Island in the stream
Key West Cafe
ul. Wilcza 31
Tel. 628-0603
7:30 a.m.-10 p.m. daily
Paying a culinary tribute to that special place in your past is a great idea if your theme is a city like Paris or Naples. You can tweak the atmosphere by copying the décor, ape the cuisine and stand unshaven at the bar smoking Gauloises for the final effect. But recreating Key West the concrete causeway held together by a string of coral islands at the southernmost point of the United States was a trick I was keen to see. How could it feel like the real thing if you cant walk in wearing loose shorts, with sand between the toes and nothing but your next margarita in mind?
My 8-year-old nephew Rysio and I stopped on the way to pick up an espresso at Mała Czarna and to meet up with Violetta, who declared herself an authority on salads and puddings and also offered to take notes.
With Rysios innate fun barometer and my unfailing appetite, I felt we had all angles covered. I lunched on fish and chips at Key West Café some weeks back and had been a little disappointed I wanted a chunky slab of cod, but had to make do with two thin squares of homogenous battered fish with hard fries and a little dab of Uncle Bens chili sauce. But this was by no means giving the place a fair chance. The menu is brimming with curiosities for any time of the day.
My companions were pleasantly taken in by the interior. Rysio gaped at the front room, all peachy pink and adorned with antique cabinets; breezy but warm. Violetta checked out the views of the Keys covering the walls, though she decided they cluttered the place up a bit. The owner, Edyta Zapart, has made sure that the Conch, the symbol of Key Wests independence, was prominent.
The heat and humidity of the interior must have matched that of the Keys in August and we decided to head for the back room with its open window and air vent. But it turned out to be a poor compromise with the noisy vent adding to the cacophony of the staff listening to a loud talk radio show. Our waiter politely turned down the volume on the radio and things got better, especially once we ordered Rysio a cold drink.
We spent some time consulting the menu with our waiter, who was sufficiently charming for us to accept his recommendations. I had trouble keeping Rysio from nibbling the decorative blinis that formed part of an altar-like display behind us and luckily the blinis that arrived a minute later were the same, so I was able to lure him away.
He and I shared a bean soup that he found a bit spicy, but he wasnt about to lose face by admitting it. I thought it average, made of poor stock and barely nudging the palate with flavor. But the salads were impressive Violetta loved the Rucola leaves in her Florida salad, while the sweet-fried mango slices were succulent but a little overdone and drowned by their sauce. My Caesar salad was lush, crunchy, slightly fishy and came with extra chunks of grilled chicken.
Its pretty bad form that the Key West theme doesnt extend to the back room, which is more like going down to a 1970s northern-English pub for a pint of stout. The front room will be the place to be when the heat wave falls off.
I was the only one to take the main course Violetta was full while Rysio had taken to grimacing at all my culinary suggestions. I ordered the salmon with prawn sauce, not expecting a great deal after my last experience of fish at Key West Café. The sauce turned out to be a fairly salty béchamel with dill and the occasional chunk of prawn, which I would have liked to taste more of. The salmon julienne, however, was beautifully selected and cooked, preserving the flavor while creating a firm texture. It composed rather well with the sauce and boiled vegetable accompaniment.
Rysio was just about to leave us when the waiter announced that the desserts were made in-house and that the days special was Tiramisu. It was a fabulously dense smooth cream, bringing out the primal instincts in our young companion who barely managed to aim his spoon into his mouth in the excitement. Just to round things off, I shared an iced latte with Rysio that was also very good, though more of a dessert than a refreshment.
To conclude, Violetta and I agreed this had been a surprisingly successful lunch, and that quiet Saturdays are well spent in this neck of the woods. Our little Caribbean sojourn set me back zł. 184 ($43).
On the menu:
Florida salad zl.28
Caesar salad zl. 23
Bean soup zl.8
Salmon in prawn sauce zl.32
Tiramisu zl. 18
Iced latte zl. 14
