Spain. One of my favorite places in the world. I always go there with happiness, I always absorb every moment, every taste, smell, every sound, every movie, every song. I love it for at least 35 different reasons that I wrote about HERE, although I think I could find many more. I spent a few months in Spain and every time I get to get back there, a smile doesn’t leave my face at all, it’s there 24/7.
In my everyday life in Warsaw, I sometimes get into that Spanish mood. I listen to my favorite songs, I go to see the new Almodovar (“Julieta” – I recommend it!) or eat Spanish tapas. Back in the day it wasn’t easy to find them in Warsaw, but recently decent places for tapas have been appearing on the city’s map and every freak who’s in love with Span will find something for themselves. We have four types – we always go back to some of them, others we’ve just discovered, there are also those we’d found years ago, took a break from them and now came back to. Let us know where in Warsaw or Poland you have your Spanish island 🙂
4 PLACES FOR REAL SPANISH TAPAS:
1) TAPAS GASTROBAR – Grzybowska 63 Street
It’s been my number one when it comes to tapas for two years. Cool place for an evening outing with friends, long conversations by sangria and a wide range of Spanish classics in pretty reasonable prices. We order croquetas, squids, patatas bravas and tortilla de patatas, probably the best one in town – delicate, a little bit melting inside. I also love choricitos al vino, chorizo thalers stewed in white wine – you want to wipe every last drop of its sauce off the plate with a baguette. We often order el pan tumaca, Catalan classic – bread embrocated with tomato pulp. It reminds me of breakfasts in Barcelona!
When it comes to bigger meals, you can choose from cocas, a few meat meals, fish, paella. For dessert – churros con chocolate. It’s perfect! Once again I’m reminded of Spanish breakfasts or churros eaten at festivals.
Spanish owners rule Tapas Gastrobar – you can feel it in the air! If you want more haute dinner, you can go to Casa Pablo, a place they own too – we haven’t been there in a while but their food used to sweep us off our feet! I guess we need to see if it still does! 🙂
2) MOJO PICON – Poznańska 3 and Szpitalna 4 Street
First I went to the tiny Mojo Picon on Poznańska Street. A few stairs down and you see a room that can only fit 2 or 3 people. There are Spanish products on the shelves – you can buy them and eat some tapas. I ate tortilla de patatas, delicately melting croquetas and I started missing that country again. Mojo Picon has had a new place since recently – on Szpitalna Street. The city center, a place perfect for an evening meeting by sangria.
We went there with friends and tested a lot of things – we liked pimientos de padron, morcilla (I’ve heard it’s great! I don’t eat it!) and delicious pulpo a la gallega, probably the best one in Warsaw and the closest to the ones you can eat in northern Spain. You will find a lot of tapas typical for the Canaries here, such as papas con mojo, which is potatoes with sauce you can only find on the Canaries.
Lately I’ve seen on Facebook that they make Spanish breakfasts too and yes, they serve churros con chocolate! 🙂
3) SOL Y SOMBRA – Grzybowska 2/16 Street
Spanish bars have existed here for a few years now. I remember that my friend came back to Poland after a year in Bilbao, about 6 or 8 years ago. She worked for a Spanish company and used to be there pretty often – I guess it was called Cuatro Caminos then? Now I go to Sol y Sombra to check how their tapas are. There are classics once again – pimientos de padron (a little too soft for me), tortilla, cool eggplant with jamon serrano and goat cheese, and what I love the most – squid sandwich, definitely the closest to Barcelona’s perfect ones! Crispy baguette, delicate squids (even my mom eats them although she usually hates them because of their “gumminess”) and aioli sauce inside. Yummy!
The interior looks like a traditional Spanish bar, there are flags on the ceiling, including my favorite Basque one, and their toilet looks like a bullfight arena 😉 They organize a lot of different events and concerts.
4) LA IBERICA – Płowiecka 35 Street (you can get there from Nowowiśniowa Street)
I guess La Iberica is the longest running Spanish restaurant in Warsaw. I remember that we came here in the fall of 2010 because they’d just been named the restaurant of the year. Localization? Not too good, it’s pretty far away for majority of people and it’s definitely not a place where you can easily go with friends for evening tapas. You will find La Iberica in a house, on the edge of the world, on Płowiecka street, hidden behind acoustical sound enclosures that separate it from the loud street. You need to be really desperate or live close to go there 🙂 We rarely even go there, but lately we’ve arrived in there for a Sunday dinner and ate great chorizo in wine, perfectly made squids and great paella de mariscos. Unfortunately, they were out of crema catalana that I wanted to order for dessert, but their white chocolate cheesecake did pretty well!
If it’s warm, there are some tables outside and a small playground for kids! 🙂
And what are your favorite places for typical Spanish tapas? We’ve tested other ones too, but these 4 are the ones that remind me the most of classical Spanish flavors. There are no tapas from all around the world, Polish, Mexican food and pastas. There’s only Spain, which I miss!
P.S. Rumour has it that soon another Spanish tapas bar will open in Warsaw – I hope we’ll get to tell you about it! 🙂
0 Comments