Pod Samsonem, Warsaw

This restaurant serves mainly local and jewish cuisine, which sounds good if you're tired of international café food, and want to experience the culinary side of the country you're visiting...

This restaurant really isn't the place to visit for this experience! The food here was extraordinarily bland and (being no food novices) it was clear to us that much of the food served was of rather low quality - the potatoes and mushrooms were what I'd call "glass vegetables" - http://sgfoto.signf.dk/data/138/1kartofler_kogte-thumb.jpg - ; not fresh at all... The pork was reasonably tender, but devoid of taste and so was the russian pancake, which was nothing so much as a gooey mess hidden beneath a mound of cabbage.

We left the restaurant wondering if the quality of it's food had been overrated or if polish food simply just was this bland? After a fantastic buffet at the Belvedere the day after, we learned that it happened to be the former...

On the bright side, the interior of the restaurant is fairly cozy, the israeli shiraz is quite drinkable, and their apple pie dessert is excellent. Oh, and the prices are really low, but the low quality is not worth the money saved...

I went here soley on the back of other VT reviews! it was a long walk for me to get here and a bit difficult to find.

overall a good experience, although the staff didnt really greet me as i came in and my table had crumbs on it.

The food was good quality and very reasonable. I had a good 3 course meal with 1/2 bottle wine for about 90 zloty. atmosphere was good considering most of the old town was completey dead!

Favorite Dish: 3 types of fish was good.

Even though I read good opinions in the vt pages and on my guide book also, I was very disappointed. The pork meat I had was really hard, the dumplings with it without taste. I don't know if I was unlucky or if the restaurant is not that good!

The personnel comes straight from long gone Communist times. Smiling seems forbidden :-)

But they ARE friendly, and they DO to try to speak english. It's helps to speak Polish, but you'll do fine without that knowledge.

Any dish is worth trying. Do try their sour soup 'Zurek'.

The ovenbaked trout is great. Stay away from the duck.

Favorite Dish: Soup: Zurek or Barszcz Czerwony. Best Zurek in town, for Pln5,- ($1,50)
all mains are good.
desert: szarlotka with vanilla icecream

We went to Pod Samsonem on our first night in Warsaw. It is an attractive restaurant with a rustic feel to it - decorative lamps and glass bottles on shelves, white walls with old-fashioned sepia prints, strings of garlic in the window. The staff were friendly, the food good, it is in an ideal position on a street running between the Old Town Market Square and New Town Square and it seemed popular with both visitors and locals.

Favorite Dish: We had
Starters:-
Egg and Onion Salad Mix
Ham
Bread
Main Courses:-
Pork Loin Cheese and Rice
Three Types of Fish with Potatoes
Salad of cabbage, leek and onions
Drinks:_
2 beers and 1 espresso

Total costs (including tip):- 80 zloty (approx. 13.40 sterling)

Located about a block or two north of the Barbican on the west side of Freta Street, Pod Samsonem serves very good traditional Polish quisine. I went for lunch with a large group and everyone seemed to enjoy their meal. I know I did, and I highly recommend it to anyone.

This restaurant is perfect for those who want to experience eating out local style. As mentioned by previous reviewers, this restaurant is packed with locals and you might have a wait, but the wait is worth it considering the price and quality. Drinks are also very cheap. Tip for smokers - there are only 4 smoking tables, and it is often too cold to stand outside.

Favorite Dish: Duck with baked apple followed by ice cream with fruits and alochol....YUM!

We went to a restaurant that I fancied on Piwna (in the Old Town), which had outdoor seating on Zapiecek.
We were handed a menu and within 5 minutes we had been asked 5 times what we wanted. Well I was in Warsaw and out for the evening and didn’t like the rush. On the sixth request I gave them back their menu. We then went back to Pod Samsonem. Their loss, Pod Samsonem’s gain and definitely our gain as well.

This is a very nice Restaurant with outdoor seating in fine weather. The Food is excellent being a combination of Polish and Jewish. It gets very busy with locals, which is a good sign. If it’s a nice evening and you would like to sit outside you may have to wait a little while for a table but it’s well worth it.
We ended up here 3 out of 4 evenings. We intended to eat at a different restaurant on one of the evenings but it didn’t work out. See comment, further on, under Restaurants.
The Food is so good I was quite happy with being here 3 nights.
The prices are very good here, about £ Ir 10 for a starter, main course and 2 beers.

It's a great, inexpensive Jewish-Polish style restaurant smack in the middle of the old town. Also a great place to sit and watch the crowds go by.

Favorite Dish: Carp - Jewish Style.