Biały Królik – soon everybody will be talking about this place!

We love this feeling when we find an amazing place almost completely surprisingly, out of the blue. When you were not supposed to go there because there were other plans and you almost missed the place where they serve food made in heaven. That’s the case with Biały Królik in Gdynia. A place that’s absolutely amazing, fascinating and makes you wonder why aren’t people already talking about it everywhere.

 

We considered several options for Monday’s lunch – sorry, but we couldn’t try all of your ideas because our stomachs aren’t made of flexible rubber really, even though it may seem like they are from time to time 🙂 We thought about Tłusta Kaczka which reportedly rules in Gdynia when it comes to Polish cuisine, about Restauracja Morska recommended by one of our frequent readers and about checking Malika once again. I personally really wanted to go to Georgian Ocneba in Sopot (also recommended by one of you!), but when Łukasz read Biały Królik’s menu he wanted to go there and nowhere else. Even when I protested pointing out that there’s not much for the 4-year-old to eat. I had doubts, but as soon as we arrived in front of a charming former palace located in a quiet district of Gdynia (nearest SKM station is Gdynia Orłowo) and saw the interior and a huge green terrain around the place I knew it was going to be good.

 

 

After crowds on Monciak and during breakfast at Hilton, queues for waffles and a struggle to get a table at Bulaj, that was exactly what we needed. We heard that Biały Królik is decorated truly magically… The name (White Rabbit) makes you think about ‘Alice in wonderland’ and indeed that’s the key inspiration here. It’s beautiful, however I have to admit I expected a more surreal fell. It’s an elegant restaurant with perfectly picked details – white and black floors, pictures with mysterious characters on the walls, white rabbits hanging from the ceiling along with other mysterious creatures.

 

 

On the table booked prior to our visit, we find a bread basket and a little piece of butter wrapped in paper for everybody. Maks spreads the butter generously on his buns himself and eats them happily. At the same time I have to tame myself so that I won’t stuff myself with delicious pumpkin seed bread before the lunch – I get the feeling that there’s going to be much more delicious stuff here than this amazing bread!

 

Łukasz goes for a tasting menu – 11 meals for PLN 150. That’s an almost shockingly low price for such a menu – in Warsaw a tasting menu in a good restaurant costs at least PLN 270-280 and it comes with less meals. The name is quite suggestive: ‘Follow the White Rabbit’ – I like it how they stay devoted to the fairy-tale theme. At first we get amuse bouche: buckwheat groats / smoked butter / fermented cucumber. Looks delicious and tastes even better: A crispy chip made from buckwheat groats which retained its distinct flavour, butter with strong aroma and a bit of fermented cucumber jelly. A good start.

 

The first starter from the tasting menu is: kozia rura/beetroot/pumpkin/ dogwood. We’re not so enthusiastic about this one – there’s nothing special about this meal. The flavours do not form a special composition, they’re just plain. It’s hard to say what is the main character here and our hopes get shattered for a moment. Even though kozia rura reportedly is a great local cheese, here its flavour is not amplified enough. At the same time I get a salted mackerel / horseradish yoghurt / flatbread / starwort (PLN 32). The yoghurt covered mackerel and chopped cucumber are served in a large jar – it’s a really big starter, especially if you add two small flatbread with crayfish butter that come with it. I eat it but I get the feeling that these aren’t really my flavours… I guess that the crayfish butter is the best of it all. I don’t stop eating it when the flatbread are gone but continue with the bread left.

 

 

 

But there are three starters on the tasting menu. Next one is herring / vegetable salad / snail caviar. Vegetable salad? That does not sound right and brings back bad memories! I never liked it and they made it EVERY Christmas and Easter anyway and after that the leftovers were put in a jar and stored in the fridge for a few more days. And what? We’re supposed to eat that in a restaurant? But suddenly the same ingredients in a deconstructed form look amazing thanks to the idea itself and taste great too. Who would have thought that you can make a vegetable salad fine dining style? Biały Królik proves that it’s possible and that it can work great. Each of the ingredients tastes great both on its own and combined with the rest.

The third starter is corn-fed chicken liver pate / Hungarian prune / chestnuts / butter bun . It’s a pity I haven’t ordered it. I considered taking it and now I see that the bun is perfect – like from the best bakery.

 

 

After starters it’s time for a soup which is an amazing thing once again. More than amazing to be honest. Boletus / cheese soup / scorzonera / mushroom is a velvety mushroom and cheese soup served with a dumpling filled with boletus mushrooms which looks a bit like ravioli and cheese slices from osada Burego Misia. Wow!

We get the same main course: cod / potatoes / buttermilk / dill oil (PLN 50 if taken without the tasting menu). This meal is the quintessence of simplicity which we missed in Bulaj for instance. Not to many flavours here – the fish which is firm and meaty thanks to 4 hours spent in salt prior to being served. There’s delicate potato puree, buttermilk foam and dill oil that’s green, and strongest in flavour. Together they make an almost perfect combination. The cod itself reminds Łukasz of the Portuguese bacalhau.

 

 

Right before the last main course we get a cucumber sorbet served on a cottage cheese flan . Just an intermission to freshen your taste buds but Łukasz loves it as all the others and praises the meal. And believe his not an easy one to please. The last savoury meal from the tasting menu is a aged rib eye steak from Pniewy / parsnip / pink beetroot / potato croquets . The meat is 30-days aged and that makes it delicious. Łukasz says it’s one of the best pieces of beef he has tried ever – crisp, melt-in-your-mouth like a toro tuna, perfectly cooked. The croquets made from potatoes, cream and cheese are cool too and remind us of our beloved Spanish croquetas. A small drawback as for the service – nobody asked us how we would like to have our steak. Apart from that the service was flawless.

 

 

As Łukasz approaches the end of his tasting way I already feel excited for the desserts! They must be heavenly and original in a place like this! Goodbye chocolate soufflés, creme brulee and meringue cakes! I’ll have brown butter custard and laurel leaves ice cream! There’s 2 desserts on the tasting menu and 3 on the regular one. We try them all! Even though all of them are tasty, we can’t decide on an unanimous leader. I’m in for the most original one that tastes like nothing I ever tried: laurel leaves ice cream / pear cooked in dried rhubarb / clove. . An earthy flavour, a distinct clove and rhubarb. Firm pear, creamy sauce and crispy topping. Love it! Łukasz prefers brown butter custard / raspberry ice cream with liquorice / lavender mainly thanks to amazing custard which tastes great with both fresh raspberries and raspberry cassava starch. The third dessert is definitely more traditional – apple pie / caramel chocolate / yeast / prune . The combination of apple pie and chocolate works quite well. The desserts on the menu cost PLN 25 and if they’re all as big as the apple pie then they’re all huge!!!

 

The tasting menu ends with two little wooden boxes with petit fours – almond cake with chocolate and butterschotch on freeze-dried raspberry powder.

 

 

Biały Królik has it all. A fascinating menu, meals that taste incredible pretty much every time, beautiful interior with carefully selected details, relaxing neighbourhood far from the crowds and tourist fuss and high quality service. There’s also one more advantage which is often missing in other restaurants. When we asked if it was the chef who cooked the meals they said that no, the chef is not present today and it was his assistant who prepared our meals. A round of applause! Usually whenever the chef is gone, the quality goes down quickly and dramatically. Here it was perfect!

 

Biały Królik is quite a discovery. I guess we can say it’s the discovery of the year, even though the year isn’t over yet. It’s the same level as Nolita or Salto. Fascinating, incredible and remarkable. And one look at the receipt proves that you don’t have to pay fortune for such type of cuisine. And these prices aren’t only good compared with Warsaw, but also with Gdańsk, Gdynia or Sopot where you often pay similar money for much inferior cooking in a much inferior place.

 

Just go there!

 

 

PRACTICAL INFORMATION:

Biały Królik

opening hours:

Mon-Sat 12:00-16:45 and 17:30-22:00

Sunday 12:00-19:00

 

 

PS. the reason for the discount was the lack of wine which is also included in the tasting menu (2 glasses)