Description: I last visited Krakow in the mid 1990’s. In those days, Poland had only recently emerged blinking and hesitant into the free market, so many of the restaurants were basic. Choices in Krakow were generally restricted to traditional Polish, or basic pizza places.
Of course, time marches on, and our recent visit found us eying up a whole range of different food options. One of the tour guides at the Wavel told us there were over 1000 different restaurants in the city centre; I can believe her!
We were keen to sample good traditional Polish food on at least one evening of our visit, and after a five minute wander from the Rynek Glowny (Krakow’s main square), we found our place, the artfully distressed form of Nostalgia on Ul Karmelicka. Nostalgia has been opened since 2001, and has become well established on the dining circuit.
Nostalgia is just down an alley off the main street, giving it a quiet and sedate air. As the road is a busy one, I much prefer its off road location. There is an outside courtyard, which must make for pleasant dining in summer. We weren’t quite so keen to take advantage of the facility in sub-zero January, and preferred a table closer to the open fire inside.
While the restaurant is lovely and perfectly formed, I found the look just a little too forced, with its prefect distressed yellowed walls, and deliberately aged fixtures and fittings. I guess the pretend distressed is far more hygienic than actually sitting amongst authentically peeling paint and plasterwork!
The restaurant is on two floors and they offer both smoking and non-smoking areas. As I live in a non-smoking country, I was a little shocked to see indoor smoking, but I’m pleased to say that none of it drifted in my direction.
We decided to skip the starters on offer, although we got some gratis bread, and garlic and herb butter. Instead, we just went for some hearty main courses, with a couple of side dishes to keep hunger at bay. I elected for the Bigos, with a side dish of Gnocchi (small pasta type dumplings), and a salad of cucumber, sour cream and dill.
Bigos is one of the most traditional of Polish dishes; while it doesn’t look pretty (you wouldn’t want to step in it on the pavement!), it is a complex meal of sauerkraut, chopped cabbage and five different meats. The Nostalgia version of Bigos was both smoked and salty, and so the smooth cucumber refreshed my taste buds perfectly, while the simple and bland Gnocchi toned down the intensity perfectly.
My beloved enjoyed her wonderfully intense garlic chicken breast. The meat was plentiful, and the garlic sauce couldn’t have possibly contained any more garlic. This dish isn’t for the cautious diner, and note, you can still taste garlic the following day!
I remember from my last visit, that the Polish have a long and intense relationship with the mushroom. I have memories of taking a walk, and coming across the “grandmothers” of the village wandering the woods with wicker baskets of freshly picked mushrooms. Our dining companion just had to choose the vegetable stuffed dumplings in a wild mushroom sauce. The dumplings were pretty much like large stuffed ravioli, and the mushroom sauce set them off perfectly.
Although we have healthy appetites, the main and two side dishes each was enough to keep the wolf from the door, and we left the restaurant happy and full. I’m pleased we hadn’t elected for a starter.
Our service was prompt, friendly and attentive (a common thread of our Krakow experience), and I didn’t feel that the wait staff were keen to get us out of the door. We enjoyed quietly and slowly finishing off our beer and wine without disruption.
While I would describe Nostalgia as being one of the "better" Krakow dining choices, our meal, with a couple of drinks came out at around £15 per head. While I know one can dine in Krakow for much less (£2 will get you a laded pizza slice in a basic but clean restaurant), I thought the experience and quality of the food was excellent value.
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