Kompania Piwna, Warsaw

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There are only couple of thing that I do in Warsaw, sightsee and go to Podwale for golonka.

Favorite Dish: GOLONKA aka pig's knuckle aka Schweinshaxe. Best served fresh from the oven with beer (see attached photo), fresh horseradish and Bavarian mustard. I have no idea how they do it but so far this is the best golonka I ever had, juicy meat on the inside and crispy skin on the outside. The best part thou is underneath the skin, layer of fat that melts in your mouth :)

This is one of the most popular restaurants among dwellers of Warsaw. It's very close (right across the street) to the Old Town. They have a good service, nice interiors in a rustical-German style and a fair menu. As far as prices are concerned I can say they're fair.

Kompania Piwna hosted several VT meetings in Warsaw.

Although the restaurant's name is 'Piwna Kompania' ('Beer Company") beware of what they call beer and I call yellow water. This is definetely NOT beer!!!

Favorite Dish: I had a very good grilled salmon with rice and grilled mixed vegetables.

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We heard from many people that this was one of the best restaurants in Warsaw. As we passed by it whilst siteseeing we thought we'd reserve a table, but to our disappointment, they had already been fully booked up at 1pm!!

We decided to return to try our luck at getting a table! Fortulately we managed to get seated after about a 40 minute wait.

Favorite Dish: They have an extensive menu, but the main focus is on the meat. We ordered a meat platter which was just incredibly large!! We could not even eat all the food between 2 of us.
The food was very tasty and the beers very large.

What I would mention that if you are not a fan of blood sausage, is that you stipulate that you dont want it on your platter.

Its a very nice restaurans to come for a meal, and experience a nice atmosphere! But make sure you book in advande to avoid disappointment.

The restaurant was founded in 2001. It has a unique style and atmosphere. Waitresses are dressed in orginal white - green skirts. If you are lucky you will be able to listen to live music in the restaurant.

A VT meeting took place in Kompania Piwna on January 20, 2006. More photos from the meeting you may find here.

Favorite Dish: They offer wide variety of sousages and meat, prepared according to traditional recipes. You may also order fish or a soup. This is a place where you get a one litre beer!

Huge servings of hearty Central European food, cheap beer and awful folk music in a beer hall atmosphere. I would never visit such a place in Germany, but here in Poland it was fun. The food (sausages, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut etc..) was actually quite tasty and inexpensive by Warsaw standards.
Don't go there if you're on a diet!!! 'Podwale' sounds very similar to the German word 'Pottwal', which means spermwhale, and you certainly feel like one when you leave this place.
Mains 18-25 pln
Beer 6 pln

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We, 24 VT-ers from 9 countries, had a VT-meeting on January 20, 2006 in this restaurant. We had seperate space with 3 large tables and some place in the middle for later crazy dances :-). This large restaurant was full of people (350) in many smaller and larger rooms (real labirynth ---> watch your way to toilet to come back to right table :-) and had own musician Polish band (trio) which played all the time changing rooms. I recommend to make a reservation in advance even for 1-2 people at least for Friday and Saturday evenings.

The menu in Polish and English contains Polish/Central European meals with some German influence. Well, is Germany in Central or Western Europe? - that is the question! We, VT-group, got 10% discount for everything we ate and drank. Beer (warning: limited choice: Polish Tyskie and Czech Pilsner Urquel) is served in 0.4 (small; 6 zl) and 1 liter (large; 15 zl/4 euros) mugs. At about midnight our pretty waitress gave us a gift from the restaurant: a glass of Polish cherry (10 zl/2.6 euros) for everyone. Well, we switched to cherry that time :-).

Favorite Dish: 1. Roasted potato sausages with marinated wild mashrooms (21 zl/5.5 euros) - gigantic portion, in fact difficult to eat by 2 hungry people :-).

2. Board of mixed meat for 2 people (35 zl/9 euros) - in fact it was enough food for 4 people! I have never seen so gigantic portion of meat. It was a pyramid of various kinds of meat put on a large wooden board. Once we had big meat meal (for 2) in Austria but... Kompania Piwna serves the world's largest portions, I guess :-).

The food was excellent... yummy...
Next time I'd try the same or something else:
- wildmushrooms soup polish-style (zupa grzybowa)
- red beetroot soup (barszcz) with small meat dumplings - keeps you warm on cold days
- pork ribs roasted with honey and nuts or barbeque souce
- grilled salmon served with potatos and mixed vegetables.

Podwale Piwna Kompania serves delicious Polish quisine with a strong German/Central European influence. The portions served here are absolutely gigantic. I had the biggest wiener schnitzel I've ever seen in my life (see photo), though I did manage to eat the whole thing through sheer determination. Everyone in my group had an excellent meal, but bring a hearty appetite if you decide to eat here. I guarantee you won't leave hungry.

Favorite Dish: Wiener schnitzel. I've always been a sucker for a good wiener schnitzel. Not only did I get a good one here, but the thing was monstrously enormous.

There can be problems with eating all you have ordered if you aren't Shrek. Portions are huge and rather good. On mondays one mug of beer costs a half.