Gessler who?
Zielnik Cafe
ul. Odynca 15
Tel: 844-3500
Open daily: 10:00 a.m. - midnight
Reservations accepted
Polish culinary celebrity Magda Gessler is renowned for her idiosyncratic style on the Warsaw dining circuit. Her flagship restaurant, Fukier, for instance, is decked out in a splash of flamboyant clutter, which includes dried flowers, bundles of straw, pumpkins and other assorted squashes and fruits. It's an imagined rural idyll that looks rather like a kitsch Thanksgiving ceremony and it's certainly not to everybody's taste. But the cuisine always hits the spot.
Her latest restaurant project is Zielnik Cafe and this time, at first sight, she seems to be dipping her feet into the harsh world of communist chic Zielnik is on the ground floor of a postwar block of flats on Mokotow's shabby ulica Odynca. However, Gessler's trademark flowers, fabrics, fruit baskets and painted panels covering the faade are a reminder that it's business as usual.
Inside, the decor is a little less Laura Ashley with pine furnishings neatly complemented by an abundance of pale olive wallpaper, with an herbal design alluding to William Morris a pattern also repeated in the menus.
The small tables squeezed into the cafe's front room give the passing trade a place to perch with coffee and cake, although I decided to head up the steps to the bigger room in the back where there was no problem finding a seat. And if you do find all the tables full, there is still a chance to sit in Zielnik's leafy beer garden just across the road. Seated beneath the green canopy of Park Dreszera, the garden offers the curious sight of tray-bearing waiters crossing the street and dodging the occasional bus. Those who've felt the bite of the recent mosquito wave will also be happy that insect-repellent lanterns have been put out to keep bloodsuckers away.
The menu is a lunch and dinner affair. It starts with 10 exotic sandwiches, reasonably priced at zl. 5, ranging from a sinus-clearing horseradish with egg and cream to a fishy salmon and caviar. The page of colorful salads draws its inspiration from European themes, from the full-bodied Germanic Helga with potatoes and herring to the lyrical Opera with chicory, pears, Camembert and Dijon mustard. The portions don't exactly take on the absurdity of nouvelle cuisine, but they won't feed the hungry masses.
The unaccompanied basket of bread that opened our meal puzzled me and my dining partner, Simon had they forgotten to supply any flavored butter? We were unable to reestablish contact with the waitress to quell our suspicions, and were left staring quizzically at a bowl of Ikea cutlery. In fact, the service was marred throughout the evening by the staff, who seemed to be incapable of deciding who was waiting on our table the bored young waitress, the stately and jovial manageress Margarita, or the intrusive maitre d'. Just as we grew accustomed to one person, someone else would take their place.
Nevertheless, when the food came it made up for the confusion among the staff. My desire for a lush, leafy starter was satiated by the Alesia salad, which was crisp and contained a spangle of flavors. Delicate sprigs of fresh herbs and a sweet dressing set the leaves on the outer edge of the plate apart from the GruyYre, egg and yogurt center, speckled with juicy red currants. Simon enthused about his hot spinach with Gorgonzola cheese and white pepper, decorated with delicate red basil. Our choice of soups was not so unequivocal my avocado cold soup was as dull and drawn out as a day out at Lords and I regret not ordering Simon's green gazpacho, which was rich, punchy and refreshing.
The main courses, however, were a return to form. My Lamb Ararat contained succulent pieces of lamb, chunks of new potatoes, tender French beans and zucchini, all in a light sauce with not a smidgeon of stuffy cream but beware the decorative rosemary, which sheds twigs the length of cooking matches. Simon approached his Penne Alfredo with caution, finding the heady mixture of cheeses a little overwhelming at first, but acquiring a taste for it along the way. We finished off with two half-cups of espresso and some passable poppy-seed pastries. Our three-course evening for two had come to zl. 158 ($37.60) without wine.
While the selection of light cafe dishes is worthy of the owner's reputation, I'd probably return to Zielnik once the staff have settled in and the crowd of novelty seekers drawn by the Gessler name has died down to a stream of regulars.
On the menu:
Alesia salad zl.19
Green gazpacho zl.11
Avocado cold soup zl.12
Hot spinach in Gorgonzola cheese and white pepper zl.15
Penne Alfredo zl.18
Lamb Ararat zl.29
