlic breads (described as focaccia). Rather than receive the risen flat bread I expected, we had some dry and burnt garlic and rosemary on flat and almost unleavened bread. I found the starter very dry, and not particularly enjoyable. Even a little oil added to the topping would have helped.

Thankfully, we had also ordered a couple of salads, whose moisture enabled me to finish a couple of pieces of the garlic bread. My salad was the rather fancy, tuna, quails eggs and chickpea salad. It was very nice, although it didn’t actually contain chickpeas! The haricot beans were fine, but again, we weren’t served what we had expected.

For my main course, I ordered an Etna pizza, which was very large and fairly tasty. While it contained the red chillies and anchovies that was described, it lacked the salami. My beloved’s sun dried tomato certainly lived up to expectation, although like mine, the pizza base wasn’t the tastiest. Our dining companions tiger prawn dish was considerably oversold, being of the small and cheap prawn variety, rather than the juicy tiger prawn version described. It was more of a pussycat.

The wine was a more reasonable deal, being flavoursome and reasonably priced.

One of the stranger aspects to the Cosa Nostra is that the ground floor toilet leads directly into the restaurant (I am more used to there being some kind of alcove, and two doors between toilet and diners). I found it quite disconcerting to urinate, with the voices of happy diners chatting just through the door.

In all, our meal came to just over £40 ($80) for four, so it wasn’t an unmitigated disaster. However, while the food wasn’t terrible, I would much prefer to dine in a place that has a better attention to detail. After we left the restaurant, we wandered around Kazimierz a little more, and found a number of promising looking places within 200 yards of the Cosa Nostra. Given the sheer number of similar priced restaurants to choose from, I can’t recommend the Cosa Nostra. Do yourself a favour and hunt down somewhere else!

If I could have my Krakow stay again, I would have arranged to visit the Buena Vista Restaurant for dinner rather than lunch. At least I managed to enjoy one meal at this excellent and friendly Cuban style bar/restaurant.

Buena Vista is located on ul Jozefa in the heart of the old Jewish quarter, Kazimierz. We were keen to rest our legs and grab a drink, and the Buena Vista just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

It is something of a tradition that we have at least one Mojito (a rum and fresh mint and crushed ice based drink) on vacation, and as they originate in Cuba, a Cuban theme bar was a no brainer for a pit stop.

The bar looked inviting from the outside, and we liked the sharp yellow interior, and very bright and well stocked bar showing pictures from Cuba, including one of our man Fidel.

While we have had a few Mojitos across the world, no bar before has ever presented us with a choice of different flavours. I went with the original rum and mint variety, while my dining companions went with a vanilla and a melon. Each Mojito cost between £4 - 5 ($8 - 10). Our bartender quickly went to work, effectively knocking up our drinks. Draft beer was available for our fourth companion who wasn’t playing the lunchtime Mojito game.

We weren’t disappointed with the quality of the Mojito. My classic was as good as any I have had. There were oodles of mint, and the drink was not too sweet, with a fair (but not excessive) kick of rum. The Melon in particular was laden with fruit, to the point that the last few drops were difficult to suck out.

As we were enjoying our drinks, we decided to idly peruse the food menu. I was very intrigued by the main courses, which looked far more exciting than anything we were offered in produce scarce Cuba. I was pleased to see that the old staples of Plantain Chips and Moors and Christians (rice and black beans) were given as side dishes as standard. I can’t think of anything more Cuban!

Each of the main courses were fairly expensive by Polish standards (between £8 - £10 ($16 - 20)) but looked excellent.

I liked the idea of the Tuna steak, or Pork in Cumin, but my companions had spotted the Tapas menu. This seemed more appropriate for a quick lunchtime graze, and so we went for the 12-dish option (which provided a light lunch for four for around £10 ($20) total). I imagine 18 dishes would give a party of four a fair sized meal, particularly if you also ordered a salad or two.

The Buena Vista menu offered a choice of around 18 different dishes, so we chose all different ones, including fresh barbeque tuna pieces, potato in tomatoes, fried mackerel, breaded mushrooms, Chorizo in red wine, meatballs, and spinach tart. There was certainly enough variety for the vegetarian in our party to pick at happily.

We decided to pad out our meal with bread, and a salad. We actually wanted a plain green salad or something similar, so was a little disappointed to find that all the salads contained meat of some kind. The wait staff had excellent English, and so had no problems understanding our request for the fennel and turnip salad without the ham.

The Tapas arrived quite promptly, and we were impressed with the presentation; each Tapas arrived in its own wooden bowl. I’m pleased I didn’t have to do the clearing away, or the washing up!

Each of the Tapas was substantial enough to give two of the party a sample, so if there are a number of you and there’s something all of you want, order accordingly.

I’m not usually one for sweet, but the thought of chocolate mousse with rosemary just caught my imagination. Alas, as they had none left, we were thwarted. However, it gave us the perfect excuse to go for a traffic light of Mojitos to finish, the Royal (raspberry), Orange, and Blue (actually a little green to complete the traffic light look!).

The Buena Vista is a quiet eatery by day, but it becomes a livelier dance place at night, with Latin vibes until early morning at weekends. While we perhaps didn’t see the place at its liveliest, I found the place really good quality, and as far as the Tapas lunch was concerned excellent value.

For our final evening meal in Krakow, we were keen to ensure we chose our restaurant well, and so took some time to read our “Krakow in your pocket” guide map. The place we came up with was intriguingly called Miod Malina, which translates to “Honey Raspberry” in English.

The restaurant serves a mix of Polish and Italian dishes, a combination that appears to be very popular here in Krakow. Indeed, we too enjoyed flitting from Eastern European to Mediterranean tastes as the evening progressed.

We actually found the Miod Malina quite difficult to find. Although it is on one of the main streets between the Rynek Glowny (the main square) and the Wavel (castle), the restaurant stands in a poorer part of the street, behind some large pillars. That the place doesn’t have to present itself in a show of flashy lights and signs, gives an indication it sells itself through the quality of its food. That the place is almost full of locals on a January Monday evening is another positive indicator.

The Miod Malina is reasonably (but not cheaply) priced. As we were on our final evening, we were on a slightly tight budget, and so chose fairly carefully. I would always prefer to enjoy a cheaper dish in an expensive restaurant, and enjoy a meal done well, rather than attempt a splurge in a cheaper place. An extravagant meal done badly is an offence of the worst kind.

I chose the Italian Bruschetta, and enjoyed a simple spread of chopped fresh tomato, with garlic and herbs tottering on three toasted pieces of French Bread. My beloved went with the Polish pancakes with wild mushroom sauce. The potato pancakes were substantial and thick, well herbed, and almost like a rosti, while the wild mushroom sauce was to die for. The Polish have a long love affair with the mushroom, and with dishes like this, I’m not surprised why.

For our main course, I decided to play it safe, with a Tuna, Tomato and Mozzarella Calzone. The dish arrived beautifully baked, steaming and huge. While the dish was simple, the ingredients were excellent and perfectly balanced. The crust likewise was light and perfect. To go with the Calzone, I went with the Polish cucumber, sour cream and dill salad. This arrived with some lettuce underneath, and so was almost a full green salad. Again, I enjoyed the strong taste of the salad against the simple pizza.

My beloved chose a lasagne, which she described as the best she had eaten in a long time, and had a bowl of chips (un-skinned potato chunks) to accompany. As she has worked in an Italian restaurant in a former life, this is rare praise indeed, as only her own made lasagne usually passes muster.

We were sat next to a table of locals who had ordered a full Polish meal. While the dishes such as duck in applesauce were rather more expensive (at around £10 ($20) before accompaniments, they are fairly pricy in Polish terms), they looked the real deal. I’m sure I would have appreciated those meals just as much.

The interior of the restaurant is comfortable, clean but not too stuffy or smart. The arched ceilings give the building a certain class. I especially liked the fun painted raspberry on the wall next to our table.

The restaurant has two long narrow rooms, with about 100 or so covers. Some of the seats face onto the window of the busy street, and so you can watch the world pass by. Although the Miod Malina was almost full when we visited, the service was prompt and efficient if not over friendly.

Our fairly carefully chosen meal with a couple of drinks, came to around £25 ($50) for two, certainly a reasonable deal given the quality of the food. For my money, the Miod Malina certainly matched Restaurant Nostalgia for choice, taste and quality. Perhaps the more friendly service in the latter just gave it the edge.

One of the more tempting and lighter cooking styles of Eastern Europe is Georgian. We certainly enjoyed the lighter taste of the Chicken Shashlik (barbeque chicken with salad) during our trip to Moscow. As we don’t see many (or in fact, any!) Georgian restaurants in the UK, we were determined to have one meal at Gruzinskie Chaczapuri in Krakow during our recent stay.

Gruzinskie Chaczapuri is a (small) chain restaurant, with five outlets in prominent places in Krakow. The menu also offers diners a franchise opportunity, so they must be keen to expand. We entered the restaurant in ul Sienna, near the main old Market Square, and I was pleased to note the reasonable prices on the menu. The place is casual but tidy and largely frequented by local students during the lunchtime we visited.

I had to give one bad mark on entrance, as we waited a while for the wait staff to seat us. As two members of staff walked past us without acknowledgement, we concluded we would find our own table. I assume this is the standard procedure here, as we quickly received menus once seated. Unfortunately, the Gruzinskie Chaczapuri restaurant appears not to have segregated smoking and non-smoking areas, so we ended up sitting in a rather smoky den.

The menu appeared large, but closer inspection revealed that most of the dishes were simply combinations of a few staple ingredients. We could choose grilled chicken or pork, with soft flat bread (rather like a chapatti), chips, rice, salad (of sweet pickled shredded cabbage) and vegetables in a ratatouille, in any combination or permutation.

Being a glutton, I chose one of the more expensive meals, containing most of these staple ingredients for £5 ($10), but some smaller dishes cost more like £3 ($6) a dish. This is certainly a very reasonable (but not unbeatable) price for Krakow old town.

Our server first gave us two very bland and squashy rolls of white bread. Given the wonderful rye and dark breads that the Polish usually eat, it was a major disappointment. This was more like cotton wool processed bread. To accompany the boring bread, we were given three large jugs of sauce. One was mayonnaise, another, a very bland garlic mayonnaise and the third, a piquant tomato type sauce. All three sauces had obviously come from pre-prepared vats of processed sauce.

After nervously nibbling on the bread and dips, my grilled chicken breast soon arrived squashed into a “road kill” shape for quicker grilling. The restaurant cooked it with Georgian seasoning, which seems to comprise largely of paprika and salt. I liked the chicken overall, but it seemed a just a little dry and overcooked.

My chicken arrived with chips and ratatouille. The former were thin cut, and obviously pre-prepared, while the latter was unfortunately only just to say warm. My beloved had a similar meal, only with her chicken with the lukewarm ratatouille, wrapped in one of the afore mentioned flat breads. She also had the salad of sweet pickled cabbage.

Overall, our meal was a little disappointing, although it was on the correct side of edible. To be fair, our meal was one of the least expensive we had in Krakow, at around £16 ($32) for two, including a couple of beers.

While the Gruzinskie Chaczapuri didn’t particularly float my boat, I can imagine the food going down better with the McDonalds/KFC crowd, and for those on a more limited budget.