Baken Bar in Żoliborz Becomes Baken (and Gets a New Menu)

The people behind Baken seem to be launching new projects at a crazy pace. It feels like only yesterday that Baken on Filtrowa opened, and now we already have a reimagined version of the summer Baken Bar in Żoliborz.

The daytime menu features familiar favourites such as «Chamski Toast» and «Copenhagen Plate», while in the evening they try to serve up some proper style – French onion soup with puff pastry, an entrecôte steak, and beef goulash with mash.

The key word here is «try». Because, visually, unfortunately, everything feels much more successful than it tastes so far. The onion soup is wonderful in terms of presentation, but the broth itself is extremely thin and lacks depth.

The fried cauliflower is theoretically meant to work in harmony with the cauliflower cream with tahini, but the latter pushes the dish far too much towards acidity, stealing the spotlight. The result is a plate with several elements that don’t really go together.

Perhaps these are the mistakes of the line cooks, who haven’t quite managed to execute the ideas of chefs Michał Toczyłowski and Jan Kilański as intended. But it is what it is: right now, this is my least successful experience at Baken since I first started visiting.

On the other hand, the grilled poussin with French fries and coleslaw is an absolutely brilliant example of food porn with all the comforts.

All in all, I found the food a little disappointing. This is a location you have to make a special trip to, and some cool, characterful French cooking in the evenings would be absolutely perfect here.

Even so, when it comes to the atmosphere, the new-old Baken gets things pretty much right.

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