Bare essentials
Posh restaurants in exclusive hotels don't usually do it for me. They try too hard, forgoing simple food for "béchamel" this or "jus" that. Lobsters are tortured in mornay sauce, the potatoes are drowned in butter and meat comes fashionably stacked between two crispy croutes that are prone to ricochet off your plate at the touch of a fork. And as for the veggies, if there isn't a piped pile of mashed potato somewhere, I'll almost guarantee your carrots and zucchinis have been peeled away until they resemble mini torpedoes. But last week, I was forced to eat humble pie at Warsaw's brand new Hyatt Regency hotel.
The hotel has three dining areas, including the main restaurant, Vente Tre ("23" in Italian), referring to the hotel's address. Vente Tre is an Italian bistro-cum-pizza-place that somehow manages to mix traditional and modern Italian fare with a posh setting, and come up with a restaurant that's relaxed and friendly with a simple, mouth-watering menu. All soft lighting on blond timber and chrome, and big glass windows, the dining room gazes on a gigantic wood-fired oven from which emerges crusted foccacia loaves, crisp pizzas, and succulent fish and meat dishes. Across the way, the open-plan kitchen looks like an alchemist's workshop: gleaming stainless steel, pots billowing steam and chefs in their whites making magic with their ingredients. The menu is sprinkled with delights such as risotto with braised artichokes or fresh clams, grilled squid with stewed tomato and parsnip chips, simple pizzas and calzones, lemon cheesecake and seasonal fruits with chocolate-Amaretto ice cream. It was the aim of Vente Tre's chef, Fabio Brambilla, to give his food "a real Italian touch" - and I think he's succeeded.
Our meal started with complimentary homemade grissini and baby-sized hot foccacia loaves, served with chunks of parmigiano reggiano cheese and tiny dipping pots of pesto. All we needed was a view of Lake Como outside our window and we could have been in northern Italy. For my starter, I headed to southern Italy, with a steaming bowl of minestrone con frutti di mare (minestrone-seafood soup, zł. 38). Gorgeously smooth and rich in flavor, it was served with a generous helping of prawns, squid, clams and salmon. David's mozzarella e pomodoro was a simple and succulent combination of oven-baked tomatoes topped with melted mozzarella, a little pesto and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar "syrup." It would have been remiss not to try something from Vente Tre's pizza oven and our foccacia all' aglio e acciughe was a great introduction. Delivered to our table breathing steam, the soft wood-fired dough hid a mouth-watering combination of melted mozzarella, garlic, walnut pieces and anchovies.
My main course, orata con lime, also emerged from the wood-fired oven - pan-fried dorado fish with oven-baked with cherry tomatoes, lime juice and Kalamata olives. Simplicty itself, the whole fish was subtle and fresh while the cherry tomatoes and olives - sweet and salty - gave it some character. David's filetto di manzo al Barolo (zł. 68) was a beef tenderloin topped with a Barolo sauce, which is made of slowly braising vegetables and meat in red wine. The sauce has a powerful flavor that overshadowed the tenderloin, as did the giant gorgonzola ravioli that looked rather alarmingly like two contraceptive diaphragms. It was served in one of those la-dee-dah stacked ensembles. Dessert was pure serendipity: panna cotta alla vaniglia (zł. 26). David and I clashed spoons as we fought over the last mouthfuls of our shared dessert. Rich and smooth and flavored with fresh vanilla bean, this baked cream was delectable. It came with a pot of apple compote and twisted sticks of toffee - both of which faded into obscurity when compared to the voluptuous panna cotta.
It's just a shame this restaurant that opened early last month is still a wee babe in Warsaw's gastronomic woods and most of the dining guests looked suspiciously like hotel guests. But hopefully soon, word will spread about the gorgeous food Vente Tre is creating. But take heed: Beware of the draft Warsteiner beer. Not mentioned on the price list, we were horrified to discover it cost a whopping zł. 28 per glass! Dinner for two, not including drinks, came to zł. 252 ($61).
