Review – Little Poland

Little Poland is a restaurant located in the East Village of Manhattan that is just like any typical Eastern European restaurant I would expect. If you have never traveled outside your hometown and don’t know much about Eastern Europe, be in for a culture shock at this restaurant that got a C grading from the health department. Normally I cringe when I have to eat at a B restaurant so this was definitely going out of my comfort zone. I stopped at this restaurant on my errand running trip so I was alone. Got a table in the corner at the front of the restaurant overlooking the street and people walking by – best seat in the house for sure.
I checked out their menu and the day’s specials and decided on something I don’t usually cook myself, beef stroganoff, which consists of beef strips served in creamy gravy. Alongside that I got noodles, the traditional thing to get with beef stroganoff and kind of random, sauerkraut, cause I couldn’t decide what second side I wanted with my meal.
The beef stroganoff was flavorful but had a few unexpected parts of gristle in it. I also bit down on something black and suspect-looking a couple of times and realized they were just juniper berries. Imagine my relief…
The noodles were a perfect accompaniment although the sauerkraut was their version of what it should be and not something I would order again, just because I am picky about my sauerkraut and don’t want carrots or other veggies added to it.
If I hadn’t been so stuffed afterwards, I would have ordered the cheese blintzes cause they sounded and looked delicious but guess I’ll have to save that for next time.
There was a family sitting in front of me, mind you with no children, who were doing nothing but complaining the entire time. Can you believe the waitress who didn’t want to check on the soup back there, and she didn’t bring rye bread, etc.. I was pretty sure they must have been Midwesterners visiting cause they really were expecting the world and got an Eastern European waitress who really didn’t give a crap. They’d talk shit about her as soon as she’d leave and she’d talk shit right back about them in Polish. It was quite entertaining to observe during my lunch. So yeah, I enjoyed the show and the food at this establishment that got a C grade, and I’d go back.