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Ogrodowa Cafe
 ul. Ogrodowa 51, tel. 798-846-966
cafe@ogrodowacafe.com, www.ogrodowacafe.com
Open Mon-Fri 10:00-19:00
When a Polish girl from Chicago caught the eye of a Portuguese boy at a New' Year's party in Barcelona, she never imagined that two years later they’d be opening a lunch place in Warsaw's Wola district.
Ogrodowa Cafe, a seven minute walk from Ch³odna 25, is tucked away in a courtyard on its namesake street between ul. ¯elazna and ul. Wronia. The place takes the inspiration for its soups, salads, and sandwiches from local Polish produce - most of it from Hala Mirowska a few blocks away - and the result is more light and flavorful than the typical local lunch fare.
While Bruno brings the industry experience, having worked in kitchens from Estonia to the Iberian peninsula, it's Ola, the trained architect, who has designed the calming, uncluttered interior.
I started off with the mackerel and hardboiled egg sandwich (z³.11), served with a seasonal salad and some chips (like all Ogrodowa sandwiches). It's a little piece of heaven. Come to think of it, you can bring your laptop or a book and spend the day, starting off with a coffee and a muffin in the morning, moving on to the soup-sandwich-beverage combo (z³.18) for lunch and then ordering some montaditos, small open-faced sandwiches, as a late afternoon snack. The menu is friendly to vegetarians and with no individual item over 15 z³otys. Just make sure you have cash, because they don't take cards.
The soups are all made with home-made vegetable stock, without a Knorr bullion cube in sight. Personally, what will keep me coming back is the panseared cauliflower salad with red onions, celery, croutons, raisins in a honey vinaigrette. That's the Ogrodowa secret - chef Bruno's mastery of sauces, of mustard, horseradish, and yogurt. Try the yummy potato, sautéed leeks, and bacon salad for an example of the yoghurt-mustard dressing.
Ola bakes delicious muffins and cookies fresh every morning, but if you must limit yourself to one dessert, I would recommend the Greek yogurt with fruits, nuts, and organic Mazurian honey.
Some people would still call Wola, a traditionally industrial area dating back to 19th century, a tough neighborhood. But as gleaming glass-and steel buildings keep popping up, outposts like Ogrodowa Cafe, will make having lunch in this district a lot more enjoyable. I look forward to watching this place grow into the fabric of the city. (MK)
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