Fine kettle of fish
Pod Zlotym Linem
Serock, Wierzbica 9
Tel. 782-7473
Hours: 9 a.m.-10 p.m. daily
Credit cards accepted
Warsaw can be a frustrating place to dine if you're partial to fish. If you want to avoid the dreaded frozen square in batter, you really have to be prepared to pay through the nose. Even then, restaurateurs lack the imagination to offer anything more than a fried slab; fine if it's freshly plucked, but it seldom warrants adding more notches to your cholesterol count.
The real conundrum is that just 20 kilometers northwest of Warsaw lies a vast lake just teeming with plump freshwater fish of the sort we can only dream of in the city. The Zalew Zegrzynski, set among sinister woods and knobby hills, was created in 1963 by the damming of the rivers Bug and Narew and provides the kind of underwater world beloved of catfish, carp, eel, perch and trench. I can personally vouch that it provides some great fishing, having spent many hours blissfully twiddling my thumbs on one of the lake's leafy islands and not catching a thing. I could easily have fished for hours more, perhaps days with the same result, if my brain hadn't started to hemorrhage with boredom.
Having given up on catching fish I ditched my rod and set off in search of these timid creatures at Pod Zlotym Linem in Wierzbica, which lies toward the northern tip of Zalew Zegrzynski on the Narew River. I brought along Maciej and Eliza, a cheerful pair of fish aficionados always ready for some spontaneous hilarity at the expense of my eccentric Polish grammar.
This sizeable family diner was launched in 1967, and some of the decor looks like it goes all the way back to then. The overall look speaks of a history of piecemeal alterations that never quite blend together, but it is reasonably smart and has beautifully clean tablecloths and well-dressed staff. The smaller of its two rooms is slightly stuffy, with a few pieces of attractive dark-varnished furniture, spoiled by ugly wood-paneled walls, dusty stuffed birds and knickknacks. This leads to an airy and fresh patio room adorned with nothing more than a coat of paint, but because it opens onto the adjacent road, it picks up some of the noise from the passing traffic. I was fortunate to have booked a table, as ours was the only available.
Our waiter, replete with a bushy Pilsudski moustache and a potbelly that could have concealed a small keg, was jolly and attentive. His waist size left us little doubt that he had tried everything on the menu. The English-Polish menu instantly won our respect by pricing fish portions in kilograms, and we couldn't resist working out how much grilled salmon we could afford if we were to jettison all the extras. Although it offers a dizzying array of freshwater fish, from eel to pike perch, salmon to trout, the main courses are only cooked in two ways: pan-fried or fried in cream. The restaurant also offers jellied or smoked varieties of fish as well as a sprinkling of traditional soups and meat favorites, but the chefs seem to avoid poaching, steaming, broiling, baking, planking, and any fancy sauces.
The chlodnik and fish soups bowled over my Polish companions. Eliza compared her chlodnik to a portion of beetroot ice cream. My jellied eel Pilsudski's personal recommendation was tough and I bailed out as I couldn't taste the meat, lost in the depths of tangy jelly. In the fish soup, the flavor of fish was again a distant echo, although it was certainly a fine, light soup.
None of the starters prepared me for the robust and juicy catfish steak that arrived with a knob of butter and half a lemon. Eliza was equally delighted by her catfish in cream sauce, which removes most of its fishiness and leaves the meat much softer. Our portions were so large that we were barely able to take advantage of our all-you-can-eat salad. This bountiful catch came to zl. 70 ($16); unheard of for fresh fish of this caliber in Warsaw.
As for the desserts, they came from a reasonable catering supplier but arrived all askew, as if Pilsudski had ferried them to us in a rickety rowboat across a choppy lake. Our three-course meal for three came to zl. 197 ($47).
On the menu:
Pickled eel zl. 15.50
Smoked eel zl. 17.50
Pickled bleak zl. 4.50
Salmon in aspic zl.18.90
Chlodnik zl. 6
Fish soup zl. 5
Fried catfish zl. 80
Catfish in cream zl. 90
Fried pike perch zl. 97
Mixed vegetables zl. 18
