Warsaw – Restauracja Maryensztadt

This old town restaurant specialises in craft beer and food, but it was the former which was the reason for my visit. The restaurant is very well reviewed for its beer, a little less so for its food, although it appears to be a location growing in popularity.

There was a friendly welcome from a staff member who showed me where the bar area was, with the barman being keen to engage about the beer options.

A particularly well presented board displaying all of the beers in a clear manner, a nice touch.

My first drink was the milk stout Sweet Sixteen, which is from the local Maryensztadt Brewery in Warsaw. There was a touch of coffee to the beer, but I thought it was served too cold and that hid a lot of the flavour. Fine, but unexceptional.

So, moving onto the second drink, which I was tempted into after I was offered a sample. It’s the Gwiazda Północy, from the same brewery, but this was quite brilliant. Strong, but not too heavy, with a rich smoky flavour that almost tasted like it had a touch of whisky for some reason that isn’t apparent to me, but perhaps it’s something to do with the barrel. Unless I’m confusing the smoked flavour for whisky somehow, but the aftertaste of the beer was quite decadent (to misquote Jay from the Inbetweeners). A delightful drink, although I had asked for a small rather than large beer, but I was pleased they gave me the latter. Whether it was creative upselling or they knew I’d like it, I was pleased to have this much of it.

It’s perhaps not surprising that the restaurant was otherwise empty on a weekday lunch-time in January, but the atmosphere was comfortable even though I was pretty much the only customer. The prices were towards the higher end of the scale, but given the location and the quality of the beer, they weren’t unreasonable.