Stary Dom — Restaurant in Warsaw

this restaurant was highly recommended and we were eager to come visit. the ambiance is great and visually, the restaurant is quite stunning. we were greeted rather gruffly and scolded for not telling our greeter our reservation was made on email rather than with a call as apparently this means he had to look at a different list and he was upset with this. when we got to our table it was set up nicely and our server gave us the menus. again, we were quite excited to eat here. however, i have not experienced worse service in my life. our server was quite cold which is totally fine, but he did not check in on us once during our dining. this is of course not uncommon in european restaurants and we were not expecting the service we would typically get in the US, but the one time our waiter DID come by, he did not ask if we wanted a refill on our clearly empty drinks, and left before we could ask him for one. he was like a ghost the entire night and eventually came back to clear our dishes and tell us our reservation time was up. we were NOT aware of any such policy and this was not communicated to us at all. if our waiter (who was an older gentleman attempting to look younger with a quaffed hairstyle) had told us this beforehand we would have explained that we also wanted to order dessert and after dinner drinks. however we never got the chance to. we find it astounding to a restaurant that was so highly recommended had such horrendous service.

the food was good, but not amazing. the tableside tartare everyone raves about was quite lovely, but is not made tableside - instead, it was made near but not next to us (as was the case for many diners who ordered the same from what I could tell). the other dishes we ordered (silesian dumplings, endive salad, cucumber with milk) were also good - but nothing to write home about.

all in all, a not great experience that i would not...

My Polish colleague brought me here to eat last week (November 2023) and it was wonderful, the cabbage rolls (gołąbki) in particular were terrific, the meat was melt-in-your-mouth tender yet not "fatty", super delicious. But this review is not about my experience last week, but rather my incredible experience today - I went back, my final day in Warsaw, hoping to get a table without a reservation so that I could eat the gołąbki here one last time before flying back to Singapore tomorrow. I was told very politely and apologetically at the counter that unfortunately all the tables in the restaurant were full, indeed the restaurant was bustling with early christmas celebrations! However, my disappointment must have been evident, for a man standing behind the counter beckoned me over, asked me what I wanted to eat, then packed up my precious gołąbki in a takeaway box with cutlery and refused to take my money. In my stuttering surprise and gratefulness I found out that this kind man was in fact Marius, the owner of Stary Dom. He then led me next door to the bakery that was closed, picked up a ginormous plate of wrapped up christmas chocolate biscuits off the counter, and placed them in my to-go bag along with my gołąbki, insisting that he never gets customers from Singapore and that it is the least I can do. He even included cutlery for me. I am now sitting in my hotel room having eaten every last bit of the gołąbki and am still stunned at the warmth, kindness and hospitality of Marius. No wonder Stary Dom has such a huge and loyal clientele, both local and international, for its owner is so passionate and sincere in his love for sharing his food with others. Everyone, please make this a must-go in your trip to Warsaw, Marius's passion and love truly can be felt in the atmosphere of the restaurant, all the wonderful employees, and of course the amazing food! I will be back as...

First of all, the inside of the building is absolutely breathtaking, beautiful and with so much charm. It’s well-staffed and music is polish and not overbearing. Overall, the atmosphere gives you a feeling that this place is authentic and given that it’s from 1950’s, this place has stayed true to itself.

We had many different courses to share amongst us and even though we have different palates, we could not find a single flaw and could not wish the food was any different than how it was.

Appetizer: Free range chicken broth with noodles Slices of marinated salmon with avocado mousse and lemon vinaigrette Crispy tart witch spinach and carmelized shallots Tartare of matured beef fillet

Main courses: Pan fried prawns in a butter sauce with garlic and fresh parsley with garlic and fresh parsley Venison braised with Silesian dumplings and pan fried beetroot Slowly braised beef cheeks with potato purée and marinades from podlasia

Dessert: Strawberry meringue pie

We shared the dishes among the 4 of us, bill came to be 766 PLN with water, wine and cocktails included, price - and taste wise this is absolutely incredible... And even though each and every dish deserves a review by itself, I’d overall say that never have I tried food this delicious and well made, e.g. the tartare was made in front of us and tasted incredible. The crispy spinach tart was also delicious, and the dessert was absolutely amazing (we received a massive piece that was eaten in 4 minutes, whilst our stomachs were very full). With the four of us eating, the main topic around the table was how good the food is, and I can imagine flying to Warsaw again just to eat...