Junho C.
Yelp
Rating: 4.5/5
Detroit is a melting pot with diverse cuisines, but other than occasional pierogis and kielbasa, I've only had polish food twice counting this one. I will be having it more often now.
There are 3 polish restaurants right next to each other. Luckily, I have a polish friend I can call and she recommended this place. The inside is old fashioned, dim, and almost foreboding. But, the restaurant is more elaborate and well-lit.
I was greeted by a spunky hostess, who upon my asking if this is the restaurant, she answered, "it looks like one". Wanting to sample everything, I ordered the polish platter with a side of pork chop and chose dill pickle soup for my soup.
The waitress let me try their sausage soup along with my dill pickle soup. Both soups have an unique sourness to them, which gave a zing to the hearty soups. I enjoyed the dill pickle soup more, which is basically a potato soup with pickle brine and fresh dill.
The unifying concept of polish dishes seem to be meaty, hearty, calorie-high food balanced out with acidity. Outcome is delicious and very filling food that doesn't overwhelm your palate with its heaviness.
What I learned with my sampler is that polish do pork very well. And to balance the richness of the meal, a good sauerkraut is crucial as a palate cleanser. Sour and sweet flavor of the sauerkraut jolts your appetite while cleansing your palate, readying you for the next delicious bite.
Pork chop was similar to tonkatsu, but the meat was a little bit thinner with different breading. The city chicken was really juicy and tender and quickly became my favorite. And despite the breading, it didn't taste that heavy, tho it did get soggy while I was busy eating other dishes and taking pics.
When you learn about the polish history, you understand their cuisine and appreciate the food more. According to my friend, city chicken, the skewer dish, is made out of pork, not chicken. It's a uniquely American polish dish that came about during the depression because they couldn't afford chicken. So, instead, they took tender parts of pork and dressed it up and fried like fried chicken!
This is the first time I've had kielbasa properly, with horseradish. It was such a good combination I'm going to buy some next time I buy any sausage. Stuffed cabbage looked heavy, but it tastes rather light and sweet due to rice, tomato sauce, herbs, and cabbage. Meatball with mushroom sauce was the only thing I wasn't that impressed with, as the meatball was on a dry side. Even the mashed potato was good, it was hand mashed with chunks w a mushroom gravy w actual mushrooms.
Cheese and meat pirogies were filled to the brim with farmers cheese and meat. I've never had farmer's cheese before, it reminded me of a cross between cream cheese and ricotta. The sour cream was the perfect accompaniment and the dough was doughy and chewy in all the right ways.
I'm a big fan of comfort food, and polish food fills your stomach and warms your heart with masterful balance of flavors. I'm gonna have to learn how to make them and improve balancing different flavors better.