Andiamo andiamo
Ristorante San Lorenzo
Al. Jana Pawla II 36
652 1616
Open Midday until last guest
Credit cards and reservations accepted
In this life, the cliche goes, there are only two things you can be certain of: death and taxes.
In this life in Warsaw, there are two more things you can add to the list: You'll be lucky to ever see a Burger King Whopper on sale again. And it won't be long before this city has enough Italian restaurants to rival Rome.
OK, the Rome reference is a bit of an exaggeration, but it would be fair to say that at the moment, every second restaurant that is opening in Warsaw is of the Italian persuasion. If pasta, pizza and gelato aren't your bag, you'll find yourself hard-pressed to find an alternative. Or to put it another way, if you can't stand eating to the strains of Mario Lanza, Frank Sinatra or Pavarotti, it looks like you'll just have to get used to indigestion.
But the question on the tip of any diner's tastebuds is: Are these restaurants serving food that's as good as the delectable dishes you'll find on the back streets of Florence? Answer: Probably not.
The difference between mediocre Italian food and magnificent Italian food is like comparing processed ham with air-cured Parma ham: It tastes OK, but it's a poor substitute for the real thing.
Now, finally, in Warsaw there is a restaurant that might just be able to make that quantum leap into the realm of the magnificent Ristorante San Lorenzo.
Named after Saint Lorenzo, the patron saint of cooks, this restaurant opened in May at the location where once stood the Time Cafe and upstairs, a fashion store. And if looks are anything to go by, the minute you walk into this place you can tell you're on to a good thing.
"Certainly looks like they've spent some money here," said David gazing in wonder at the pleasant surrounds.
Downstairs, there is a groovy, fluorescent-tipped cafe serving a light lunch and dinner menu with a handful of pasta, salad and dessert options.
A quick walk up a sweeping Scarlet O'Hara staircase, you enter the dining room proper: a two-tiered testimony to the art of tasteful design, which hasn't obliterated its communist heritage. There are tall ceilings, discrete furnishings, glittering table settings and the murmur of soft dialogue from guests flowing from floor to floor. Violin music plays and muted murals of women in diaphanous gowns hang on the walls.
It's certainly a beautiful place; the sort of restaurant where, on a warm summer afternoon, with the tall windows open and the breeze blowing through the muslin curtains and rattling the potted cumquat trees, I could think of no finer place to be. And in the coming weeks, a garden dining area will be opening.
Co-owner Enrico Buscema has created a little piece of Tuscany in Warsaw beginning with his Italian chef and finishing with the convivial surrounds. He also dabbles in fashion with the Terranova fashion stores in Poland, so it's no coincidence that San Lorenzo's waitstaff sport T-shirts emblazoned with "Terranova."
And for a change, this is a restaurant that showcases the wines of its country: There are Italian wines from all over, including Tuscany, Sardinia, and Sicily. We chose a sensational Riesling (zl. 100) from the Friuli region to go with our meal.
The menu is generous, without being verbose, including dishes such as pappardelle with duck sauce, gnocchi with pumpkin and shrimps, pork fillet with herbs, Tuscany style fritto misto, and partridge in bacon fat with fried bread.
For my starter, I chose the spinach ravioli. Not usually a fan of creamy pasta sauces, I'd actually go so far as to say that this is possibly one of the most scrumptious plates of pasta I've eaten. Softly firm pillows of ricotta-filled ravioli topped with a sauce that was essentially just steamed spinach, tossed through with a dollop of cream and just a hint of nutmeg. Sublime is the only word that springs to mind.
There was confusion with David's starter: He chose the antipasto "San Lorenzo," expecting a plate of olives and salamis et al, but it was a plate of four different pieces of pasta, filled with either a cheese and onion combo, or mortadella and prosciutto, and baked under bechamel and tomato sauces. But my plate won the taste award.
For his main course, David chose the veal with mushrooms. It was melt-in-the mouth tender with a splash of a light cream sauce, topped with mushrooms. He savoured every mouthful.
I ordered the sauted rabbit with olives. I think I'm spoiled because whenever I've eaten out I've always got a fillet of rabbit, but this was the real McCoy and as rabbits aren't big animals there were masses of little bones and not much meat. It was a bit of a challenge to separate the two, but the meat was silkily tender. It came in a traditional Tuscan sauce of carrots and celery.
We ordered a side dish of crisp potatoes and grilled vegetables. Unfortunately the vegies were cold, and a bit underdone particularly the couple of slices of rubbery aubergine, which were all but raw, save for a couple of authentic looking char-grilled marks.
The dessert menu included such wonders as panna cotta, zuppa inglese and tiramisu plus a number of frozen desserts. I chose the mandarin sorbet and it was sweetly delicious. It came frozen in a scooped-out orange rind and was beautifully fluffy. It almost tasted creamy.
David's creme caramel was petite and perfect except I have to confess to liking a bit of crunchy toffee on the top of my creme caramels. But it was smooth and cool and creamy, with a wonderful burnt toffee flavor. Strangely, it came on a tiny bread-and-butter plate so that every time you went to scoop at it, it was liable to go swimming over the edge, on to the table.
So in a word, the food at San Lorenzo is authentic; the service is impeccable and while there were a few hiccups the night we dined, I think with just a little time this restaurant could soon rival Ristorante Balgera for Warsaw's golden olive laurel.
A three-course dinner for two, including drinks, came to: zl. 296 ($74).
On the menu:
Spinach ravioli zl.30
Antipasto "San Lorenzo" zl.30
Sauted rabbit with olives zl.40
Veal with mushrooms zl.26
Mandarin sorbet zl.18
Creme caramel zl.15
