Category: Poland

As I keep coming back to the same place, I’m starting to run out of decent restaurants in Gdansk that I want to visit, although I can think of worse problems to have in life. Woosabi is a small Polish chain of Asian cuisine restaurants and they have a rather smart looking place in Gdansk. I, maintaining my continental approach, decided to sit outside and was pleased that there were no wasp issues on this occasion. The service was polite and efficient, with an English menu being available. I was moderately amused when two customers who were seated in front of me started to have a conversation with someone they knew on the street. This involved a lot of shouting across another table who looked slightly unengaged by this whole arrangement. That was about as exciting as the entertainment got, but maybe there’s more drama in an evening.

There’s a cheap lunch menu available with meals at around £6, which seemed reasonable. It’s a Red Thai curry which was noted on the menu as being slightly spiced, and this was as it was delivered, with minimum spice. The chicken seemed to have been put in at the last moment so it hadn’t picked up much flavour from the curry, but nonetheless it was filling and keenly priced so was a suitable lunchtime option. Annoyingly, I forgot to check the beer into Untappd and that’s required some investigation to remember what it was. I have now, of course, corrected the beer omission on Untappd and I will try and avoid forgetting in future. I’m not sure what was on my mind, probably worrying about wasps or something. Anyway, the beer was Holba from the Czech Republic, a Pilsner that isn’t troubling the high score table on Untappd.

The whole arrangement did feel like it was produced by a chain, the decor was expensive, the menus were a little too professional and the food seemed pile it high and sell it cheap (or sell it expensive in the evening), but there is always a place for formulaic. Other than in craft beer, it is there that I demand small batch high quality products….. I feel I’m digressing though, this was a pleasant and relaxed lunchtime meal in the heart of Gdansk.

Słony Spichlerz is an on-trend food outlet, although I’ve only eaten at the pizza outlet here before (Czerwony Piec). Sexy Bull is the burger option at the food court, which feels modern, clean and well managed. I’ve excelled myself with the photography as ever, but taking a photo with the signage of Sexy Bull not really visible. My defence is that at the point when I took the photo, I hadn’t decided where to go out of the Smörgåsbord of options.

The staff member spoke English (it was ever thus…..) which was handy and so the ordering process was quick and efficient. The beer selection was limited to just Corona, but I thought I’d just roll with it, I’ve had worse drinks and the slice of lime always helps. The burger was well presented, although could have been just a little hotter, but it was cooked through sufficiently and it had a bit of spice to it. It also looked impressive amidst all the lettuce shrubbery, with the chips being firm on the exterior and fluffy on the interior. It was all rather pleasant, I had a view of the Motława River and I was enjoying being back in God’s own country that is Poland.

I arrived at this hotel, which is a three minute walk from the airport terminal, at 01:04 and that’s why I decided not to find a hotel in the city centre as it didn’t seem worth the effort. The photo, some detectives amongst my two loyal blog readers might realise, was taken in the morning. I was pleased that the check-in procedure was immediate and efficient, although airport hotels are no doubt used to some odd arrival and departure times.

It was basic, but it was cheap and clean, which are always attributes that I’m keen on. It was a good night’s sleep with no internal or external noise disturbance, so that’s something of a result. It probably could have done with a couple more plug sockets, but customers needing to charge about eight devices is something of a new requirement. It’s generally well reviewed, although there have been a few bed bug complaints. As usual, I dismantled the sheet arrangement to check for this situation, but there were no little critters that caused me any concern. I had a meander through their reviews, I like reading about a bit of drama:

“After 5 minutes of staying the lady from the reception stated that I did not have a paid reservation and asked me to leave the hotel. It did not help to show all the possible fees that I had in the messages from booking.com a tragedy, the approach to the customer is disastrous”

Sub-optimal.

“Mouse in the room”.

I wouldn’t be thrilled by this one. And this is a running theme (excuse the poor pun).

“There was a rat in my room, I changed the hotel immediately. It was an absolute nightmare experience. There was absolutely nothing to like.”

Some other reviewers muttered about thin walls, but perhaps I didn’t have anyone in the room next door to me. I’d likely stay here again if I had a very late flight into Gdansk, but otherwise I think I’d head for the centre as it’s a relatively easy bus journey. It all meant that I was refreshed in the morning for my first trip to Gdansk in, well, just over a year.

 

This was the final day for us unfortunately, with five of us flying back from Gdansk Airport and Richard going separately from a VIP terminal somewhere else in Poland. The plan was easy, a taxi was booked for 06:45 and that would give us enough time to get to the airport before we needed to board. It was evident that Susanna and Bev especially would want to be early, given missedflightgate at the start of their trip, and so everything looked like it would go perfectly to plan.

I think this sums up the situation nicely. The time difference means that the Polish times are an hour later. It’s not for me to gossip of course, but Steve, Ross and I had a long chat about the situation and it was evident that Susanna and Bev had stayed up late with a bottle of wine and then slept through their alarm. Ross and Steve were of course livid at their incompetence, but I remained calm as is clearly evident from my messages. The group were fortunate indeed to have my calm and steady approach to dealing with the trouble makers.

Susanna and Bev stumbled out of the hotel, actually literally, only 14 minutes late which was an impressive getting ready time and shows what they’ve capable of and I will remember that for future time keeping plans. They didn’t get their cup of morning coffee, but managed to collect body, soul, mind and luggage together in some form.

As the adult of the group, I was put in charge of sitting in the front of the taxi. Bev annoyed the taxi driver by getting muddled up with the seatbelt and he turned to me, smiled and said “women” which was probably a little sexist, but I could see why he was annoyed given that he had been standing about with us waiting for them so his patience was already frayed.

Luckily the tram didn’t move from its stand….

Bev was inside the car arguing with the taxi driver, whilst Susanna desperately tried to wake up. I’ve deliberately not used photos of them looking too worse for wear, as that would be unfair and inappropriate. And I would never sink to those lows.

Bev with her two coffees, that was her way of waking up.

After a morning snack and drink, the two miscreants were feeling remorseful but were back on top form.

Boarding the Ryanair flight, which was uneventful and through which I slept most of the time. I was nervous about using Ryanair, despite not having any issues with them over my decade of using them, but their service was always fine and I have no complaints. For £50 return, I thought I received excellent value for money.

The border looked chaotic, but we were through in fifteen minutes.

Ross had rushed to get an earlier train and that’s where this blog series comes to an end. We were all back in one piece, there had been no arguments and the company was marvellous. There are lots more trips to come and I think it’s fair to say that we all had an enjoyable time, with Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot not letting me down. Plenty of craft beer, decadent food, some football, history, culture and good company. All I have to do now is hope that none of the group take legal action against me for the content of the blog and I’ll call that a result.

I stayed at the Hotel Artus last year and enjoyed the view from the window that I had then, with this year’s one night visit having an equally impressive outlook onto the Cathedral. Five of the group were staying there for our final night, with Steve being just around the corner, and it’s a central location which proved handy. The welcome at the hotel was friendly and the prices very reasonable given how conveniently located the building is.

Every time I see this I think of the Corby trouser press and Alan Partridge, but I digress…. It was a shame that I didn’t get to see the hotel for long as I got back late after accompanying Richard to a bar as he led me astray, whilst also having to get up early the next morning. The hotel supplies earplugs because of the external noise, but I very much like that sort of distraction and the sound of the bells ringing. For anyone staying, I’d recommend trying to get a view of the cathedral, it just adds to the experience for me.

After some confusion at Whiskey in the Jar, we decamped next door to Billy’s American Restaurant which I had visited last year when I came to Gdansk on my own.

Susanna was very excited at her cocktail which was fizzing and bubbling. Actually, to be honest, we all were and I’ve videoed the whole experience which I’ll upload here at some point. It’s amazing what a little bit of dry ice can do, although I suspect the waiter thought he had a load of idiots in after watching our joy at this simple thing. He never showed that though, the service here was personable and helpful throughout.

See, I wasn’t exaggerating about the excitement….

I went for the Touchdown IPA from Browar Czarna Owca, a very decent American IPA which was in keeping with the restaurant’s theme.

I opted for that traditional Polish dish of chicken fajitas and I was sufficiently surprised and delighted by this arrangement. Tender chicken and plenty of opportunity for me to make my own wrap, I nearly always seem to end up ordering these when I see them on a menu. I think it’s the childlike sense of excitement of shoving random food in a wrap, although in my opinion they never give enough to complete the job efficiently. Anyway, I digress, and I think that everyone enjoyed their meal. Susanna kindly gave me some of her ribs, they were tender and the meat fell off the bone.

I’m pleased to say that we didn’t experience any issues with the bill, which was a relief after the earlier little problem that we encountered. The restaurant wasn’t that busy, but the atmosphere was inviting and vibrant with the food and drink being served after a reasonable period of time. We weren’t rushed out and indeed I had to get Susanna to attract the waiter’s eye, which she’s good at, to get the bill.

It was our last night in the city, but most of the group were exhausted. However Richard and I are nothing but hardcore, so we went to another bar.

Just for completeness, we went back to Pułalpka and I had the Miraz double fruited imperial pastry sour with lots of plum flavour to it. Not a bad way to end the weekend in Gdansk in terms of the bars.

Gdansk looking lovely at night and I am missing this fine city.

I’m having to reuse a photo from when I visited Whiskey in the Jar on my own last year, as our group visit here this year didn’t work out. It’s a small national chain and I’ve visited nearly all of their locations as they are usually a reliable venue. I particularly like their Warsaw outlet which I’ve visited a couple of times before. Since my last visit, they have moved to new premises in Gdansk near to their previous one and it looked contemporary and modern when we went in.

They were unfortunately all over the place this time if I’m being honest. The greeter said that they couldn’t split the bill but they could accept a single payment across card and cash. Then another staff member came over and said that was wrong and the venue only accepted all cash or all card payments, although perhaps there were some translation issues here as that seemed a bit odd to me. The only option we had, as some of our group only had cash, was either to leave or to sit across two tables where we paid cash on one and card on the other. The latter seemed sub-optimal to say the least, so we unfortunately had to leave. Disappointing, perhaps it was just a one-off, but the staff seemed to be trying their best to help. But I still like them and I’m sure that we would have enjoyed the food and drink though, it has always been decent before.