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The Baltic


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Simon, every time you talked about this place you only raved about the vodka.... why didn't you tell me how good the food is. You kind of shrugged your shoulders about it and then continued on your monologue about the vodka!

We finally made it to the Baltic the other night and from everyone's descriptions I was expecting a pub type place that served stodgy homestyle Polish food but great vodka

So we arrived with unkempt hair, in track suits... into this very trendy space, trendy photographs, trendy amber chandelier lit from above, and trendy people.

The drinks are excellent, pages of different vodkas and very creative delicious cocktails (ginger vodka, elderflower, ginger ale, and a dash of tobasco). They have vats of their own infused vodkas - cherry, ginger, strawberry, vanilla, etc.

But what no one told me, is that the food is very very good. It's sort of fusion or modern Polish. I started with a beet salad, chris had smoked salmon blini's, excellent. And the mains were really amazing, I had the best venison (lovely rare in the center) I've ever had. Prepared with cherries and honey poached pear.. I wanted to drink the jus it came in, luckily I had ordered a side of mash with sour cream and chives to sop it up with.

Chris had stuffed Rabbit with sauerkraut, which was also excellent

All at a very reasonable price (for London). Mains were between 12-20, and the cocktails sere 4.50-5 pounds.

And this place is very close to where we live... I love it. I'm going to start using it as my dining room...

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I agree with Akiko; although when I went last Easter I said this:

Baltic -- superb spiced monkfish starter, decent chicken paprika with sour cream and chive mash, average pinot noir.  Very stylish interior and staff/punters far too beautiful.  We stuck out like a pair of sore thumbs in our cycle gear.  Service still a bit uncertain.  £50 for two.

I've been back since and reckon the mains were up there with the starters. Interesting to compare it to Potemkin on Clerkenwell Rd (went there last Friday) -- the latter more tradional (homely and comforting) I'd have said, and not as screamingly designed.

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It could very well be that the type of food; Eastern European with its dumpling-y, sour creamy, stodgy, beefiness doesn't have a wide appeal and might be an acquired taste. I personally love it!

When I was there several months ago, I had two foodie friends in tow - both who turn their noses up at anything that they feel is substandard. There were no grumbles from the gallery.

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  • 2 months later...

Baltic was absolutely packed to the gunwhales with very animated 20/30 somethings last night making this 50 something feel a tad...er.... weary. And smoking! They all seemed to be puffing away like Billyo, especially the women. Fortunately the fan system kept the smoke down. I suspect its backed up by an air con unit.

The menu reads very interestingly and given the crowds the service was very efficient. The food was good but it doesn't quite eat as interestingly as it reads, although it was difficult to see how one dish of Gravadlax with Potato Latkes could have been much better-slightly crunchier latkes perhaps.

Another starter-Siberian Pelimeni-Pork and Beef Dumplings- was OK, but a bit bland.

Mains of Calves Liver with Apple Mash, Kaszanka (Polish Black Sausage) and fried onions, and Loin of Veal with Sweet Pickled Onions were served in copious amounts-no small portions here. The veal was good meat, but it was somewhat overwhelmed by the sweetness of the onions, which were very soft and more like cherries and of which there were loads, rendering a side of braised red cabbage redundant (too much sweetness).

The calves liver dish was pronounced "hearty", but my mate has ordered it "well done" so I couldn't judge it-philistine. Apple mash was yummy though.

It was hard for a couple of old soaks like us to detect any vodka in the Vodka Cherry ice Cream with Hot Chocolate Sauce. I contented myself with a glass of Royal Tokaj to chase down the three bottles :wub: we'd already drunk-there's a long list of vodkas and cocktails but we avoided those(moderate boys that we are).

This place is very resonably priced I think. Starters average £7, mains £13. I enjoyed it and its unusual but it was very noisy and you know when you get to my age..............

Edited by Tonyfinch (log)
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  • 1 month later...

went to Baltic for the first time last night.

The bar was impossibly packed with slightly sloaney late 20 somethings, and it took us a while to realise we had to fight our way through the braying hordes to reach the restaurant. The impression of chaos was added to when we reached the entrance to the restaurant and had to hang around awkwardly waiting for one of the blonde-and-beige staff to notice us. Instead, a profously sweating bloke in a tatty shirt bounded up and said hello. Took me a while to realise this wasn't an over-friendly drunken stranger but one of the staff (the proprietor?). Things got a lot calmer when we reached the table, with bread offered almost immediately (great black bread, but irritatingly no side plate to put it on).

The menu is huge: 20 or so starters, half a dozen blinis, 12 mains and 10 different sides. It's a strange combination of the traditional (beetroot soup with cream and pasztecik (polish tortellini)), the ordinary (seared swordfish with chilli, garlic and rocket salad), the interesting (polish black pudding with pear puree and picked cabbage) and the contrived (seared scallops with pickle white cabbage and cherry pepper jam). The menu also appeared to have been capitalised by Someone Who Writes American Newspaper Headlines.

To start I had a selection of bilinis: salmon "caviar", smoked salmon, marinated herring, aubergine and mushroom mousse (actually two different mousses rather than one concoction). This was kinda okay: blinis were a bit too doughy and the toppings were dull, with the exception of the herring which was excellent. My dining companion had the roast beetroot with mild spices, carrot crisps and fromage frais, which was really good, although I couldn't taste any spices and I'd have preferred it if the beetroot had been roasted for rather longer. It also looked far prettier than beetroot has any right to look.

Followed with the Moldavian salted cod with tomato, capers, parmesan and olives. The cod was excellent, although I'm never wild about the combination of fish and cheese. Serves me right for ordering it. My friend had the koloiik - spiced lamb and beef meatballs with plum sauce. The meatballs were pretty much what you'd expect and the plum sauce didn't really work: but again you couldn't really expect it to.

I normally expect appalling service when the staff have clearly been hired for prettiness but it was actually rather charming.

Damage: £72 for two, including an entirely acceptable montepulciano. Shall go again, as I can't help but feel there's better stuff elsewhere in the menu if you're more discriminating than we were.

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