Dawne Smaki - Warszawa

Food was excellent, chicken soup, pork loin, cheese plate. Violinist playing while we ate made for a perfect night. Our waitress was very helpful with recommendations and made it easy on us as she was able to speak perfect English.

This is an exceptional restaurant. There is seating inside, on the sidewalk, or in the lovely garden in the rear. We ate in the garden. I ordered the beef tartar, which was the best that I have tasted. I followed this with the summer borscht. This was also delicious. The appearance of both of these dishes was artful.

We ran into this restaurant when walking along Nowy Swiat, looking for lunch. I consulted Yelp to find nearby restaurants serving Polish specialities and found this one just a block away. The welcoming was kind of jaded, but we were hungry and had patience with the zombie like service. All of us tried some of the different pierogi (dumplings) they offered: traditional with cabbage and mushrooms, russian style and spinach with cheese. They were all OK and my favorite were the spinach ones. To that we had beer and that was where things started to go wrong. If the food was traditionally Polish, so was the service, which could best be described as the one I remember from the worst restaurants during the communist time. This means a minimum of service from an uninterested person that take time. Really strange, as the waitress who served us was probably not even born at the time when that kind of service was kind of common in the eastern countries. One of my friends discovered the opened plastic cover of a toothpick in his beer, and we let the waitress know as soon as we managed to get her attention. Without a flinch, she mumbled something about crediting the beer and just left, taking his beer with her. When we saw her again, we were still a little uncertain about her first comment so we asked, with the intention of ordering a new beer for my friend but we never got that far. She just repeated that the beer would be credited and left before we had the chance to ask for another beer. As the food was OK, I hope the mishap with the beer and service was just a bad day for the wautress, but having talked to my non Polish guests about the Polish cuisine and hospitality, Dawne Smaki just left me with a feeling of embarrassment in front of them. There are too many good restaurants to go back.

This was my first restaurant in Warsaw (actually in Poland even). I will break my review into three parts. 1) Pierogies they were incredible (5/5). I chose the combo which was al 4 different types (2 each). The outside was thinner and lighter than anything I've had in the US. All fillings were terrific. 2) My main entree was the pork chop (more of a fried thin pork cutlet) was quite good. The cabbage was very good and also came with potatoes. The plate was also decorated very nicely (although the cook or waiter got some food on his fingers on my plate). I'd give this 4/5. 3) Service it was non existent. He took my order, brought no bread (he did to everyone else); although I didn't need to eat it anyway. Never came back until he cleared my plate. I found out that even when dining alone, tips are automatically added. Service I give a 2/5. Not rude, but no help whatsoever.

We went here on our first night in Warsaw. We asked the concierge at our hotel where we should eat for dinner and he recommended this place. It's about a 10 minute walk from the Sheraton and super easy to find. We went on a Monday night and did not have to wait for a table. We started with Polish beer but there was a little miscommunication. I ordered the large house beer and they thought we ordered 1 for each person. Not the end of the world since it was only 12 PLN each but not everyone drank it. Onto the food...I had the lamb shank (85 PLN) and my friends got the pork chop (29 PLN) and onion and mushroom pierogis (24 PLN for 8). All of the food was excellent. I've tried Polish food before in LA and this was a million times better, as expected! The lamb was falling off the bone and served with gnocchi and pickled cabbage. The pork chop was crisp and perfectly seasoned. The pierogis were stuffed with mushrooms and sweet caramelized onions. The service was good and the atmosphere was cozy and classy. I definitely recommend this place for some traditional Polish cuisine. They charged some taxes/tip, not sure exactly how it broke down but we spent about $60 USD for 3 people.