The 10th Muse
Want to pretend that Warsaw is an urban center in more than the census meaning of the word?
Then get your Diesel-tagged butt to Muza, the one-stop shopping answer to the night crawler's eating, drinking, dancing, hanging out and looking cool needs.
This expertly designed basement bar/restaurant/club extends Foksal's restaurant row (SOMA, Ma~nana, Tam Tam, Tsubame, Chianti) onto ulica Chmielna, and will hopefully inject some non-"Ye Olde Polish" life into the Old Town, where the owners plan to open another venue. More than any other place around, Muza fosters a sense of creative, pleasure-seeking, oddball-friendly community that has been sorely missing from the capital's see-and-be-seen scene.
High point: "Mmm, yeah" was the consensus reaction to the food, with everyone nominating different dishes for the "best of" category. And since I'm the non-competitive type, all three qualify. Even though the anticipated eggplant turned out to be zucchini and the Moroccan sauce was conspicuously absent, one innocent bystander raved about her "Oriental platter" of stuffed Balkan peppers, carrots, grilled potatoes and the aforementioned zucchini.
The other innocent bystander was equally eloquent in arguing the merits of her chicken kebab with spicy peppers, potatoes and garlic cream dip. As for my "Banana youth" salad, it was an original and effective combination of chicken and grilled pineapple and banana on greens. Special mention should go to the ubiquitous szarlotka: heaped, thin layers of apple sandwiched between a light, crumbly crust.
Another huge point in Muza's favor is that the kitchen is open until everyone leaves, which means you no longer need to try to satisfy your booze-induced munchies at home with limp vegetables and the remnants of last week's Chinese take out.
Low point: The lack of a wine lis thatshould kick in sometime this month, according to owner Andrzej Chodkiewicz. Good, because Muza's low-lit, slouchy, "for the people" ambiance is practically subliminal advertising for a bottle or three of red wine. Although they currently offer only one beer especially brewed for the restaurant more brands will be available shortly as well.
On the food front, I was less than thrilled with my "Winnie-the-Pooh" salmon in honey and saffron sauce. The fish was a little soggy, the sweet, slightly acrid sauce failed to be wholly convincing, and the side order of rice and boiled vegetables was better suited to a convention buffet than the oasis of cool that is Muza. But a discriminating WBJ staffer recommended the dish after trying it the week before, so perhaps my shaky serving of Winnie was a hiccup.
Misc.: Live music kicks in around 7 p.m. on weekdays, and on the weekends the tables in front of the bar clear out to create a dance floor. Expect to hear acid jazz, funk, drum & bass, breakbeat and house.
Atmosphere: Somewhere between SOMA and Nowa Galeria without the "look at me, look at me" vibe of the former or the latter's improvisational chaos. There's something deeply comforting and inclusive about Muza's industrial-meets-Bo Concept design, a feeling reinforced by the heterogeneous crowd of cigar-smoking young Turks, club kids, art-house sophisticates, media types and hip suits occupying the artfully mismatched sofas, armchairs and booths. Muza is both exciting and comfortable a combination that's equally seductive in restaurants and lovers.
Service: Home of that rare species, the cool and communicative waiter who doesn't consider his job beneath him. Ours was happy to initiate one innocent bystander into the joys of drinking flaming B52s and never dropped the ball. Greatness.
Prices: Reasonable. Dinner for three with before-and-after cocktails came to an eminently doable zl. 190 ($40).
When to go: Anytime. Its basement location makes Muza perfect for those long fall and winter evenings when concrete buildings bleed into the sky and Warsaw has all the charm of a public washroom. And there's also the beer garden to look forward to in the summer. Highly recommended.
