BAR POLSKI

What’s this? A little bit of Gdansk in the middle of Holborn? Tucked away in a Holborn side street few venture down, this cracking Polish bar has a minimalist, almost utilitarian feel, with its grey walls and hanging strip lights broken up only by a jarringly incongruous corn-coloured mural depicting a farmyard. The largely after-work Holborn office crowd are the last people you’d expect to see downing beers few would dare to pronounce and supping on bigos and placki. But if this place sounds unlikely, it seems to work a treat.

With London enjoying a mini love affair with all things Polish in recent years, this is a great place to try one of eight bottled Polish lagers including the delicious Zubr, from Bia?ystok (named for Poland’s indigenous bison), as well as better known tipples Zywiec and Lech. But this being a Polish establishment, pride of place rightly goes to the enormous selection of Polish vodkas that glitter temptingly in fridges behind the bar. The descriptions of the spirits read like a wine list – as well as mainstay classic Zubróvka bison grass, more outré selections include sweet coconut vodka, chocolate vodka and a range of kosher dry vodkas, all for a very decent £2.60 per shot.

All this, and there’s still the food. Plates of steaming pierogi (Polish dumplings with sauce), bowls of hot barszcz (beetroot soup) and a delicious cheesecake make for great bar snacking, all served up by the friendly Polish staff who seem to enjoy hearing locals’ embarrassed attempts to pronounce them. The only drawback is the place’s rampant popularity – it’s hard to get a table between 6pm and 9pm, and arguably best to head here late when the suit-set have decamped to zone 6 and you can hear your companions talk.