Polonica Restaurant — Restaurant in New York

Along with the Family Store, this is the brightest gem Bay Ridge has to offer. The food is authentic, high-quality, and top-notch. Service is great, and the owner is a very good looking Polish woman). I have a fondness for eastern European food in general, and this restaurant definitely satisfies my cravings!

A few small gripes: First, they should mix up the salads a bit because it gets monotonous to eat the same (excellent) 5 salads (beet salad, coleslaw, sauerkraut, red cabbage, carrot salad) each time. It's cool the first 2 or 3 times, but by your 5th visit here it's tiring. Maybe they should only give 2 salads and change up which ones you get. The 2nd gripe: while you're eating, they use Fantastic to clean the table next to yours with no regard about where the spray goes. It never fails -- I always get Fantastic up my nose and it ruins dinner for a few minutes. The last gripe is that they don't accept credit cards; but I suspect this is because they don't need to -- the food is so good that they can be cash-only and still turn a healthy profit.

This a restaurant you must go to before you die. If you go only once, I recommend the Ukrainian Borscht and the Stuffed Kielbasa.

Portion size is huge, but mostly because of the salads. You won't finish your dinner. Entrees average about $10. Here's the low down on the food.

Soups: Sauerkraut: A- Surprisingly good (who would think sauerkraut would be good in soup?).

Tomato: B Not really their fault; I'm not a big fan of tomato soup to begin with. I'm sure it's good.

Vegetable: B- Easily the worst thing on the menu. Has a metallic taste to it.

Cucumber: A+ Ukrainian Borscht: A+ Both soups are perfection. If you order one of these, you will fall in love with it.

Chicken Soup: B- Disappointing. Watery and not very interesting.

White Borscht: A You get an egg and mashed potatoes with caramelized onions with it.

Red Borscht with Croquet: B+ It'd be good tasting but a tad boring without the croquet (which is a little like chicken kiev).

Red Borscht with Dumplings: B It would be good tasting but a tad boring without the dumplings.

Barley: B- Sounded good. Unfortunately, a bit bland and lackluster compared to the borschts.

Bean: B+ Very nice flavor. Spicy, thick, and hearty. Good for winter.

Appetizers Mushroom and Potato Pierogi boiled): A- Spinach and Potato (fried): A- Delicious. I would recommend getting the sampler. 6 homogeneous pierogi is too much; diversity is better here. Boiled and fried are equally good. PETER TIP: Ask the waiter for more caramelized onions...they are DELICIOUS and the pierogi are even better with more onions.

Blintzes Cheese: A Strawberry: A Blueberry: A They are perfection in the guise of blintzes. The Polonica does not serve dessert, but these dishes would definitely fill that void (but good luck wanting dessert after eating so much!)

Other Potato Pancakes: A Potato Cutlet: A Again, both dishes are perfection. I think you get 3 or 4 pancakes which are familiar if you've ever had fried latkes for Chanukah. The Cutlet is like a Godzilla-sized pancake.

Entres Meatballs: A- Beef Goulash: A Both delicious and masterfully cooked. The meatballs are a little like salisbury steak.

Pork Chop (Breaded): B A little plain. Exactly the "chef's pork chop" minus the cheese.

Chef's Pork Chop: A- The Pork Chop with cheese; the cheese definitely enhances the dish.

Brizol: B A bit dry.

Boiled Pig Hocks: C- Not their fault. I'm just not a fan of boiled meat period. Plus, hocks look a little strange to my Western eyes. They're feet. Very fatty and not very flavorful. I'm sure hock-lovers would like it.

Fried Fish: A It may be sole, but you will NOT be disappointed. I promise you.

Stuffed Kielbasa: A+ A heart attack waiting to happen, but easily the best thing on the menu.

Boiled Cabbage: A Another perfect meal. Tasty chopped meat and rice inside well cooked cabbage leaves with a very savory...

Never did like perogies, that is until I had them here. Went to college in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area of Northeastern PA. Large Polish population there and it seemed everything had something pierogi, even milkshakes (just kidding as that would be a horrible combo). Just never developed a taste for them. One day after passing by this place a million times my wife suggested we stop in and check it out. Should have stopped in much sooner. Great place. We go there regularly now. Neither the food nor service has ever disappointed us. Nice and cozy inside and it's not loud. Common theme in my reviews...hate loud.

On our last go round there my son and grandson (they both love eating here) accompanied us. Of course we ordered perogies (cheese and potato) and gobbled these tasty fellows in a heartbeat. We usually get the fried ones, but the boiled ones are just as good. A must have appetizer. Surowka, which is the house salad, is especially good and is provided with most entrees. It consists of petit servings of red cabbage, sauerkraut, cole slaw, beets and shredded carrots. Was a surprise the first time we ate there as we didn't know it was included with our entrée. Looked at each other and said "what's this?". Now we look forward to it. So many different flavors. So tasty and a perfect accompaniment to your meal. Had another favorite that we've ordered quite a few times...Hungarian pancakes. Indescribably delicious. A must have. Portion size is such that you could easily share it. The Kotlet Szefowski, Chef's Pork Chop, is another must have. Melts in your mouth...so tender. It is topped with mushrooms and mozzarella that adds a bang to the tender and delicious pork chop residing underneath. The menu description notes "it will melt in your mouth" and they are not kidding. Could go on and on about the various dishes we've had here, but I don't want this to be the longest review ever. So definitely try their Stuffed Kielbasa, Stuffed Chicken breast, Beef Goulash and even their decidedly not Polish Fish and Chips (a safe bet for a friend or child who is not adventurous or doesn't like authentic ethnic food). Every one a solid choice that are10 stars out of ten. BTW...Don't forget to order a Blintz for dessert. They are amazing. My son is a beer aficionado and usually has a Tyskie beer to go with his meal. A nice...

This was by far the most disappointing restaurant I’ve been to in years. I’m a 2nd generation Polish-American and have never in my life had such bland Polish food, homemade or in other restaurants. The pierogi were okay, but the golabki, kielbasa, salad, potatoes, literally everything else had 0 flavor. My daughter had the fish and it was burnt and fishy. We ran out of water, our server would just disappear and never checked on us. My husband and best friend had pointed at their menu option and the server brought them the wrong dishes, when they told him, he immediately said this is not my fault. My best friend asked for a different dish which she finally received and said it was just okay but still ate, my husband waited to leave and just got pizza. When the server brought the check and my friend asked about why we were charged for HIS mistake, he got extremely defensive and rude, saying we had to pay for it because he would be in trouble etc etc, and we finally paid and just left. He refused to get us in contact with anyone other than himself. Customer service goes a long way, but this place has no flavor or good service. A waste of almost $200...