Alewino: Warsaw's Most Famous Hidden Restaurant

Alewino is a place that's truly unique in Warsaw – for a thousand different reasons

A «secret» courtyard location that every self-respecting local knows about, a huge summer terrace, and the restaurant's beautiful maze-like interiors – weathered, understated, and wonderfully honest

Somehow, it all comes together perfectly and hasn't lost an ounce of its charm. Thirteen damn years later!

It all began back in 2013 – not even as a restaurant, but as a small wine shop tucked away in a courtyard on Mokotowska Street.

Interesting bottles from all over the world, Poland's winemaking scene just beginning to emerge, pét-nats, orange wines and biodynamics long before they became mainstream – it was the kind of place where you could find bottles that are still surprisingly hard to come across today.

Over time, Alewino grew into a full-fledged wine restaurant, turned its summer terrace into a pilgrimage site for Warsaw's social crowd, and kept gaining momentum year after year.

The result? Since 2018, it has comfortably held its place in the Michelin Guide – quietly and with plenty of style.

A succession of dining rooms, an unusual mix of textures and pastel colours, extraordinary metal installations by Oskar Zięta Studio, old windows with enormous windowsills, lamps, brick, wood – the whole place feels strangely timeless.

And honestly, for Warsaw, that's quite a rare (and very welcome) feeling.  But for me, this story isn't only about the interior, the atmosphere, or even the food. It's also about the people.

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Owners Tomasz Czudowski and Katarzyna Błońska are among the people whose approach I respect the most.

They always build their projects around their team and their guests, have little patience for snobbery, genuinely enjoy creating new things, and constantly push the industry forward – remaining people first, and restaurateurs second.

Chef Daniel Uliczny focuses on intelligent comfort food – naturally with wine pairing in mind – while never losing sight of locality and seasonality.

That became especially clear when I tried two completely different (and equally wonderful) versions of the beef tartare just a few months apart.

In early spring, it came with potato gratin (54 PLN). By summer, it had evolved into a version with truffle and black pepper mayonnaise and absolutely fantastic lightly fermented cucumbers (59 PLN)

The potato brioche with onions (44 PLN) is practically a masterclass in how to make a seemingly simple dish almost perfect.

Add Szafir cheese and black truffle, and just like that, a familiar flavour profile suddenly reveals entirely new dimensions.

The guinea fowl (40 PLN) is simply outstanding: a truly brilliant celery cream, playful crunch from the celery crisps, and beautifully executed poultry – what's not to love?

The tuna (65 PLN) is an elegant cross between tataki and ceviche. Delicately seared fish, a vibrant Asian-inspired sauce, dill oil, a physalis gel, and herring roe as the finishing touch – an incredibly refined dish that feels unmistakably like summer.

Desserts follow exactly the same philosophy: they're perfectly suited to the season and beautifully executed. The Toffifee-inspired dessert with miso caramel (39 PLN) slowly unfolds thanks to the gentle heat of the chilli ice cream.

The white chocolate ganache (39 PLN) with blackberries, seeds, honey, and tarragon is a textbook example of balance between flavours and textures

The summer dessert with frozen yoghurt and sorrel (36 PLN) impressed me just a little less – but only because the winter-spring version had set the bar incredibly high.

In the end, Alewino is much more than just a wonderful restaurant. It's a perfect example of how a restaurant can continue to grow, evolve, and stay genuinely relevant – even thirteen years after opening.

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