Shadow Resto & Bar | Kazimierz | — Restaurant in Krakow

New edit: A year after first visit, we came back again - this time for a group dinner. The restaurant’s atmosphere was still as peaceful as before, a refreshing shade on a summer day. The service staff were all very friendly and welcoming. The quality of the dishes remained excellent and delicious, and the presentation of the de volaille chicken and bourguignon beef even felt refreshing and new! The only small downside is that the sound of trams passing outside can sometimes be a bit noisy. This resto bar definitely deserves such a high rating. We booked it on @Finebite and visited on a hot summer day. The flowers and forest-like decorations made us feel cool as soon as stepped in. The waitress was very friendly and kind. The menu had a lot of choices and surprises. We ordered three tapas - teriyaki chicken wings, fried squids, and Thai basil beef, which were all delicious and fresh, while the Asian characteristics in them were just right. For the main courses, we ordered tagliatelle nero, sea bream fillet, plus a side dish - new potatoes with mints. The sea bream was amazing! It’s a presentation of the Mediterranean diet, tasty and healthy, and perfect with grapefruit and beans, taking into account all kinds of textures. The new potatoes with mint were also a creative combination from the chef. The desserts part was not that amazing as the main courses, but the parfait was special and refreshing. I will definitely visit this...

I love so much about Shadow Resto that it pains me to not give a 5 star review, but the flavors just weren't there in every dish I tried. But let's start with the good stuff, because Shadow deserves it - incredibly friendly and attentive service, lovely atmospheric setting, unique variety of dishes at a great price, huge portions, and free hummus and bread to start. All ingredients for a top class eatery!

And now for what wasn't. The halloumi fries starter was very plain tasting (and that says a Iot because I loveee halloumi). The sauce that came with it, that could have elevated the plainness of the fries, unfortunately was also plain. The cold carrot soup was ok, but also missing the right flavor profile to be anything beyond that. The sesame encrusted salmon with udon main looked incredible (huge portions, a work of art), but again, something was just missing in the flavors. It had the sweet flavor profile of udon, and the salmon was cooked perfectly, but the sauce and/or spice notes were lacking. And finally the dessert - a passion fruit parfait that looked like a multi-layered cake - was just difficult to eat because of how frozen part of it was.

Overall, I still like Shadow because of all the positives. But having tried four different dishes, I'm not sure they are able to hit peak flavors. Maybe I just ordered the wrong things, or an off night, so will give benefit of the doubt and am willing to try again on a future...

I think this place is new and as it was handily right next to our accommodation we popped in a few times. The decor is really smart and we appreciated the cool theme.

Some of the friendliest service we received in Poland. They have a great creative cocktail menu with 3 for 2 on drinks (and you can pick any drinks they don't have to be the same) the waitresses were more than happy to go through what is in them with you as the menu doesn't actually list it and it is fun to see if your guesses are correct for some of them.

We had a light lunch here of the veg board, aubergine caponata and bread and halloumi fries. All were delicious. The veg board was a masterclass in how to make simple ingredients really come to life. We were given free bread and hummus which was really tasty before the main part of our meal arrived.

Only negative is they had ran out of the the chocolate brownie which considering the quality of everything else I really wanted to try! Oh well, an excuse for another visit when we're next in...