Quick Review: Why Thai (Poznan, Poland)

Our original plan for dinner this night was to drop into a place we saw on the Rynek earlier. Its promo signage outside had gotten our attention. When we returned and peaked inside, however, it was dismal. Empty, dark, vibes of a sad club that pushes 2x1 well drinks. We quickly pivoted and scanned Google for options. Why Thai popped up as well-reviewed and the first few pics looked appetizing. So we pointed ourselves in that direction to the north of the square. Turned out to be a great call. Throughout the meal I was reminded of our days in Chicago seeking out nice but not over the top places that you can find throughout the city. Not the Michelin-starred places and not the traditional 'restaurant row' places. Spots like Dorado in Ravenswood circa 2006, when I was very proud of my Yelp Elite status and one of the first 10 people to review it. Or Sol de Mexico, in 2008 (which I see is still open and seems to be doing well).

The vibes start with the little 3-story townhouse type building where it's located.

Inside vibes are great as well. Cozy but not tiny. Sharp, but didn't feel overly stylized.

And importantly, the food was delicious. They start you with some rice crackers and a peanut sauce, winning me over immediately.

We followed that with the chicken satay. Also delicious.

For the mains, Judy got the massaman curry, which she enjoyed just a little bit less than the one she ordered at Bonjour Pho in Krakow (which was a very high bar, so that's no slight). I wavered between a few options, but landed on the bao buns with pulled teriyaki pork and was happy with my choice.

Service was friendly. They had a primitivo on the menu, so I availed myself of a glass. All in all, very good experience. Nice meal to wrap up a full day followed by a quick stroll through the scenic center back to the hotel.

Arrival day in Poznan: Part II

This post will range a bit all over the place as we ranged a bit all over Poznan that afternoon (May 23). Some of it intentional, some of it accidental, but most of it interesting.

Started a bit aimless, taking general shots of the city vibes.

Then the Muzeum Czekolady got our attention.

Didn't actually by anything. Not sure why. I do remember it all looking pretty good. Maybe the effects of a belly full of jalapeño cheese fries suppressed the impulse.

After a bit of wandering we decided to get onto the main goal of seeing Srodka, which I understood to be a charming little neighborhood anchored by a now famous mural. While we could walk it (about 30 minutes from the hotel), or take a Bolt, we decided to rent scooters. Skies had cleared and the weather was now beautiful. So we found some scooters and headed east toward the river, from where we'd make our way north to Srodka. Except we went the wrong way, as illustrated by the dark blue line heading south here.

Turned out to be a lovely detour. The river vibes reminded me of the path along Lake Michigan on the north side of Chicago. It was a Friday afternoon / evening and we passed by a few groups with ad hoc hangouts and grills fired up. Low key, informal socializing and taking advantage of the city's chill common areas. Nice. Also passed by KontenerART, which looked very cool. Something for another visit with more free time and warmer temps.

We eventually did get turned around and made it up to Srodka. Saw the mural. And saw the two streets that make up the majority of Srodka. I expected it to be small. We learned it's actually tiny. Cool enough, but I'm glad we scooted over there rather than walked 30 minutes each way. Not something you really need to go out of your way for, in my opinion. I'd rather spend the time at KontenerART enjoying a craft beer.

This place Humhum looked to have the best outdoor space in the area. Some other time in some other weather it'd probably be a good hang.

We scooted our way back to the center then hopped off for a bit of wandering along Półwiejska, which runs north-south from the main square toward Stary Browar. Lively-ish stretch of shops, cafes, retail, restaurants. Bit of everything.

There is Pyraland, a baked potato concept that looked amazing (4.8 rating on google).

There was the instagram-bait ice cream truck.

There was an upscale-ish non-Zabka type of grocery / convenience store that taunted me with more craft beer than I had time to even think about.

And then, in retrospect, was one of the highlights of Poznan. A discount store named "Dealz". Just an explosion of random snack and drink brands from all over the world. Probably a lot of test-market line extensions that were discontinued or miscellaneous overstocks. The selection was glorious. Had I known just how much I was going to enjoy these "relaxed paprika style' knock off cheetos I would have bought an extra suitcased and loaded up. Damn.

(also, is the red thing with the eyes supposed to be the paprika? not sure. but he / it doesn't appear especially 'relaxed' there)

I did at least convince Judy to stage an 'action shot' where she's grabbing for those relaxed paprika Chillers, so I'll always have that.

Having covered a good amount of ground for the afternoon it was back to the hotel for a little pre-dinner regroup.

Arrival day in Poznan, Poland : Part 1

After an enjoyable 3-night stay in Wrocław it was time to check out Poznan. We arrived by train. Ride itself was smooth and easy. Once off the train it was another matter. For some reason we could not get a Bolt in less than 15 minutes. Jesus.

So we're sitting outside at the train station for a while. Temperature was fine. No rain. But there were a few factors making the wait a bit awkward. First were the taxi hustlers eye-balling us (on a 10 scale of aggressiveness these guys were a 2, but still, I was being eye-balled). Then there was the group of drunks / addicts on a bench over behind us getting a little loud. They mostly kept to themselves, but it was a variable to be aware of while waiting 18 MINUTES for the Bolt. And finally we had to fend off the super-enthusiastic solicitation fella going around to people trying to get donations or recruits or something. Very strange. We got him to bug off without too much hassle. (This might have been one of the times where we offered a 'gracias' instead of offering up English when trying to deflect promotion people. Couple of times we got surprisingly fluent Spanish right back. Most of the time they would veer off looking for easier targets.) All in all, nothing particularly threatening by any means, but not the best start to our stay in Poznan. Net takeaway: if you're arriving in Poznan by train for the first time, you should either be ready for this situation or have a car service pre-arranged. And I would imagine arriving after dark would make it all a bit less comfortable.

Bolt finally arrived and got us off to the hotel without incident. Next two nights would be checking out the Fortune Old Town Boutique Hotel. As you can see in my Bolt screengrab above, the phone battery was low so I failed to snap my own exterior shots upon arrival and forgot to grab them later apparently. So these screengrabs from their Google listing will have to do.

Interior shot is mine, though

Quick Review: Good Burger (Bolesławiec, Poland)

The way our day was playing out, after the stop in Świdnica, followed by the visit to ANDY Ceramika, followed by time spinning around the center of Bolesławiec, we hadn't really eaten anything in about 6 hours since the quick bite from Poko. It would be 2.5 hours before we got back to the Airbnb in Wrocław after returning the car rental. So we went with the early bird dinner plan.

Bolesławiec is a smaller city, pop ~40,000. But there were a handful of places that looked interesting both in my pre-visit google maps research and during our walk around the center. For some funky quick-service, Chilli Milli was intriguing. But they weren't open yet. Tejicana got our attention. And we hadn't had any Mexican food yet during the trip. But also not open yet. Papierova and Jak w Dym pizza & wino look good, but not really the vibe I was seeking at the time. So we landed at Good Burger. They were open. The woman who greeted us spoke english. Menu looked right. Decision made.

Menu, Good Burger, Bolesławiec, Poland

Since it was barely 5pm, we were alone in the restaurant. But the interior was cozy enough. And it was a warm refuge on a chilly, damp day.

I went for the chicken burger, featuring the mango-jalapeño sauce. And sweet potato fries. Judy went for chicken strips. We aren't fancy. She raved about the chicken strips. Like, best chicken strips ever. Maybe we were just starving. My chicken burger was tasty, but an absolute mess to eat.

The place seems to be in some kind of review war. Overall rating of 4.0 is probably right based on our experience. But their ratings are all 5s and 1s. Weird. We also may not have had a typical experience, being the only ones there at 5pm on a chilly Thursday in May. Net, it worked for us, but your mileage may vary.