Sometimes, when we go out for lunch or dinner, we’re feeling nostalgic. We miss the beautiful weather, green vineyards, walks on the streets of Budapest and crazy night trips to Egerszalok hot springs.
Hungary… We first got there together on some crazy trip on one Friday night. We had no plans for the weekend, nobody wanted to go out and we were sitting eating dinner at San Antonio and thinking what to do. We kept thinking about it at home while watching ‘Notting Hill’ to kill time. And then, at 11 pm we packed our car and arrived in Eger at 7 am. At 1 pm we were already walking around The Valley of a Beautiful Lady which is full of charming little wine cellars. We then returned to Hungary on numerous occasions – to Eger with our friends, to Tokai, to Budapest for the last trip ‘before Maks’ but the place we loved the most was Villany known for red wine and delicious food. This trips made us come up with our favourite Hungarian flavours that always bring back some great memories. They aren’t brought back that often though since Hungarian cuisine isn’t that popular in Warsaw and I have to admit that we don’t love it as much as we love Asian, Spanish or Italian food.
This time however, we wanted a trip down the memory lane and so we went to Borpince on ul.Zgody 1. A perfect place for grim, rainy, cold and gray days since it’s located in a climatic cellar. I tend to avoid such places on sunny days since I love bright interiors and daylight. But when the weather is less inviting with rain, frost or penetrating wind, it’s good to hide somewhere.
an oasis for rainy days
Hungary and wine are inseparable!
Predictably, we start with Hungarian fish soup called halaszle. Here it’s made from catfish and served in a large pot (PLN 22). One soup is a quite a filling portion for two. It’s very good and tastes just like in Hungary. We fell in love with it in Eger, then had it in Baja the fish soup birthplace. There, a fish soup festival is held every year with attempts to break the record of number of pots of soup cooked every year! The festival is held in July and apart from hectolitres of halaszle there’s hectolitres of wine. It must be one of our favourite fish soups. Maks likes it too if it’s not too spicy.
halaszle – a fish soup with catfish
bread with lard and spicy pepper paste to start with
We skipped the starters on purpose since we know that Hungarian cuisine is particularly filling. However I have to admit that I was tempted by Hortobagyi pancakes with meat and spicy pepper sauce which we had in Eger while Łukasz loves goose foie gras.
For main courses I take a fiery pork goulash with goluski and homemade marinades (PLN 38) while Lukasz orders baked duck’s breast with chorizo chutney, peas puree and vegetables (PLN 47). My meal is 100% Hungary – goulash, capsicum and soft goluski which I love. The goulash is tasty, yet not spicy enough for me, despite it’s ‘fiery’ description. The portion is large and very filling – a really masculine meal which I cannot finish after eating halaszle before. Łukasz is disappointed with his duck – it’s definitely too stiff and tastes as if the chef couldn’t follow current cooking trends and was unable to prepare it properly. It’s rough but chorizo chutney is absolutely great!
fiery pork goulash with goluski (PLN 38)
duck’s breast with chorizo chutney, peas puree and vegetables (PLN 47)
A very friendly waitress suggests ordering a spicy catfish pörkölt with small square noodles and cottage cheese (PLN 47). She says it’s their specialty.
Being in a Hungarian restaurant you can’t leave without having a chestnut puree with rum and whipped cream (PLN 15). It’s yet another flavour that reminds us of the trips to Hungary and they reproduced it perfectly in Borpince! It also looks identical – see for yourself HERE.
chestnut puree with rum and whipped cream (PLN 15)
Borpince is surely a place that brings back the memories of Hungarian flavours. Many of the meals are traditional ones that can also be found in many places in Hungry. Perfect halaszle, delicious chestnut puree. On the other hand, it looks like the chefs got lost somewhere in time since goulash and pörkölt and some other dishes are far from the level of other restaurants in similar price range in Warsaw. If you add expensive wine – PLN 25 (!!!) it may turn out that PLN 172 is a bit too much for a trip down the memory lane and it could easily buy you a better dinner / lunch in a more interesting place. Maybe it’s better to relieve your memories right at the source – in Hungary? 🙂
PRACTICAL INFORMATION:
ul. Zgoda 1
tel. (22) 828 22 44
email: info@borpince.pl
opening hours: daily from 12.00
a filling lunch for 2 with 2a glass of wine
0 Comments