• 5
• Apteka is AMAZING!!!

Polish cuisine makes great use of grains, millet, rye, & wheat. Pungent, aromatic and dense flavor palate, using nutmeg, juniper, mace. Old spice cupboard flavors that taste like something ancient, respected. A feast as homage to an old way. Earthy flavors, deep browns. Cold weather & dead leaves, crisp frosty airs inspire appetites of starches and root vegetables. Hearty, hefty portions reasonably priced. A treat for the cold-weather season, indeed! ecoRDN chose the Tartines to start. Like crostini or bruschetta, tartines are open faced sandwiches prepared on Apteka‘s grainy house-baked rye. Carrot pâté with pickled cucumber, radish & dill, sweet garlicky toothy bites, polish salad with pickle, celeriac and potato, reminiscent of sweet chunky heavy mayo salads of picnics past. See Apteka’s daily menu for alternating varieties. The Horse & Pepper jumped right off the page, a sandwich boasting a huge slab of fried veggie pâté served on a hulking crust of baguette holding hands with sweet pepper sauce, crispy cabbage salad, black garlic butter & spicy peppers. The pâté resembles tempeh, in a traditionally set terrine cut into a massive rectangle & cooked to a nice crisp bark. Earthy, rich, and filling. O M -effing- G, Apteka’s Pierogi are the Apis Patella!!! Heavenly wedges stuffed with a mix of smoked potato or a mash of mushroom and sauerkraut, underneath a sweet nut-based rich mayo-like yoghurt sauce that tasted like sweet pickle relish, creamy & perfect accompaniment along with the beets and fried cabbage, make it rain with chives. Non-nut options available upon request. The smoked potato pierogi is DIVINE. Smoked potato + parsnip+ turnip greens, a salty woody mash mixed with the carrot-like parsnip & mild bitter turnip greens. The mushroom & sauerkraut provided a perfect balance, earthy deep mushroom flavor marries so well with the pungent aromatic bite of the sauerkraut. A guaranteed umami face explosion! For dessert we chose the Tarta Jablkowa (apple pie) w/ tart cherry compote. The buttery pastry soaked up the sweet spiced pureed apple, like the consistency of loose pumpkin pie,. A melange of fall aromatics underneath super tart port-y cherry compote, those cinnamony sweet browns, all that good time spice! The buttery flaky pastry is plant-based, as are all the options at Apteka. Another great place to visit where no-meat/no-dairy gourmands need not worry and go all-in for a memorable feast perfect for the cold time of year! ecoRDN.com Updated from previous review on 2017-05-06