Two times a charm
Klub Organza
Ul. Sienkiewicza 4
Telephone: 828-2525
Hours: 11a.m.-last guest
Credit cards and
reservations acceptedI went to work last Monday with a pounding head. That's what you get when you have a girls' night out on a Sunday evening. My good intentions to be back home and tucked in bed by 9:30 p.m. sailed out the window some time around popping the cork on our fifth bottle of chilled Chardonnay.
The scene of the crime was Klub Organza - a new place nestled so near the home of the philharmonic orchestra that the unsuspecting visitor would not see it until they are almost through the front door.
It opened last October, but almost everyone I asked had never heard of it. But of course, all the guests at Klub Organza - including my friends and I - felt like they were privy to one of the best-kept secrets in Warsaw.
I like this place, so much so that I vanquished the last tremors of my pounding head on Monday evening with a slow glass of red during another dinner at Klub Organza with David as my dining partner.Walking in to Klub Organza feels like entering the inside of a cozy red seashell, complete with dark wooden floors, comfy old lounges and giant tasseled lampshades all askew. It has a faded look of elegance like a 1940s Shanghai nightclub. On Sunday night an elderly performer completed the picture, singing the cabaret-style songs of Mieczysław Fogg, a famous Polish singer from the 1950s and 1960s.
As David and I made our way to a corner table, I discreetly pointed out the upper floor where, not 24 hours before, my friends and I had dined, not exactly raucously, but perhaps joyously.
But there was no chance of being recognized, because for a Monday night, there was a healthy crowd of fellow "Klubbers" keeping the waitresses busy.
Klub Organza promotes itself as a venue for live music on the weekends, late-night guest DJs and plain old chill-out jazz the rest of the time. For dinner it has great ambience, while during the day it offers a business lunch.
The menu (available only in Polish) is concise but generous at the same time. The food, like the decor, is nothing posh - just simple and good.The night before I had eaten the miodowy miesiąc - a succulent grilled chicken breast marinated in honey, lemon and basil, served with dressed grilled vegetables and buttery fried potato slices. My friends were just as enthusiastic about their dinners.
This night, David and I started with soup - I had the Leśna - a boletus mushroom and vegetable mushroom soup with a mystery grain-cum-pasta at the bottom, of which the chef would not divulge the origins. David had czerwona - or tomato soup. My soup was nice and warming but a tad heavy on the salt. David, a bit of a tinned tomato soup expert, found his a little too fresh and tart for his liking.
For the main dish, I chose the łosoś w pergaminie. If my Polish was better, I would have known that pergamin means parchment in English, because in a moment of whimsy, the chef had decided to stick it in a paper bag for decoration! While paper bags are used for cooking, and sometimes even taken to the table, I prefer mine left in the back of an airline seat. It was a bit awkward unfolding it and it didn't want to stay where I put it. But it's a small complaint because the salmon was succulent and grilled to perfection, while the pasta bed it slept on was tossed in a wonderfully light cream, caper and baby tomato sauce. Gee, even the chopped dill pickles in the sauce, although incongruous, tasted OK.
David's polźdwiczka Katalońska hit the spot too: thick slices of marinated and grilled pork fillet, served with sensible steamed vegetables and hearty slices of grilled potatoes. No complaints there!Dessert was not an option as I struggled to keep my eyes open thanks to my revelry the night before. However, I can report that on the girls' night out we shared some carrot cake, fruit salad, and an apple charlotte - and they all went down a treat.
Dinner for two, with just a few glasses of wine, came to zł. 160 ($39). On the menu:Leśna soup zł. 11
Czerwona soup zł. 9
Miodowy miesiąc
(honey chicken) zł. 29
Polźdwiczka Katalońska
(Catalonian fillet of pork) zł. 34
Łosoś w pergaminie
(salmon in parchment) zł. 34
Ul. Sienkiewicza 4
Telephone: 828-2525
Hours: 11a.m.-last guest
Credit cards and
reservations acceptedI went to work last Monday with a pounding head. That's what you get when you have a girls' night out on a Sunday evening. My good intentions to be back home and tucked in bed by 9:30 p.m. sailed out the window some time around popping the cork on our fifth bottle of chilled Chardonnay.
The scene of the crime was Klub Organza - a new place nestled so near the home of the philharmonic orchestra that the unsuspecting visitor would not see it until they are almost through the front door.
It opened last October, but almost everyone I asked had never heard of it. But of course, all the guests at Klub Organza - including my friends and I - felt like they were privy to one of the best-kept secrets in Warsaw.
I like this place, so much so that I vanquished the last tremors of my pounding head on Monday evening with a slow glass of red during another dinner at Klub Organza with David as my dining partner.Walking in to Klub Organza feels like entering the inside of a cozy red seashell, complete with dark wooden floors, comfy old lounges and giant tasseled lampshades all askew. It has a faded look of elegance like a 1940s Shanghai nightclub. On Sunday night an elderly performer completed the picture, singing the cabaret-style songs of Mieczysław Fogg, a famous Polish singer from the 1950s and 1960s.
As David and I made our way to a corner table, I discreetly pointed out the upper floor where, not 24 hours before, my friends and I had dined, not exactly raucously, but perhaps joyously.
But there was no chance of being recognized, because for a Monday night, there was a healthy crowd of fellow "Klubbers" keeping the waitresses busy.
Klub Organza promotes itself as a venue for live music on the weekends, late-night guest DJs and plain old chill-out jazz the rest of the time. For dinner it has great ambience, while during the day it offers a business lunch.
The menu (available only in Polish) is concise but generous at the same time. The food, like the decor, is nothing posh - just simple and good.The night before I had eaten the miodowy miesiąc - a succulent grilled chicken breast marinated in honey, lemon and basil, served with dressed grilled vegetables and buttery fried potato slices. My friends were just as enthusiastic about their dinners.
This night, David and I started with soup - I had the Leśna - a boletus mushroom and vegetable mushroom soup with a mystery grain-cum-pasta at the bottom, of which the chef would not divulge the origins. David had czerwona - or tomato soup. My soup was nice and warming but a tad heavy on the salt. David, a bit of a tinned tomato soup expert, found his a little too fresh and tart for his liking.
For the main dish, I chose the łosoś w pergaminie. If my Polish was better, I would have known that pergamin means parchment in English, because in a moment of whimsy, the chef had decided to stick it in a paper bag for decoration! While paper bags are used for cooking, and sometimes even taken to the table, I prefer mine left in the back of an airline seat. It was a bit awkward unfolding it and it didn't want to stay where I put it. But it's a small complaint because the salmon was succulent and grilled to perfection, while the pasta bed it slept on was tossed in a wonderfully light cream, caper and baby tomato sauce. Gee, even the chopped dill pickles in the sauce, although incongruous, tasted OK.
David's polźdwiczka Katalońska hit the spot too: thick slices of marinated and grilled pork fillet, served with sensible steamed vegetables and hearty slices of grilled potatoes. No complaints there!Dessert was not an option as I struggled to keep my eyes open thanks to my revelry the night before. However, I can report that on the girls' night out we shared some carrot cake, fruit salad, and an apple charlotte - and they all went down a treat.
Dinner for two, with just a few glasses of wine, came to zł. 160 ($39). On the menu:Leśna soup zł. 11
Czerwona soup zł. 9
Miodowy miesiąc
(honey chicken) zł. 29
Polźdwiczka Katalońska
(Catalonian fillet of pork) zł. 34
Łosoś w pergaminie
(salmon in parchment) zł. 34
