Wólka Kosowska… Chinese centre in Wólka Kosowska. Shopping halls. Have ever been there? Heard about it? I heard about Wólka about 8-10 years ago… A Chinese centre with lots of cheap clothes. When I was still a student, I went there hunting with my friends two or three times. We caught a bus headed towards Grójec on the corner of ul. Hynka and al. Krakowska right after fuelling ourselves with cheeseburgers from a nearby McDonald. Those were the days! A trip to Wólka was already quite exotic then, a bit weird, like a trip to a foreign country. As soon as we got off the bus, we saw huge shopping halls and… a different world. Much less Polish, much more Asian… Then we forgot about Wólka for a while – work, more money, sales in Zara, Erasmus in Spain and their ‘rebajas‘ (discounts) – Wólka wasn’t necessary anymore… We sometimes passed the green sign on our way south, but never had the time to stop by…
This week, I returned to Wólka years after my last visit there. Not to buy clothes, cause I didn’t even enter the shopping halls. To EAT. To look for Vietnamese cuisine since we heard more than once that Wólka is as culinarily interesting as Marywilska. So we packed up and went! And once again, after passing the green ‘Wólka Kosowska’ sign, we found ourselves in a different world: more Asians than Poles, shops open from 3 in the morning, problems with communicating in Polish and the most popular vehicle: a scooter! And obviously, Vietnamese bars… Absolutely exotic. A bit of Asia so close to Warsaw.
There’s plenty of bars in Wólka, but this time we had no time for bummers. We may return and search for the hidden flavours one day, but today we’re taking the easy route. Supposedly MEN’s bar is one of the best. We know that Żorż Ponimirski from Street Food Polska has been there, so we make a quick call and thanks to Żorż’s directions, quickly find MEN’s.
let’s start with PHO
The bar is small, not too decent but not too shabby either. Just a regular Vietnamese bar. Colourful leaflets with menu on the tables. There are two menus – Polish and Vietnamese. When it comes to ‘Polish’ menu, you should try pho soup (PLN 12) with chicken or beef and bun cha (PLN 14) which consists of thin rice noodles, salad, herbs, grilled meat and sauce. Spring rolls look tempting too – i.e. nem cua with crab meat, but we consider them too ‘ordinary’ in such an exotic place. Pho soup is similar to the one in Toan Pho, but bun cha is amazingly fragrant, like nowhere else in Poland!
bun cha – part 1
bun cha – part 2
bun cha – part 3
Remaining dishes from the Polish menu are standards that can be found in most Chinese and Vietnamese places in Poland – fried rice, chicken/beef or pork five spices style, sweet and sour chicken with mushrooms and bamboo shoots etc. ‘Thai chicken’ looks particularly bad on the menu in a Vietnamese joint. We focus on the Vietnamese part of the menu.
With the help of Google, we check how specific meals look like and speaking half Polish, we try to make a deal with the staff. The Vietnamese girls are absolutely fascinated with us taking pictures – they come and look at our camera every now and then. Finally, one of them passes the phone to Łukasz so he can explain what we want! It must to be Vietnamese, with things that are missing from the Polish menu. That’s how we get 3 more soups. First is called chao ga and looks like a gruel with chicken and herbs. Not my cup of tea, but Łukasz eats some of it. Two remaining soups – bun ca with fish and bun oc with tofu taste much better. They’re fragrant and packed with ingredients, even though some of them may seem weird – snails in a tofu soup or a ..tomato
chao ga
a bowl of wonders – bun oc
that’s what he staff brings us when they see how fascinated we are with Vietnamese cuisine – too greasy for me but for Łukasz, everything is possible
Was Wólka culinarily mind-blowing? Not really! You can find similar flavours in Toan Pho, however bun cha that we tried here, must have been the best one we’ve eaten in Poland so far. Is it worth going to Wólka?? YES! Not only for bun cha or pho, but in order to experience a bit of exoticism that’s so close to Warsaw. We’re planning on going back as soon as we have more time. We’d like to immerse ourselves in the shopping halls and look for more Vietnamese flavours.
And for the dessert in the end – Vietnamese coffee!
Oh, one more thing – we paid PLN 66 for 5 meals, a coffee and a Coke 🙂 Nice!
Vietnamese coffee
PRACTICAL INFORMATION:
MEN’S
ul. Nadrzeczna 5 F (on the let from the main road, close to the second/third hall)
Wólka Kosowska
tel:
888 181 811
729 617 186
607 289 129
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