Polish restaurants

I read the reviews on Podhalanka - sounds good. I'm of Polish descent, will be visiting my son in Chicago - what is absolutely the best Polish restaurant?

You can read about my current favorite Polish restaurant here:

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t= ... =silensian

Thanks!

I haven't been there (meaning to try it), but by reputation, Lutnia is supposed to have the best high-end Polish food.

HI,

On another board, I posted about Szalas:

http://www.chowhound.com/midwest/boards ... 45359.html

We had a great time there with the food much better than expected.

It is also just a few blocks from Bobaks.

Regards,

Andrzej Grill is absolutely the best Polish restaurant in Chicago. Others may be prettier. Others certainly offer more friendly service. But Andrzej Grill has the best food. The golonka is meaty, tender and flavorful. The chicken paprikash, warm with paprika and chunks of mainly dark meat. The stuffed potato pancake, perfectly crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside and topped with about a quart of really excellent goulash. The beet salad perfectly balances the sweetness of the beets with the gentle bite of horseradish. The pierogis taste the way pierogis should taste. I could go on. I have never had a bad, or even mediocre, dish there. I think the dinner entrees are $7.95.

All that being said, Andrzej, himself, seems to be an odd, melancholic man and his restaurant is, frankly, ugly and barren. Go there anyway.

The Reader recently omitted Andrzej from its list of eastern European restaurants -- a complete and utter travesty (They included the Red Apple. Yikes!) Szalas is good and their Polish mountaineer kitsch decor is funny (you can eat in a sled). Podhalanka is fine and the people are nice. But the food at Andrzej is unsurpassed.

Andrzej Grill
Western and Cortez (about 1100 north, diagonal from Bite and the Empty Bottle)
I think they close at 8 p.m.

There's a lot of variation here, so partly it depends on what you're looking for. Podhalanka and Andrzej Grill are sort of like corner diner Polish. Szalas, by all reports, is surreal Polish. (Has anyone ever tried that Highlander place that's near it on Archer?) My Polish maid, quizzed recently on this subject, strongly urged Hortex as where to go for a nice meal like an anniversary or something; I don't think it's ever been reviewed here but it is in the Slow Food book, I notice. So anyway, you want to take that into consideration, just in case you do the Polish equivalent of wanting to eat at a place like Blackbird and finding yourself at Edgebrook Diner.

Szalas, by all reports, is surreal Polish.

Casting about for a nice, relatively inexpensive Polish place and came across this thread. Szalas sounds, from the previous posts, like a worthwhile candidate...but I'm puzzled by the meaning of "surreal" in this context. Can you help me, Mike G?

On a tangent, I've not been to Hortex, though I remember some other, long departed, high-end places with much fondness. Can anyone add first-hand knowledge of Hortex?

TIA

I'm puzzled by the meaning of "surreal" in this context. Can you help me, Mike G?

Does this help?



Actually, it's a bit unfair to call Szalas surreal, it's simply an ethnic restaurant with a decor theme which is based on a fantasy version of the homeland, which in this case is the Polish highlands. (The best info on this is in the Slow Food guide, by Anna Sobor I assume.) Though admittedly the theme is pretty darn heavy, starting with the bell you have to ring to get inside.



And the water wheel which is one of the room's main features, along with an antique carriage suspended from the ceiling and the stuffed bear whose pose suggests that he's responsible for levitating it. Though all in all, the only truly surreal thing there is that the menu includes a burrito. Well, and maybe the bathrooms.



How was the food? We started with, as recommended in Cathy's old Szalas post and the Slow Food guide, the moskol, a thing that looks like pita, but is made of flour, potato and egg, and served with two schmears-- a tangy sheep cheese and a glob of lard with bits of bacon in it. The lard thing was very tasty but given its lardiness, two bites was enough.



The Highlander's Special is basically a giant potato pancake with goulash inside. This was excellent, slightly peppery, tender chunks of veal, surprisingly light for what it is, easily better than the similar dish at Angelica's, which was as institutionally sturdy as the china it was served on by comparison.



Alas, my wife (partly at my urging) ordered something that had the bad combination of being both unusually expensive and fairly lousy. It was a roasted pheasant, plated handsomely as you can see, but overcooked (very possibly reheated from the night before). There were bits of edible meat on it, especially when dunked in the cranberry chutney, and the dumplings were pretty good if a bit like eating nerf balls texturally, but overall this was a botch.



For the kids (who also nibbled at our plates) we ordered a plate of blintzes, ordinarily a dessert. These were excellent, light and fluffy, orange-liqueur-scented, surrounded by generous amounts of fresh fruit for the price, though I suspect the same dish would be quite different out of season.

We went early, in fact we seemed to be the first folks there to eat rather than drink in the bar, and service was just okay, like they weren't really planning to be up to a party-hearty Polish Highlander welcome for another hour or two. They claim to have live music and probably pack them in late on weekend nights, so I would time a visit for when the place is lively and you're the only non-Pole there, as opposed to when it's empty and you're the only non-Pole there, like us.

Szalas Restaurant
5214 S. Archer Avenue
773-582-0300
www.szalasrestaurant.com

Quite a bit, indeed. It's been too long since I sat down with a nice hot bowl of zurek and a tall glass of the many excellent beers Poland makes. (Well, excepting that very good zurek at Podhalanka one breakfast on a Mil-walk-athon...) Brings back fond memories of Poland; time to return. Thanks very much for the very helpful pics and the commentary. Sounds like a careful visit is in order. And I suspect you are precisely correct about the best time to go....

Thanks for the advice.

Can anyone add first-hand knowledge of Hortex?

Hortex (7419 W. Irving Park) is good. Or at least was good about a year and a half ago when I went there a couple times. I recall that the flaczki (tripe soup) was particularly good, devoid of the vaguely stomachy stank that this dish sometimes has. I recall that everything else that we had was solid. I wish my memory was better. The decor is actually pretty nice, kind of stylish in a youthful, Polish way. I haven't been there for a long time because it is far away.

Oddly we had not such a great experience at Hortex on School and Milwaukee around the same time. It is/was a weird eurodisco with mirrored walls and loud horrible music early in the evening (Jesus Jones, the Thompson Twins, and many other unavoidable horrors from my youth that I thought had been buried forever -- I guess what one person hated as snotty 17 year old was the soundtrack to the overthrow of Polish Communism for another, but still...) The food was mediocre, soggy pierogi and not very good potato pancakes. Both my wife and I have a vivid memory of a young, buff, leatherclad, Polish couple sitting across the room from us drinking shot after shot tequilla (I think I counted six rounds) while talking loudly in English and Polish on their cellphones at the same time (as each other and as doing the shots) before making out briefly but passionately and then lurching out into the twilight as we finished our meal. OK, so it was pretty memorable for a not very good meal, but I don't recommend the place. It was striking how two apparently related restaurants could be so different in every way. But my real point is -- try the Irving Park Hortex (if you must go some place other than Andrzei). The School Street branch is, well, something else.

My cleaning lady who recommended Hortex on Irving didn't even know it had a sibling closer to her Avondale home, which I take to mean that they're in fairly different businesses (ie, restaurant versus disco), whatever their relation might be.

* * *

Anyway, answering my own question in the thread posed by a journalist writing about that dang Red Apple for the millionth time as if it were the only frickin' Polish restaurant in Chicago, I happened to try Northpoint after my first attempt, a taco place called Mario's loudly advertising THE BEST TACOS IN CHICAGO, proved to be closed on Sunday and so Liam and I just started walking up North figuring I'd find something sooner or later.

And indeed I did: Northpoint is a new(ish) Polish cafe with aspects of a bar and a coffeehouse, jumbled together in an authentically Eastern European way, and apparently staffed by at least one veteran of the late Busy Bee. Interestingly, the table next to the one I sat at had a party of what looked like Wicker Park kids and the parents of same, so I was surprised to hear one of the moms start talking, in a midwestern twang, about Smak Tak and, a few minutes later, about a visit to the Zakopane region.

Alas, though what we had at Northpoint was perfectly edible, it clearly ranked behind every other Polish meal I've had in recent times. I often seem to wind up ordering goulash, because you also get a potato pancake without ordering the standard order of 14 potato pancakes, and in this case the pancake was probably from a mix, not scratch-made, and the goulash was some kind of stew meat, in contrast to the delicate veal chunks at Szalas, with less flavor than the peppery sauce at either Szalas or Angelica's. (Szalas' was only a dollar or two more, while Angelica's was quite a bit less.) Liam's cheese blintzes were okay but apparently pre-made, as they were cold just like the cheese inside them, which meant the edges were a bit dried out. On the other hand, he clearly liked the extra touch of mini-marshmallows scattered around the plate, and would have happily eaten a whole bag.

Fittingly, given that this all started with a discussion of journalists sticking to the known, I noticed as I left that apparently within minutes of its founding, Northpoint had gotten a Cheap eats review. Better places which do not fall within Yuppieville's boundaries will have to continue to wait for their discovery by our major media, I guess.*

NorthPoint Cafe & Grill
2234 W. North Ave.
773-395-1111

* A bit unfair; the same Trib writer at least wrote this much more adventuresome piece.

Mike G wrote:Better places[/url] which do not fall within Yuppieville's boundaries will have to continue to wait for their discovery by our major media, I guess.

Pointy of order, Mr. G. Is it not true that we at LTH Forum are becoming the major media by proxy? Look at all the places that soon after they are mentioned here somehow appear in Chicago Magazine and even The Tribune. I won't even mention The Reader and Time Out Chicago, where we are obviously taken quite seriously.

I curse our expertise regularly as I drive by Paradise Pup at lunch time to see a line of 50 people waiting on dogs and burgers. We should make up a new place that's not so good and champion it (calm down, just kidding).

I belive Szalas used to be a restaurant called The Red Barrel. We frequented it as a kid, but I remeber only a couple of things about it.

1. The big Red Barrel/A-Frame style
2. They gave you butter flavored salted popcorn in pressed-wood bowls.
3. Along the side that had bunnies that lived in the yard. They were not on the menu.
4. They had some video games I was rarely allowed to play.

I think most of the food was plastic red basket fare, burgers and beer and such. They must have been decent, as we went there often, but I disliked the place because I had an odd childhood phobia of fireplaces (some crazy uncle told me they put bad kids in them at the original Connie's) and I hate popcorn.

The bunnies were cool.

Lutnia wrote:I haven't been there (meaning to try it), but by reputation, Lutnia is supposed to have the best high-end Polish food.

Today at the Polish American Museum, when I couldn't remember the name of my destination restaurant, I gave rough coordinates of 5900 West Belmont. The best guess made was I was going to Lutnia, known as the (holding fingers in air like quotation marks) "Fanciest Polish restaurant in Chicago." There was a bit of a sneer in the way it was stated, which intrigued me.

When I came to the intersection of Central and Belmont, I saw Lutnia to the right and left my guests idling in the car, while I ran in to check it out. Just from the street I knew I was walking into a time warp with the round bubble picture windows circa 1970 style sensibilities. This place was glamourous in the style often seen in Eastern Europe when it was behind the Iron Curtain. Crushed velvet overstuffed sofas and chairs in the lounge near the bar. Briefly peering into the restaurant, there a white piano on a raised platform in the restaurant's corner. Liberace would be at home in the uber glamorous restaurant.

Though my party would have been the only guests, I felt terribly underdressed in my jeans and t-shirt. I inquired for a take-out menu, when they took a menu and photocopied it for me. The dinner menu seemed overpriced by Chicago Polish standards, however their daily lunch specials seemed reasonable though not always Polish. In fact their prices were roughly twice what I ultimately paid for at my destination for the same.

I briefly scanned an article on Lutnia which described it more as a 1960's Continental-style restaurant, which seemed more on target than a strictly Polish restaurant.

I will be back sometime soon for lunch initially. I really want a sense of their food before investing further in their menu. I also want an excuse to take pictures of the interior because it simply is eye candy.

Lutnia
5532 W Belmont Avenue
Chicago
Tel: 773/282-5335

Trying to make the best of the return of winter, we stopped into Smak-Tak tonight and had some warming chow.

The Hungarian soup was very fresh tasting, full of hand-cut vegetables and sparked with dill and parsley.

I had the hunter stew, which looked a lot like the goulash that filled The Wife's crisp and tasty potato pancake, though minus the paprika and strewn with sauerkraut.

All our dishes had a very clean taste, like they were made from-scratch just that day, which, according to the amiable Stephanie Lakomy (step-mom of owner Piotr), they were.

Oddly, though, this is not a very comfortable restaurant. It's well-kept and tidy, but done up with a kind of neo-Early American/Scanda-severity that makes it hard to relax (at least for me). Still, the people (what few there were) seemed friendly, and you get a good quantity of good food for a good price.

Hammond

Smak-Tak
5961 North Elston
773. 763.1123

David Hammond wrote:I had the hunter stew, which looked a lot like the goulash that filled The Wife's crisp and tasty potato pancake, though minus the paprika and strewn with sauerkraut.

You probably already know this, but just in case (and for the edification of others): Hunter's stew is the generally the English name give to a Polish dish called bigos, and is often dubbed the national dish of Poland. It's basically composed of sauerkraut and any meat you might find lying around, along with herbs and spices that typically include pepper, caraway, and marjoram. There's probably as many recipes as families in Poland. Growing up, our typical bigos consisted of a mixture of smoked and fresh meats (usually ham, bacon, hot dogs, pork, veal, Polish sausage, etc), garlic, sauerkraut, tomato paste, porcini, onions, black pepper, and bay leaves.

Binko wrote:You probably already know this, but just in case (and for the edification of others): Hunter's stew is the generally the English name give to a Polish dish called bigos, and is often dubbed the national dish of Poland. It's basically composed of sauerkraut and any meat you might find lying around, along with herbs and spices that typically include pepper, caraway, and marjoram. There's probably as many recipes as families in Poland. Growing up, our typical bigos consisted of a mixture of smoked and fresh meats (usually ham, bacon, hot dogs, pork, veal, Polish sausage, etc), garlic, sauerkraut, tomato paste, porcini, onions, black pepper, and bay leaves.

There was a lot going on in that stew (which was very un-stewlike in that it was relatively dry, unlike "american stew" which I think of as almost soupy in a gravy). I did notice chunks of mushroom (porcini? maybe), and there was a sausage in there, though no caraway. I liked it quite a lot, but man, I'd have felt a whole lot better laying bricks for a few hours after eating. That is some heavy chow. No wonder Smak-Tak is so popular among local construction crews (again, according to the very friendly Ms. Lakomy).

Hammond

If you saw mushrooms, and assuming they're not your typical button mushrooms, they are most likely porcini (aka prawdziwki in Polish). Dried porcini, which are then reconstituted, are a fairly typical ingredient in Polish cooking. My mother always has a sack of porcini stashed away in the freezer which she obtains either through Polish markets or from her sister in Poland.

Caraway is one of those optional ingredients in bigos. I love caraway, my mother, not so much, so her version of bigos never contains caraway. Which is actually fine, as you normally eat bigos with rye bread (and optionally a shot of vodka), so I make sure to reach for the carawayed rye.

It's interesting to me that bigos isn't more well-known here in the States, considering it is regarded as the national dish of Poland, and many other elements of Polish cuisine are pretty popular (pierogi, galabki, etc.) Then again, maybe all that sauerkraut is a hard sell.

Binko wrote:It's interesting to me that bigos isn't more well-known here in the States, considering it is regarded as the national dish of Poland, and many other elements of Polish cuisine are pretty popular (pierogi, galabki, etc.) Then again, maybe all that sauerkraut is a hard sell.

I was thinking about bigos all morning, so I actually ate lunch early to get some of that good stuff in my belly. I made a point of tasting for caraway, and didn't find any, though as you say, we had it with caraway rye so that flavor was in the mix. I thought the sauerkraut was an excellent addition to this stew, adding a tart smack as well as a vegetal texture to the meal.

Mike G wrote:Szalas, by all reports, is surreal Polish.

Looking for a cultural-immersion lunch today, we headed down to Archer and decided on Szalas over Bobak's for lunch. Certainly, the moniker of surreal on the mark - the massive white coi in the tiny fishpond are certainly so - it reminded me a great deal of bavarian-themed restaurants in the Cincinnati area. Though I don't know how authentic a cultural experience it was, I enjoyed the over-the-top decor, especially the two sleighs repurposed as booths.

Our lunch was OK; their lunch menu is pretty short and to the point; I enjoyed the bigos: the tomato sauce, which had soaked into the sauerkraut, cut the sourness of the dish. The 'spouse opted for polish sausage, and got an entire round, crisply grilled and scored, with kraut. Sparky had meatballs, which were a bit bland and dry, but had a nice sour cream and mushroom gravy. Lunch set us back $30; cheap for the amount of meat we got, but a bit pricey for what it was, I thought.

I've never been wowed by Szalas; everything I've tried there has been pretty good, but you can get better and cheaper at many other places. In my opinion, it's a good place to take out-of-towners for the decor, not necessarily for the best execution of the cuisine.

Having been turned on to Halina's by VI, it has become my go to plate lunch polish place. I'm particularly awed by the white borscht, which these days can consititute an entire lunch for me.

It ceratinly doesn't hurt Halina's that one can kip across the street for a post lunch pastry from Delightful Pastry.

It looks like Szalas has closed.

On their Facebook page on October 9, Szalas wrote:

Szala's" ~Time for a change!

After 11 years in operation on South Archer Avenue in Chicago, Szala's is saying goodbye. Owner Maria Lassak communicates to all of the dear friends and patrons whom she has met over the years, her sincere thanks and gratitude for the wonderful time spent together. Without you, it could of never been. Thank you and as we say in Polish, Do Zobaczenia!

I tried calling and their phone is disconnected.

SMAKOSZ RESTAURANT..

I think this is one of the best polish restaurants in Chicago. Wide Variety of dishes and affordable prices. Very clean. The pork cutlet with mushrooms is outstanding and they have plum pierogi which many places do not offer.


5619 W Lawrence Ave
Chicago, IL 60630
b/t Major Ave & Central Ave
Portage Park

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Smakosz- ... &ref=br_tf

Are there any solid Polish places on the southside??

I feel like most are now closed