If someone told that I would eat in veggie places voluntarily a few years ago, I would only knock on my head and look at him with disbelief! What can I say, I never liked vegetables too much. I was one of those non-eater children which were really tough to persuade and out of all vegetables preferred boiled potatoes, sometimes beetroots or gherkins. Over time, tomatoes and cucumber got accepted to the game but still plenty of vegetables were a no-no. That’s not all! Some are still a no-no… Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, boiled carrots, cauliflower, green celery… Nope, that’s not for me!
And suddenly it turned out that if vegetable food is prepared in tasty and interesting manner, it can be delicious too! It can be more tempting than my beloved pastas, pizza or Asian cuisine. It can be intriguing and addictive! Here’s 5 veggie spots that made me like vegetables after all! 5 places that are some of my favourite spots in Warsaw and it’s a real shame that they are so far from my place. Places perfect for a light lunch, perfect if you want to take your vegetable loving friends somewhere and you’re worried that you won’t find anything for yourselves. I’m pretty sure that EVERYBODY will find something for them within this Top 5 and that EVERYBODY will like it!
This entry is dedicated to my mom who barely believes that her child voluntarily eats in vegetarian restaurants!!!;)
5 VEG PLACES THAT WILL AMAZE ANYBODY:
1) ÓSMA KOLONIA – ul. Słowackiego 15/ 19 (Żoliborz)
I love the place and it’s a real pity that it’s so far from me!!! I fell in love with Ósma Kolonia about a year and half ago (you can read about it here HERE!) and I come back systematically every time I’m in Żoliborz, one of my favourite districts of the city. I usually drop by during lunch time because their lunches are absolutely amazing! Soup and main course cost PLN 25 – and they’re always tasty and always very creative! Examples? Spelt dumplings in beetroot sauce with coconut milk, dim sums with mushrooms and sesame paste sauce, salads, pancakes, stuffed aubergine, baked potatoes with guacamole, rice noodles with mango chutney and coconut (oh, how good that was!). All tastes perfect! Their Facebook alone makes me drool over the keyboard!! Check it for yourselves – but not when you’re hungry! HERE!!:)
I even took my partner to Ósma Kolonia even though he didn’t look all that happy when he heard it’s a veg place. But afterwards he only nodded his head and said that indeed it was good! 😉 Right next to it, there’s a sister spot called Secret Life Cafe which serves (among other things) amazing cocktails that make working so much easier!
2) VEG DELI – ul. Radna 14 (Powiśle)
I first visited VEG DELI during a meeting with my friend – I wasn’t all that optimistic about the place and then… I went bonkers! A fascinating menu from which I wanted to try everything and a slogan on the door which I completely agree with “People who love to eat are the best people”. Great hummus with vegetable stalks to nibble on, a great burger made from quinoa and Portobello mushrooms and during winter we had gnocchi with pumpkin, a pumpkin curry and a mango chutney (all heavenly!). As for desserts, you have to try baked prunes with coconut milk and chia seeds on a raw dactyl bottom and a brownie with mascarpone cheese and figs if you manage to hunt it down! 🙂 VEG DELI even makes its own Christmas Eve takeaway menu with things like beetroot pate with baked garlic or a millet groats pate with marjoram and cranberry.
3) KROWARZYWA – ul. Hoża 29/31 and ul. Marszałkowska 27/35
Krowarzywa is surely one of Warsaw’s best shots! It’s a shame I only managed to get there recently! They started with a tiny shop on ul. Hoża and now they have two (one, large on ul. Hoża and another one which we went to near Pl. Zbawiciela) and are planning to open their first place in Cracow. When we visited their place on ul. Marszałkowska, we barely got a table with seats at the bar – totally crowded!
The burgers are huge, delicious and filling and their vegan ‘burgers’ appeal to meateaters too! What’s amazing is their creativity in coming up with new sandwiches – apart from the menu regulars such as jaglanex (millet), cieciorex (chickpeas) or tofex there are more and more new ones coming… jarmużex (kale), buraczeź (beet), boczniaczex (oyster mushroom) or mexikanex with red beans, peppers, corn and coriander. Something new every time.
You can choose various buns to go with your burger – light, dark, gluten-free along with various sauces. And for drinks – healthy smoothies of course. A must!
4) MEZZE hummus & falafel – ul. Różana 1 (Mokotów)
Quite addictive! It started with sets with hummus, falafels and vegetables! I think it was the first place I had falafel in – a crispy, fragrant and perfect one. Large sets with various things in them, perfect to nibble on with your friend. I loved their shakshouka served with falafel before Christmas. God, how good and filling that was!
In January I came back to have it once again, but by the time I got there I decided to have lunch instead and it turned out to be great too! Lunches are different every day but mine – barley groats with tomatoes and goat’s cheese with parsley and pear soup with pumpkin seeds made me hungry for more! But beware! It costs PLN 25 and I wasn’t even able to finish it! 😉
5) FALAFEL BEJRUT – ul. Senatorska 40 i ul. Nowolipki 15
I’ve been trying to visit Falafel Bejrut for like a year now! But ul. Senatorska was never on my way – it may be a stones throw from ul. Chmielna where we often reside but I still couldn’t get there! As I was planning to finally go there, the place got more and more famous and in early 2016 they opened a second spot on ul. Nowolipki 15. Unline on ul. Senatorska, here you can have a sit, the place is bigger and the menu is more varied too. However, I got myself in the little joint on ul. Senatorska, in a hurry. A super tiny place with people coming in and out all the time!
I want an aubergine or aubergine and pomegranate sandwich but hummus and falafel on a plate are tempting too. I’ll take them then! It’s fascinating that a small place like this with almost no sitting space has a kids’ menu – i.e. Hummus Batata Junior for PLN 7.9 🙂
Let’s eat! The hummus is perfectly creamy and tender, just the way I like it the most. The falafels are delicious too! Crispy but soft inside. I eat reading the history of Falafel Bejrut – it’s owner started with a stand in front of Hala Mirowska! Wow! Love such stories! I dip my pita in the hummus and think that these falafels are good enough to persuade my little meateater – Maks. He usually doesn’t eat stuff like that but this is sooo good! 😉
This veg stuff is not as scary as they say, isn’t it???:)
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