The underrated city that's having a food revival post lockdown

Seeping under the doors on Warsaw’s streets, past the heavy curtains which are pulled shut in the winter months to keep out the chill, are an increasingly colourful variety of fragrances and aromas. Once, in the not so distant past, it would only have been the smell of home-cooked cabbage rising from the windows or of earthy mushrooms served warm between two halves of a crusty roll on street corners. Now, all over town the air is scented with the east and the west, with fermented pickles and blueberry buns, bubbling ramen and freshly roasted coffee.

The diversity dances along the cobbles, seducing the passer-by to dip into different worlds from Japan to Mexico, Beirut to Tel Aviv, to try vegan food or natural wines, gastro or comfort food.

Those who feel cheated of exploring pastures new with our limited travel options would do well to consider a trip to Warsaw, where Covid-19 is under control, masks can be abandoned except in taxis and there is an exciting, vibrant new foodie scene to experience. So where to begin?

The newest opening, and still the hottest ticket in town is Nobu, where chef Yannick Lohou, fresh from Nobu Barcelona, rolls out the famous black cod miso alongside toro tartare with caviar, the king crab tempura with watermelon (yes, it works), and the dish that has unofficially been crowned Warsaw’s favourite: Wagyu beef and foie gras dumplings with spicy ponzu. It is about as close as you can get to the traditional Polish pierogi (normally filled with cabbage and mushrooms or white cheese and potato), but here plump with 2020 culinary sophistication.

This is also the place to base yourself, for above the restaurant the Nobu Hotel offers 117 rooms, an enticing haven in the heart of a city I kept hearing people compare, buzz-wise, with Berlin. Eighty bedrooms lie in the new wing, boasting a Japanese aesthetic with a sleek, minimalist finish blending concrete and oak, while 37 art deco bedrooms with polished parquet flooring and bathrooms with equally polished brass trimmings are situated in the existing 1920s building, which was previously the Hotel Rialto.

The idea of the two parts neatly spanning a hundred years appealed to film producer Meir Teper, one of the three founding members of Nobu, alongside Robert De Niro and of course the eponymous chef, who also happens to have Polish roots.

Warsaw bounced back from an early, and pretty successful, lockdown. In addition to new restaurants, this year has seen a score of interesting new projects. May saw the coming of Elektrownia Powisle, a regenerated power station in the city centre which was first built in 1904 as Warsaw’s main source of electricity and is now a dazzling example of industrial urban chic, complete with retro neon lights, steel supports and buffed brick work. Inside, brands including Urban Outfitters and Converse, as well as Warsaw’s first beauty hall offering everything from brow bars to barber shops, skincare brands to massage treatments.

In Praga, for decades an edgy district on the left bank of the River Vistula, an abandoned 19th-century red-brick vodka distillery, the Praga Koneser Centre, now acts as a cultural and gastronomic hub, housing an interactive Polish Vodka Museum (which offers tastings), as well as several bars and restaurants.

I was in Praga to try a modest new restaurant, Zrodlo, which had opened in the dark days of lockdown, and to meet Warsaw’s queen of food journalism, Malgorzata Minta. Over a memorable plate of Bryndza cheese dumplings with apple and marjoram and a slice of toasted brioche piled high with chanterelles, flecked with garlic and thyme, Malgorzata talked me through recent changes on the Warsaw food scene.

“Coffee culture is booming,” she explained, with speciality cafés popping up everywhere. “The vegan offering is huge now, with even vegan sushi restaurants a thing – like Youmiko, which serves superb tuna look-a-like tomato nigiri. Artisanal bakeries have also taken off, as did baking in lockdown, when yeast sold out across Warsaw”. We planned a whirlwind culinary tour for the next day, taking in the new, the quirky and the not-to-be-missed.

It started with Monika Walecka, whose @thereshecooks Instagram page with its following of 61,200 is evidence that bakers are the new rock stars in Warsaw. Standing in Cala w Mace, a warmly fragrant, flour-filled bakery in residential Zoliborz, owner Monika showed me the 12 different styles of bread she produces, from California-inspired country-style bread to salt and black sesame wheat loaves, and bread made from ancient grains like einkorn.

She mills her own flour and favours a long fermentation to make the bread digestible. Having opened a few months before lockdown, Monika continued to bake during it, putting sourdough starters in packages outside her door each morning as presents for those who passed by. Now she has an almost cult-like following for her products, with queues winding around the block a normal sight and the smell of her blueberry buns luring in passers-by.

From there I went to the tiny, blink-and-you-would-miss it Forum Cafe, to taste a few of its speciality coffees from top European roasters. I loved the  refreshing tonic espresso, tried alongside a sensational open ricotta sandwich, overlaid with ribbons of courgette, melon and mint.

Lunch was at Forty Restaurant. Set in a leafy park, this 19th-century red-brick fort has been skilfully converted by Studio Rygalik mixing wooden tables, crafted from old barns, with tiled floors and iron girders. Chef Daniel Uliczny displays a sure touch with a menu that sang of summer. A ripe tomato, with a dusting of goat’s cheese, came bathed in a raspberry and Tasmanian pepper dressing; chanterelles arrived in a citrus zabaglione with quinoa. And the wine? A Polish white from Winnica Wieliczka near Krakow.

We finished on a high note at restaurant Bez Gwiazdek, where acclaimed chef Robert Trzopek sources his eco-friendly, seasonal ingredients from farms out in the countryside, pairing dishes with a wine list that favours ecological and biodynamic wines from central and eastern Europe.

His menu included a starter of cucumber, hollowed out and filled with sorrel, salmon caviar and horseradish cream. It danced off the plate with effervescent lightness, crunchy and soft all in the same bite. All that was left to consume was a nightcap.

Minta suggested the elegant Long Bar at the Raffles Europejski, a beautifully restored 19th-century Grand Dame which opened under the Raffles flag in 2018. Through the swing doors we went, me pausing to look at the impressive contemporary Polish art on display, but that is for another article.

Essentials

Nobu Hotel Warsaw (warsaw.nobuhotels.com) offers double rooms from €150 (£134), including breakfast.