Polka Kitchen — Restaurant in London

On previous visits to Ealing I had noted the Sowa restaurant, but had never gone there. The proprietors of that place have now moved to some swanky new premises in Dickens Yard and renamed themselves to the Polka Kitchen.

Now I have no idea how authentic the food is, having never been to Poland, I was still intrigued. They do appear to be popular on the Facebook with lots of comments in Polish.

They have a really intriguing and interesting menu, so much so, I was having difficult in making a choice. They have a somewhat limited choice of starters, but there are a range of soups on the menu as well. I do like a starter and prefer having a starter over pudding usually.

In the end for my starter I went with the steak tartare. It was served with egg yolk, pickled cucumbers, onion, and mustard seeds. This was such a pretty plate of food.

Alongside I was given some sliced Polish bread and butter.

The steak was tender, I liked the addition of the pickles, and egg yolk. The pickled mushroom was a nice surprising addition. I relished every mouthful.

Having had a steak tartare from Cote recently, it was interesting to compare the two dishes. The plate from Polka was so much better, both in terms of presentation, flavours and texture. Almost no competition in that comparison.

For my main course I was torn between a range of choices, but in the end went with the pork tenderloin stuffed with chicken and saffron, wrapped in Serrano ham, and served with lentils, spinach, and mushrooms.

Another lovely presented dish. I did at one point wonder what the red sauce on the side was, and then realised it was the pattern on the plate. The plates were very pretty, but wonder if they distracted you from the food. Ah well not a huge issue for me.

The pork was nice, but I wasn’t that impressed with the chicken and saffron stuffing. I never noticed or tasted the saffron, and the chicken was rather bland. The rest of the dish though was really tasty. The lentils were delicious, and I liked the mushrooms with the spinach.

I did think about pudding, but was quite full after two wonderful plates of food. They do have an excellent range of cakes and pastries though, so it was quite tempting.

The service was excellent, welcoming and friendly. The food was served efficiently, but I never...

I visited Polka restaurant today and was very very disappointed with service and staff attitude I received. I used to visit that restaurant since many years ( used to be Sowa restaurant in different location , but same staff was working there ) . We arrived at 4:30 pm and asked lady with curly hair which was standing behind the counter (she is with that company from the beginning ) if they still serving she replied ‘of course “ we also seen waitress coming out from the kitchen with food and serving to the table . There were around 4/5 tables occupied by the guests. When we approached table area I asked one of the waitresses if is ok to seat anywhere, but her reply was that we not serving anymore as they about to close entire restaurant for a day !! I was very surprise so asked the lady with curly hair again what is wrong as seconds ago we could have a table ? And here comes her strange explanations that actually today is only take away service ( why she did not mention that in the 1 st place ?) and information is on the door , I asked why others can seat and enjoy the full experience and been told that they done bookings for the anniversary etc again how strange she twisted all around and did not remember what just said minutes ago ? Then waitresses which refused us a table show up and with funny face was saying yes we closing at 5 etc . On the website says that restaurant is open till 6 pm . I would never make any fuus about it if the right information would be given in the first place . This place used to be very friendly with nice and professional staff ( Miss Klaudia Top Class) but now I would never ever visit Polka again as attitude You can never buy You have it or not . ...

A friend and I ordered two matches displayed outside, vanilla matcha and a coconut and mango matcha. We were served by a kind lady at the till who hand delivered the matcha to us and was very sweet.

However, when we took our first sip of the matcha it had the worst fishy taste to it. I and the friend regularly order matcha around large and small businesses, this is the first time I have ever tasted something like this and knew there was something wrong with it; the quality or either storage of the matcha was poor and unconsumable. We went back immediately to tell them and were directed to a lady with curly hair with the rudest attitude who immediately started blaming us. I have worked at a coffee shop and been to many and have never talked or been talked to in such a way.

We remained calm and kind knowing the stress of being in hospitality and even told her we didn't believe it to be her fault but maybe it to be the matcha and did not want to fight as she was becoming hostile, we just couldn't drink something that tasted so badly of fish. She continued to blame us for "choosing it" which I tried to explain it is not normal for matcha to taste like that. She continued showing the matcha claiming it to be the best. Which of course is not the truth as we drink matcha regularly and a variety of different types of matcha. When we asked if we could get a refund she said no abruptly and dismissed us.

I would not recommend an establishment that takes no accountability or disrespects their customers, least of all who also serves poor quality fishy tasting drinks for almost £5 each. Wasted money as we threw the matcha away...