New In Town, Newtown (Polish Restaurant) (28 August 2010)

New in town is 'New in Town' in Newtown.

I've been waiting to use that line ever since Mr FBC and I (along with our merry group of Fat Belly Clubbers) visited New In Town, a Polish restaurant located on King Street, Newtown. New in Town replaces the 'Chocolate Dog Cafe' - you may remember this as the 'cafe by day/mexican by night' place on the southern end of King Street.

It's been awhile since a Fat Belly Club outing has been arranged for our friends and it's always great to share the a new culinary adventure with our best buds. To make sure we tasted as much of the menu as possible, I make the executive decision to opt for the $50 set menu. I'm not 100% sure if the set menus are actually listed on the restaurant menu. I just found out about it after enquiring when making my booking and was kindly emailed a copy of the menu for my perusal. I think there is also a $40 menu, but for $10 more you get to have pork knuckle and duck. It's a no brainer really.

WARNING: the set menu contains copius amounts of food. If you dare to try it, make sure to come here on an EMPTY STOMACH. Don't worry... if you can't finish it, they will kindly 'doggy' bag it for you if you ask.

Wedliny - Smoked cold meats served with horseradish and Polish bread (top right)

Smalec - Spiced pork lard  with fried sausage, onion and marjoram served with bread and pickles  (bottom left), Kompot Fruit Drink (bottom Left)

Our first dishes to arrive are a couple of hearty polish starters, including Wedliny - smoked cold meats with horseradish and polish bread (which I think could be a type of rye bread), as well as Smalec - pork lard spiced with fried sausage. Both were delicious and a great. However, I think we filled up on the bread too quickly. Damn! The pork lard is also not for the faint hearted - it's 100% pure fat but is delectable in small quantities. I'm assuming it would be a great way to efficiently build up stocks of fat if you were heading into a cold Polish winter.  
Also brought to the table are jugs of Kompot - a Polish fruit drink which tastes a bit like watered down Ribena. It's refreshing and much need after the pork lard.

Pierogi - Dumplings galore

I wonder if dumplings are the 'spring roll' equivalent for Polish cuisine? Next up were platters of fried dumplings, called Pierogi, filled with an array of fillings including: meat, sauerkraut and mushroom, and white cheese and potato. The dumplings were accompanied by pots of sourcream which worked really well with the dumplings. 

 Placki ziemniaczane – potato pancakes with mushroom sauce                 

The potato pancakes were beautifully crisp and went well with the mushroom sauce. There's more vibrantly pink sauerkraut and sour cream, if you need it.



Beef goulash with potatoes dumplings

More hearty food arrives for the table of fat belly clubbers. Next up is beef goulash and potato dumplings. The goulash is rich and filled with tender beef. It's wonderfully accompanied by plump potato dumplings.

Bigos - a hunter stew

A crowd favourite (ok... welll my favourite) is Bigos, a hunter stew made of smoked meats, sauerkraut, red wine and spices. It's hearty and flavoursome.

Golonka w piwie - Pork Knuckle baked in Polish beer

When it comes to pork knuckle (Golonka w Piwie), size does matter. This large chunk of meat is not for the faint hearted. We were given 3 pork knuckles to share between 10 people and we  struggled to get through the meat. Many of the Fat Belly Clubbers thought they could take on the pork knuckle and devour it... but alas it was not meant to be. It was just too much meat for of all us. Pork Knuckle -1 , Fat Belly Clubbers - 0.

We're all getting pretty full by now but the food keeps coming.  A platter of golabki arrives, which is soft baked cabbage rolls filled with spiced meat and rice and toped with a luscious tomato sauce.  

Golabki - soft baked cabbage 

The last main dish to arrive is Kaczka - roast duck stuffed with apples, cranberries and glazed with honey. There's plenty of moist delicious duck meat and the sweet glaze is delectable but we're all so full that it's hard to eat too much more.  I'm afraid we didn't do the dish justice.

Kaczka - Roast duck stuffed with apples, cranberries, topped with honey 

We make an executive decision to give our stomachs a bit of a break before moving onto dessert. The time gives us an opportunity to look around the restaurant. When we first arrived, the place was absolutely packed but our table seems to have out eaten everyone else and there is only one other couple left in the restaurant.
The service tonight is very friendly and accommodating. All the waitresses are kind enough to explain each dish to us. At one point, the chef comes out to ask us what we thought of the food and which dishes were our favourites. It's a lovely gesture. 

Pierogi z wisniami - Sour Cherry Dumplings (bottom left), Sernik and Szarlotka -Cheese Cake and Apple pie (top right)

After a rest, we venture onto the Polish desserts. The dessert in the set menu is meant to be a Poppyseed cake. However, we manage to swap this for mixed dessert platters for the table which included slices of Sernik- polish style cheesecake and Szarlotka - apple pie and a plate of Pierogi z wisniami - polish dumplings filled with sour cherries. The dessert dumplings were magical with the filling of juicy sour cherries.

Are you full yet just by looking at all that food. We certainly were and by the end of the night, true to our name, we felt every bit like the Fat Belly Club. Burp!

New In Town

549 King St

ph (02) 95652526

Tues-Sun 8am-3pm, 6pm-10pm.

BYO $3.50 corkage

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