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The
bright sign, promoting an expensive German beer,
caught my eye every time that I passed it. Just
on the corner as the road sweeps into the impressive
Place Bankony the sign directs the eye to a glassed
extension which jumps out from the building line.
This is clearly a bar, but as the only message is
a request for an expensive beer, I could not help
but wonder if the place had a name. A few weeks
ago, after getting board watching the spring time
rituals of the ungodly in the Zanzibar, I wandered
up the road and inspected the bar below the beer
sign and found the friendly home of the Elephant.
A few days later I went back to eat. |
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| Der Elefant Pub (Plac Bankowy 1. Tel:
620 4611) impresses as soon as one approaches the
front door, in the temporary extension, that is the
bit that juts out. I presume that in the summer this
is opened up. However in the winter it provides a
pleasant conservatory that allows those inside to
look out and meditate on the wisdom of leaving the
warm atmosphere of the womb of the elephant for the
cold reality of a Warsaw winter. |
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| Moving back through this conservatory
the reason for its existence is all to clear. The
main part, that includes a dominant bar, is very small.
Add to that the fact that a great deal of the cooking
is also performed behind the bar and it is quickly
clear that without the outside bit it would be claustrophobic
and impractically small inside. The inside is comfortable
with a mish mash of decorative objects. A couple of
parrots perched over my head during my meal and I
had a word with the head of the elephant that dominates
one wall, he was not to unhappy, he explained, since
he was plastic. However the boar, who's head stared
at me throughout dinner was defiantly miffed about
the missing body, not to mention being confined to
this room far away from the forest that he lived in. |
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| The place looked full. However a very
friendly waitress quickly gave me a table near the
bar, although I would have happily sat at the actual
bar and watched the chefs at work. I felt obliged
to order a half litre of that expensive German beer,
and my view about the price was confirmed when the
menu told me that it had cost me Zl.8 for that portion
of Bitburger. However I was here to try the food and
thus sustained. I got down to the menu. It is not
one of those menus that go on and on, in fact it could
be described as limited. Although for me it was more
that adequate. There is a small starter section, which
include steak tartar and prawn cocktail among others.
Then there are two soups, a selection of salads and
a couple of sandwiches. There are two snacky dishes
recommended for drinking with beer including a plate
of pig. However it is the grill dishes that dominate
with a large barbecue selection, which contained most
meats, four dishes for great gourmands (all grilled)
and a section of Balkan grills which includes bratwurst
at Zl.10. The next section headed 'from the frying
pan' predominately featured pig in many ways, I ordered
prawn cocktail which turned out to be a large bowl
of eatable cold water prawns in too much, but good,
cocktail sauce, on a bed of lettuce. I make the point
about the sauce because it smothered everything and
being slightly piquant killed most tastes. |
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| For a main I had a Bavarian grill which
my smiling waitress tried unsuccessfully to decode
into English. What arrived was a layered dish of pork
steak and bacon steak. It was straight for the grill
and cooked so that the fat still ran and charring
of the grill was evident but not dominant. With this
there was a separately ordered baked potato and a
couple of relish style dips. |
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With this food I had three glasses of
the house wine at Zl.3 per glass. It was that old
friend Sofia and at that price represents Zl.22.5
per 75cl. bottle. I was surprised to see some very
exotic wines on the list including Lafite Rothchild
at Zl.920. The Elephant is not the place I would expect
to drink such a wine. There was a Chianti at Zl.35.
I declined an offer of ice cream, or the house pudding,
and sat back with a final glass of that beer. Somewhere,
somebody obviously recognised me as a great gourmand
because a complimentary glass of what I think was
cherry vodka was offered, and, needless to say, accepted. |
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| I enjoyed every thing about the elephant.
It is a first rate place serving good pub food at
sensible prices (my bill was Zl.57.5 before a tip)
with friendly service and in a great atmosphere. |
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| Fine Dining in:
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