Greenpoint, Brooklyn, for the Most Authentic Polish Food

With all of our gallivanting around New York City eating food from around the world (22 nationalities covered to date on this blog), it seems surprising that we were only just recently sent for the first time to Brooklyn. While at a Polish Consulate reception a few months ago, Murray asked a Polish diplomat for a recommendation of the most authentic Polish restaurant in New York. The response: The most authentic Polish restaurants are in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, and Karczma is the very best.

So, a few weeks ago, four of us headed to Greenpoint to eat at Karczma for an early Sunday dinner. We discovered a bar up front and a dining room lined with booths in the rear, decorated such that, at least according to the restaurant’s website, customers feel like they are in Poland. We were surprised to discover that we needed to wait a few minutes for a table, even at 5:30 pm on a Sunday evening. No problem; there were seats at the bar. Here's a picture of the large glass of Zywiec I started while we waited for a table:

Early Sunday dining must be a tradition for Polish families; when we entered the dining room we noted the tables were filled with large multi-generational groups having a good time, including this cutie who played peek-a-boo with us for a while at our booth.

For some reason, the four of us were quite hungry that night, so we tore into the menu and made selections of soups, appetizers, and main dishes. This is what we ordered:

Soups

• White Borscht in Bread, which intrigued us.  Doesn’t borscht contain beets? How then would this soup be white? Well, we discovered that this very traditional Polish dish contains no beets at all. Here’s a recipe for a reasonable facsimile of what we had at Karczma. It was delicious.

• Tripe Soup, mostly because, as you’ll learn, we were a bit shy about trying some of the other items on the menu, and one of our group claims to love tripe. This was also quite good, the strips of tripe surprisingly tender.
• Mushroom Soup, a special soup of the day and my personal favorite of the soups.

Appetizers

We skipped the Peasant Lard, which is probably just a sort of paté, but honestly I couldn’t get beyond the name. Still, we were a little adventurous with:

• Steak Tartar, raw diced beef served with raw egg, capers, cucumber, onion and mushrooms.

• Grilled Asparagus Wrapped in Polish Ham, which I’d be happy eating every day for the rest of my life.

Main Dishes

• Grilled Plate for Two, which was supposed to include Polish Kielbasa, Blood Sausage, Chicken Breast, Salmon and Bacon, but we asked for no Blood Sausage and more of the rest … and our waitress cheerfully agreed. This plate was accompanied by three dipping sausages and a large pile of roasted potatoes.

• Plate of Polish Specialties (we ordered two of these), which included pierogis, potato pancakes, kielbasa, Hunter’s Stew, and stuffed cabbage.

• Spicy Beef Goulash, served with potato pancakes.

The meal was heavy on the meat and potatoes, and except for our asparagus, included nothing very green. We had expected this and were not disappointed at all. The food was great. We ate heartily and still had leftovers (especially the grilled platter, which made lovely sandwiches for days afterwards). Our waitress was very helpful and pleasant, and the atmosphere was very much like Poland, I guess. (None of us can truly vouch for that, never having been to Poland ourselves, but almost everyone else in the restaurant was speaking Polish.) The waitresses wear dresses like this one hanging on the wall, but I'm sorry to say I didn't see any men in red-striped trousers.

This is not a spot for a vegetarian, and anyone thinking much about their weight may find, as I did, that they want to focus on much lighter food for a few days after a meal here. Still, the food was delicious and relatively inexpensive ($140, including drinks and tip for four people). I’ll definitely go there again.

 

Where and When

Karczma
136 Greenpoint Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11222
718-349-1744

Subway: G Train to Greenpoint Avenue

www.karczmabrooklyn.com

Monday-Thursday
12:00 noon – 10:30 pm

Friday-Saturday
12:00 noon – 11:30 pm

Sunday
12:00 noon – 10:00 pm