New entry to latino scene

Dining in at the Ice Hotel, the world's only frozen hotel in Swedish Lapland, must present a few problems.
With room temperatures hovering around -9 degrees Celsius, do you think they provide seat warmers to prevent frostbite? How do they keep the plates warm? And just how difficult would it be to use a knife and fork while wearing mittens?
And then there's the menu: "Sir, would you like your reindeer steak well-thawed or frozen?"
Well, thankfully Warsaw's hotel "style meisters" haven't gone this far … yet.
With a host of top-notch hotels champing at the bit to open their plate-glass and chrome doors to the public, the designers are plugging away to make their restaurants stand out from the crowd. Thankfully, their concepts are rather more pedestrian than using 10,000 tons of ice to build a four-star igloo.
The Hyatt Regency - the first cab off the rank - grabbed the "Posh Italian Restaurant" option.

And now Warsaw's newest hotel, the Radisson SAS Hotel, has revealed that it's gone down the "Latin Road."
With the somewhat unusual title of Latino Brasserie @ Ferdy's, the restaurant draws its inspiration from the Polish playwright and author, Witold Gombrowicz.
Gombrowicz, as reads the printed blurb inside the restaurant's menu, spent a considerable amount of time in Argentina, where he did much of his writing including penning a novel called "Ferdydurke."
Not having read the book, I can't say whether the restaurant's decor, artworks, or staff uniforms reflect Ferdydurke's story line about an adult "who finds himself tossed suddenly into a chaotic world of schoolboys," but the blurb assures me they do; and hey, it seems as good a reason as any to open a restaurant.
The evening started out well: comfortable booths, wide spaces, rustic-looking crockery, attentive staff and groovy music.
If names are anything to go by, the starters certainly seem to have that Latino flavor - Pueblo fish soup, gaucho bean salad, beef and onion empañadas.
Stumped for choice, we did what any hungry couple would do, we chose the Latino platter.

What arrived at our table was a great plate of goodies, including a delectable piece of rum-cured hot smoked salmon that I adored and my husband David hated. It was sweet, smoky and cooked perfectly.
The plate also had some empañadas - a kind of mini version of a pasty, or to give it a Polish interpretation, a crusty pierogi. The beef and onion empañada had a spicy beef filling that reminded us fondly of an Aussie meat pie! Sadly, it's cousin, the sweet pea and cheese empañada, tasted like it was filled with a cheese spread.
As for the main courses, the selection is rather basic. You can choose from grilled steak, pork, chicken or salmon, or a grilled burger. Or you can select one of three plates under the title of "from the oven." These plates are for two people - fish casserole, roast chicken or beef rib.
David and I went for the grill selection: the sirloin steak for David, and the pork loin fillet for me. These come with a choice of sauce or butter - we both opted for the tomato chimichuri - an Argentinean meat marinade that takes many forms; this one was something akin to a tomato and garlic salsa.

Our grilled meat was perfectly presentable, but nothing to write home about. "And for a zł. 62 steak, I would expect something a little more mouth watering," opined David. "It's not tough, but it's not melt-in-the-mouth."
The same could be said for my pork loin.
As for the side dishes, they were fantastic: the black beans were sweetened with rum and spiced up with great chunks of chorizo sausage. The mash was just like you make at home - simple and not drowned in cream or butter. The pampas rice was a perfect imitation of a risotto and the grilled vegetables were robust and hearty.
We followed with a light dessert: a coffee and almond martini cream - a concoction of jellied espresso topped with a dollop of rich, almond-flavored cream and a few chocolate-coated coffee beans for an extra caffeine hit. Surprisingly refreshing!
Our meal cost zł. 267 ($65) including drinks.