Poland - Eastern Europe - page 408

IBIS L ód 3 's most modern hotel and probably the best choice if you're mixing
business with pleasure. The hotel offers relatively rare local amenities like full confer-
ence facilities, Internet access, and a dedicated business center. It's also a good choice
in midsummer, since it's one of a handful of hotels in town to offer in-room air-con-
ditioning. This is a standard IBIS hotel, meaning boxy, prefab rooms and sterile,
impersonal lobby and reception area. Big weekend discounts.
Pilsudskiego 11. & 042/638-67-00. www.ibishotel.com. 208 units. Weekdays 270 zl ($90/£50) double; weekends
175 zl ($58/£46) double. AE, DC, MC, V. Amenities: Restaurant; limited room service; nonsmoking rooms. In room:
A/C, TV, dataport, minibar, hair dryer.
WHERE TO DINE
You'll find most of the restaurants, including all of the big Polish chains like Rooster,
Sphinx, and Sioux, grouped along Piotrkowska. Skip the chains and try one of the spe-
cial places listed below.
Anatewka JEWISH Fun, informal Jewish-themed restaurant; the kind of
place where the chef comes out halfway through the meal to pour you a shot of kosher
vodka on the house. The two tiny, crowded dining rooms feel more like the parlor of
a Jewish aunt, with overstuffed chairs and walls crammed with Jewish bric-a-brac. A
fiddler, while not quite on the roof, plays nightly from a little perch just below the
ceiling. The food is very good. The signature “Duck Rubenstein” comes served in a
tart sauce of cherries, seasoned with clove.
Ul. 6 Sierpnia 2/4. & 042/630-36-35. Lunch and dinner items 18 zl-36 zl ($6-$12/£3.30-£6.50). AE, DC, MC, V.
Daily noon-11pm.

Ciºgoty i t7sknoty INTERNATIONAL Don't despair as the taxi
heads out of town, past row after row of falling-down, Socialist-era housing projects.
You're headed toward one of the best meals in L ód 3 , and one of the city's best-kept
dining secrets. Perched between two ghastly apartment blocks is a little oasis of '50s
jazz and fresh flowers. The menu is perched somewhere between home cooking and
haute cuisine, with salads, pierogies, pasta dishes, and some seriously good mains cen-
tered on pork, chicken, and boiled beef. The tagliatelle with brie and fresh tomatoes
is a creative vegetarian option. It's about 3km (2 miles) from the center of town, so a
taxi (12 z l /$4/£2) each way is the sanest option.
Wojska Polskiego 144a. & 042/650-87-94. Lunch and dinner items 18 zl-36 zl ($6-$12/£3.30-£6.50). AE, DC, MC,
V. Mon-Fri noon-10pm; Sat-Sun 1-10pm.
Presto ITALIAN Much-better-than-average pizzeria, serving doughy pies
topped with a slightly sweetish red sauce and cooked in a traditional wood-fired oven.
The menu includes the usual suspects, but pizza “San Francisco” breaks new ground
with bananas, pineapples, and curry sauce. A more reliable choice might be “Sparare,”
with bacon, mushrooms, and onions. Also offers a good range of salads and pasta
dishes. Popular on Friday and Saturday nights because of its location in a little pas-
sageway just off of L ód 3 's main pedestrian walk. Service can be slow, so plan on a long
evening.
Piotrkowska 67 (in the passageway). & 042/630-88-83. Lunch and dinner items 12 zl-21 zl ($4-$7/£2.20-£3.80).
No credit cards. Daily noon-10pm.
Varoska HUNGARIAN What could be better than having a traditional Hungar-
ian poerkoelt (a thick stew) or a chicken paprikas smack dab in the geographic center

Finds