Karczma — Restaurant in New York

I came with my mom on a holiday weekend evening, and we got the last table. We were asked to switch to a smaller table while we were looking at the menu, which we happily obliged because the table we were at was huge for two. Anyway, we decided to share the Polish platter, which came with 1 sauerkraut & mushroom / 1 meat / 1 potato & cheese pierogi, a piece of Kielbasa sausage, one stuffed cabbage with tomato sauce, 2 potato pancakes, hunter stew, and a container of sour cream. To preface my review, the first time I had Polish food was in Poland, so my standards may be a bit high. The food here was pretty good with regards to other Polish food I've had in the US, but of course not as good as in Poland. The pierogi skin was chewy and not too thick, which is rare to find in the US. The meat one had too much meat and it was basically just eating a chunk of meat without any other flavor, and the sauerkraut & mushroom was sticky, which I've never experienced before at any Polish restaurant. I didn't like the stickiness at all. My favorite pierogi was the potato and cheese one because it was flavorful and light. The Kielbasa sausage was quite tasty as well, even though the piece was small. I usually love goblaki, which is the stuffed cabbage, but this one just had way too much meat and too little rice; the balance was off, and there was too little sauce. The potato pancakes were thick and had a great thickness and consistency, but it didn't have much flavor. The hunter stew was really sour and I didn't enjoy it, but I didn't like hunter stew in Poland either so it may not be this particular restaurant's hunter stew that I don't like. It was a lot of food, and service was present. I would say I might return for the cheese and potato pierogi and maybe potato pancakes if they serve it with some flavorful sauce, but I wouldn't return for anything else we had on that plate. Price was quite fair for the amount of food as it came out to be around...

My big bro is Polish, and almost gave me a knuckle sandwich when I said that Polish food is just a little bland. He said we had to try Karczma in Greenpoint, as it’s his favorite Polish restaurant in the city.

We sat down in the rustic farmhouse interior while live Polish music played in the background. As I’ve gotten older, these are the nights that I’ve learned to appreciate more. A nice Friday night dinner with the homies, where the stressful work week feels like a distant memory. It’s a good antidote to the vicious cycles of self loathing or “what am I doing with my life” that can sometimes consume me.

The Polish homie ordered an authentic Polish dinner for us. Our feast for the 3 of us consisted of Hand made perogies, grilled plate for 3, Spicy beef Goulash, Traditional pork cutlet, herring in cream, potato pancakes, and roasted hocks in beer.

I’m used to portion sizes at places in New York to be TINY, but these were enormous. We lowkey got mogged by all this food. The bang for your buck in here is INSANE. My favorites were the Mix grilled plate and the roasted hocks.

That mixed grilled plate for “3” is really for 5 GROWN men. So much meat. It was so damn good though, the bacon and chicken went crazy.

The roasted hocks is the shank portion of the pig's hind leg, and came with a big steak knife in it. It was rich and had a smoky flavor, and was so damn tender. Definitely get the roasted hocks if you come.

On the other end of the spectrum, the herring in cream was just not for me. Was the fishiest fish I've ever tasted, but I'll try anything once.

$60 each after tip was SO reasonable for this feast we had. I gotta start putting more respect on Polish food, that’s on me…

IG...

One of the best meals I've ever had. From a Polish place? Yes

I had the Plate of Polish Specialities, which was three pierogis, three potato pancakes (they lied it was 2 I think but does not matter, they were huge), polish kielbasa, hunter’s stew and stuffed cabbage.

The flavors were tremendous, particularly the stew and potato pancakes. The pancakes were so thick and cooked just right with a nice crust. Likewise with the pierogis. They were cooked a little more than average. But the crisp taste was a good touch and the insides were still soft and packed full. Stuffed cabbage was huge. It looks deceiving but once you crack it open it really is a meal within itself. A little weaker on seasoning, which is typical, but it was good to mix the meat with the stew. Let's not forget the kielbasa, which, again, was cooked perfectly and also went well with the stew.

The portions were outstanding for the price and that's really hard to come by no matter where in the country. This isn't meant to be an obvious statement but there's something that adds a bit more satisfaction to the meal when you have a well portioned meal. Maybe it's an ancient thing with a host wanting their guests to feel filled and comforted. Either way, I recommended this place to Polish food lovers I...