Hotel restaurants are quite specific establishments, usually much different than the ones operating individually. Other challenges, other problems. Because usually it’s hard to play on interior design if you’re a part of a larger whole. Because a hotel restaurants needs to respond to diverse likes of the hotel guests which often results in a bit of everything present on the menu, without focusing on one type of cuisine. Because it’s often hard to attract the customer from the outside, since hotel restaurants, especially in Poland, often connote something expensive and unreachable. I know a person who loves having a coffee and something sweet or a lunch at a hotel. It’s my grandpa. He’s 84 and ever since I remember, he loved the hotel atmosphere; when I was in high school, he used to take me to Gromada / Novotel/ Europejski for coffee or a drink. That’s his style 😉 But among people younger than my grandpa, it’s not too popular to go to a hotel for dinner. It’s a pity, because sometimes you may miss such delicacies as Szósty Zmysł restaurant in Hotel SPA dr Irena Eris in Krynicy Zdrój serves.
We spent 3 days in Krynica, which enabled us to try most of the things from the menu. It was tasty, with interesting flavour combinations and perfect craftsmanship. Definitely one of the best hotel restaurants in Poland. No culinary contortions, foams and other modern oddities, but not boring at all. A happy medium.
From the starters section, I loved wholemeal dumplings filed with game served on dry mushroom and cranberry sauce (PLN 35). Delicious sauce, good combination of ingredients, however it was quite a filling meal as for a starter – only 3 dumplings, but filed with meat so generously that they could easily serve as a main course. I also had to try baked goat’s cheese on red wine and raspberry marmalade(PLN 35). Nothing too original, but since our trip to France in 2011 I love all salads with hot goat’s cheese and always try them. The French surely wouldn’t mind this one.
wholemeal dumplings filed with game served on dry mushroom and cranberry sauce (PLN 35)
baked goat’s cheese on red wine and raspberry marmalade (PLN 35)
Łukasz on the other hand, loved duck’s foie gras liver served on baked apples with red wine and balsamico sauce(PLN 48) – the combination of foie gras, baked apples and fantastic sauce was so tasty that the starter got promoted to photo no.1. Salmon carpaccio with relish sauce, rucola and parmesan flakes (PLN 35) wasn’t that good, though, while mozzarella di bufala and Parma ham salad was quite a disappointment. Bufala got completely buried in salad leaves that were absolutely redundant here.
where’s my bufala!?!?
From the main courses, duck on sweet potato and apples puree with red cabbage jam and raisin sauce was my first choice. I really like duck, especially prepared pink and this one turned out to be the perfect choice. Łukasz was enchanted by beef on spinach with boletus and pancakes battered in oscypek cheese. Due to the hotel being a healthy and fit one, there is quite a lot light fish meals on the menu. However, for me, these were a bit too… light 🙂 Maybe that’s because of large amounts of boiled vegetables which I’m not a fan of. But generally it’s good that they give you choice: fish, meat or vegetarian – i.e. a delicious baked tomatoes, capsicum and thyme cream soup.
duck fillet baked pink on sweet potato and apples puree with red cabbage jam and raisin sauce (PLN 70)
Argentine beef on spinach with boletus in red wine sauce and pancakes battered in oscypek cheese (PLN 85)
for the fit ones: bass fillet with boletus, vegetables and quinoa
Menu also includes some pastas. We usually waive from ordering Italian cuisine meals in a place that’s not Italian.
Here, we decided to give it a try and ordered tagliolini sepia with smoked salmon, sun-dried tomatoes, rucola ad gorgonzola sauce (PLN 48) and pappardelle with pieces of beef tenderloin, boletus in meat sauce with parmesan(PL 45). Unfortunately Tagliolini turned out to be a bit insipid, but pappardelle was delicious. I have one general conclusion – the chef is better at meats than at fish 🙂
filling papardelle
Desserts turned out to be quite original as for a hotel restaurant, even the traditional ones (like a cheesecake) had some unusual add-ons that made the dessert unique. My favourites included semifreddo, a cheesecake served on raspberry mousse with a mango and maracuya salad and a tartlet with hot prunes and vanilla ice cream. All were fantastic. The cheesecake was fluffy and the raspberries and mango made it much more interesting than usual. I love the combination of prunes and vanilla ice cream and I have the feeling that it’s not as popular as it should be .
cheesecake served on raspberry mousse with a mango and maracuya salad (PLN 30)
tartlet with hot prunes and vanilla ice cream
semifreddo sprinkled with caramel and almonds (PLN 28)
Sometimes eating in the hotel restaurant may be a thing that you do because of the included breakfasts, meals that were paid for or the desire to save money. In Szósty Zmysł it’s just the opposite – each meal is a pleasure, in each one we tried something delicious, something that we will remember. Let’s hope for more such hotel restaurants in Poland – maybe finally, we – Poles, will stop avoiding them and start going to hotel restaurants not only if we stay at a specific hotel?
PRACTICAL INFORMATION:
Hotel SPA dr Irena Eris Krynica Zdrój
ul. Czarny Potok 30
33-380 Krynica-Zdrój
tel. +48 (18) 472 35 00
* thank you Hotel SPA dr Irena Eris w Krynicy Zdrój for inviting us!
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