Why are Polish restaurants not successful in the USA?

not my list PB, I only replied to it. My point is that out of those listed, the most popular are German restaurants, at least here in NC.

I think here in PA it's Italian and Japanese (i'm not counting take-out places)

Not a single German restaurant in 30 Miles radius here. But there are a few Polish place. I think it's all relative. If there is a concentration of some minority, their food will be prevalent in the area.

True they're the ones who open these ethnic restaurants. Besides no one wants to go to a restaurant run by some other ethnicity than who's food they're selling, it cheats the experience. New Jersey (New Brunswick area) has had a influx of Indian immigrants so they've opened their restaurants up there, in NE Philly as well.

Why can't you people just admit that Polish food tastes awful besides a few things. Does your polack pride really get diminished over your cuisine's popularity?

Polska Kielbasa will always be a favored sausage, especially in Cajun country.

It must be a very Polish area where you live then. You guys almost always live together in your little communities (little Poland) while others tend to mingle with the general population.

Why are you even on this forum ? Go eat a potato and go to sleep.
Guesswho you're wrong, all immigrant communities live together. Some people who are 2nd or 3rd generation in America still live in that community. But people 'off the boat' 80-90 percent live together. Go to NY, Chicago, Philly you'll see what i'm talking about.

Huh? Cajun as in the French descendants in Louisiana? It's funny because I've met a few Cajuns and they had an obsession with Italian sausage...


I prefer sweet potatoes broski.

Not really PB. For example the GerAms, have their clubs and meet there every so often but don't build communities the way you guys do. OK, obviously I can't say how it is where you live but here, other than some business scattered all around the state, you don't see anything like it is in Chicago or NYC (or some other big cities) in Polish communities, where everything is written in Polish and where everyone speaks Polish.

That's because most came here in the early 19th century and mixed. Come to Philly Italians got part South Philly, Port Richmond, Bridesburg Polish, Russians Northeast. In New York it's even more diverse and people got their neighborhoods. I've chatted with an Italian guy two days ago who was born here about foods, I said something like 'this food is Americanized' (assuming he'll smile as if he identifies with that) he answers 'nah, I'm Italian'.

See his parents were born there, he was here, but he identifies with being Italian.

yeah, it's a huge difference between the North and the South. That's why I always say, go South if you're looking for America :-)

I think its ignorance, people simply arent aware of what Polish food is, many would assume Polish food means loads of cabbage, pierogi and sausage. Its so much more and mostly untainted by all the crap you expect these days.

I'm not a big salad lover but the salads in Poland were epic, a good Polish meal accompanied with fried potatoes, salad and a big chunk of meat are legendary.

i was looking through some photos recently and heres one of my favourite Polish restaurant, i know it looks really run down but these guys could cook. A fantastic meal for two all for under 50PLN. They had rolled pork stuffed with mushrooms n cheese accompanied with a sauce and their potatoes were just amazing. Damn i'm getting hungry now.

i always assumed they had a couple of babcias in the kitchen. Give me an old lady with tried and tested traditional recipes over some young chef any day.

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  Polish restaurant
  

Not to worry. The dog won't eat it either!

The Polonia is one of the largest diasporas in the world. You have to ask yourself why one of the largest diasporas failed so miserably to make their food popular, unlike many other diasporas.

In Europe it's pretty simple. People prefer a healthier, lighter cuisine these days, that's why mediterranean food is so popular. Interestingly Polish food is absolutely unknown in Europe, despite the huge Polonia in Germany.

Could it be because it's very labour-intensive?

Just thinking about it now - it doesn't have the sex appeal of French food, yet it's difficult to produce quickly.


Yep, totally unkwown - probably because there's not actually much difference between German and Polish food.

(speaking of which : is there such a thing as a German restaurant outside of Germany?)

Dear Polish-Americans! I'm begging all of you here, remember: kiełbasa is NOT a Polish kind of sausage, it's just a sausage. ANY sausage. In addition to that, please remember that pierogi is a name of a dish and it's plural! No need to add an "s" at the end of the word or to use a capital letter at the beginning! Please remember about it, cause Polish people cringe seeing such terrible mistakes.

And just to make sure I',m on topic :P - I just don't think Polish cuisine is attractive enough for a restaurant. I mean, it's lovely at home, I love my mum's pierogi or homemade bigos, but to be honest, I rarely find the ones made in a restaurant good enough. Also, it's quite time consuming - compare preparing pierogi to cooking in wok, for example! And it's rather heavy, so not really suitable for a light lunch, more like a proper, full on dinner.

Well, there are a couple of pretty decent German places in Warsaw.

It's just a pity that the otherwise decent Czech place doesn't do bread dumplings.

Pennboy wrote:


hence, why i never went to ethnic restaurants in Wroclaw, or Poland for that matter.

It's not more labour-intensive than other cuisines. Even such a simple dish as pizza is a pretty labour-intensive affair... I know it. ;)


I don't know, and I don't think Germans care about it, since they know that their cuisine sucks anyway (except bread, cakes, sausages and beer). The most popular German fast food is Turkish... says it all. :D

There are plenty of restaurants in Warsaw which are run by people who are from the place where the food is from.

Yo Sushi is my fav eatery :)


Neither of the above are that great compared to other English dishes (you forgot the Great British Sunday roast or steake & ale suet pudding). English food is homely and therefore probably not something people will go out and purchase, rather they cook it at home, I imagine its the same for Polish food - simple Mediterranean food is another matter, its tasty and therefore a popular choice.

Even with all the Poles in the UK there arent that many Polish restaurants, there is a tiny one a few miles from me but Ive never seen anyone in there when Ive gone past.

Harry wrote:


I keep hearing that but I still find it hard to believe that everywhere in Poland I've been to gets it wrong but Warsaw somehow manages to get it right. I've been to Warsaw but never tested the ethnic restaurants....I'll have to put it to the test one of these days.

There is an Italian restaurant in Wroclaw, run by Italians (it always used to make me laugh when i went in there because the daytime waitstaff only spoke Italian and really bad English....I guess that's why everything on the menu was numbered....) and the food was simply not Italian. Maybe Italians were cooking the food but the ingredients were still Polish, making it Polish food.

To be honest, the best ethnic food I ever had in Poland was sushi and I'll tell you why.....because you can't replace any of the ingredients in sushi with polish ingredients. they can't really screw it up unless the food isn't fresh. the seaweed wrap, the sticky sushi rice, the fish, the avocado, soy sauce....none of it is Polish food so all of it needs to be imported giving you a meal without any Polish ingredients at all.

A Czech reataurant without knedliki is like a pub with no beer.

Check out Asia Tasty and Bar 9999 for Asian (Asia Tasty in particular is popular with Warsaw's Vietnamese community) and Namaste and Ganesh for Indian. All those places limit Polish involvement strictly to waiting staff.

It takes time for the food to be imported losing its freshness in the process, guess we are back to square one.


Buena Appetite.

It has nothing to do with ignorance, it's a matter of preference after all. Different culture, different taste. Also, they obviously failed to efficiently advertise for their food.

And stay away from Tandoori Palace, unless you like the grotesque sight of a middle aged sleazy Indian berating young Polish wait staff in front of paying customers.

There was a cracking little place in Centralna (of all places!) run by a Vietnamese bloke - but it looks like it's gone now :( Had an orange decor, if that rings any bells?


There's one place in Poznan that does Indonesian food that I've never heard a bad word about, although the service is diabolically rude.

Also, strangely enough - a Serbian place, run by a Serb, that does fairly decent food. Whether it's still in business, I don't know - but the food was very good.

I was less than impressed by their place in the Starówka.


Yes. It isn't a good place to go.

Is Arti still open on al. Jerozolimskie? They were always OK, and I noticed the other day that they've got a new place on ul. Francuska.

ahh yeah, i'll let the smarter people on this forum work that one out.

If its not ignorance tell me (without googling) a few popular dishes from -i dont- know Romania. Get the point?

Everybody (except Americans) know that Pizza is Italian, curry is Indian and the Chinese eat dogs. It wasnt a specific dig at yanks by any means, just a general lack of understanding with regard to Polish food, kind of a "you don't know what your missing" deal. Ignorance isnt a bad word, chill you're panties little one.