BUDAPEST - Business Traveller

RESTAURANT: WARSAW
Zielnik Café
INFO It’s been 10 years since Zielnik Café
was launched. The place was founded
by Magdalena Gessler and Mariusz Diakowski.
One year later – a summer garden
was created in the Dreszer Park, opposite
the restaurant. The garden is open
from the beginning of May until the end
of September. It’s defi nitely one of the
most beautiful summer gardens in Warsaw.
It’s small, cosy and nicely arranged –
in a simple and comfortable manner. Additionally,
it has comfortable chairs and
nice ornaments. The kitchen is situated
in a small separate pavilion - it’s discreet
and keeps the smells away. When the
mosquitoes start attacking in the evening,
the staff is well prepared – there are repellents,
candles and blankets. It’s a kind
of place you would be proud to show to
your foreign guests, and you yourself would
want to come here for a lunch with
your family too. There is even a playground
for children nearby.
LOCATION Zielnik Café is situated in
Odyniec street in the district of Mokotów,
near Puławska - one of the capital’s main
streets. And so there is a constant trouble
with the inadequate number of parking
spaces.
THE INTERIOR To put it simply: it’s
just pretty. With no unnecessary embellishments,
but refined taste and class.
The main restaurant consists of four rooms,
each one is a bit idyllic in style. On
the walls there are hand made pictures of
herbs, paintings, ubiquitous fl owers and
32 | JULY / AUGUST 2010
bowls full of fruits – all this gives you a feeling
of rural and domestic bliss, but at
the same time, it’s well thought out, a little
bit ascetic, and giving you solace after
a hard day.�
MENU In the menu you will fi nd no Magda
Gessler’s fi nesse and imagination. Instead,
there is a lot of Mariusz Diakowski’s
good taste and solidity. Everything
is fresh and made from high quality products.
Among starters, you will fi nd short
cupcakes with smoked salmon and horseradish
mousse in a honey mustard sauce,
hot spinach with Gorgonzola cheese
and white pepper, crayfi sh in cognac sauce
with cream and croutons, and an excellent
salmon steak tartare with crashed sesame
snaps, fennel, mustard, sour cream
and beans.
The soups in the Zielnik Café are seasonal,
and it’s defi nitely to the benefi t
of the customers as this season they can
try dill-fl avoured broth with home-made
pasta, sorrel soup with hard-boiled
egg or a purred green pea soup with croutons.
Salads come with a great variety
of taste-enriching ingredients. Grilled
prawns, rocket, slices of chicken breast,
complemented by anchovies and parmesan
sauce.
The main courses in the restaurant are
an interesting fusion of tastes from all
over the world, but this only highlights
the high quality of the local original cuisine.
Veal dumplings, Siberian pielmieni
with sour cream and butter or salmon
in a caper sauce and chive puree are defi -
nitely worth recommendation. Desserts
are also fabulous. There is apple pie with
vanilla ice cream or pancakes with apricots
and cointreau. The wine choice is
modest and the prices are average. Chablis,
for 175 PLN a bottle, was delicious.
THE PERSONNEL A good restaurant
can be recognized by its competent and
unassuming service. The one in Zielnik is
perfect. Quick, nice and natural – a customer
will get necessary information without
having to listen to exaggerated admiration
of the dishes presented in the menu
– which is common in some restaurants.
Not to mention the fact, that waitresses in
Zielnik are very pretty.
PRICES The cost of a dinner in Zielnik
is average, if we take into account the fact
that it’s a restaurant in Warsaw. Starters
cost slightly more than 30 PLN, soups are
about 20 PLN, salads – between 33 and
37 PLN, the prices of main courses range
between 35 and 69 PLN, and desserts
cost about 20 PLN.
VERDICT A pleasant place, with high
quality service – good for both a business
meeting and a family lunch.
■ Zielnik Café, ul. Odyńca�15,
02-608 Warszawa
tel.�22�844�35�00, zielnikcafe.pl
Tomasz Koźmiński