Podhalanka Polish restaurant

Following advice posted here earlier, I finally tried Podhalanka (south side of Division Street just east of Ashland Avenue) tonight. It was everything it was promised to be--great. But you have to have an appetite, and come early.

My barley soup was sprinkled with dill and had chunks of potatoes and carrots, in what seemed to be a beef broth. My other half had the cabbage soup (not a favorite of mine), which was good, for cabbage soup. The servings were quite large--enough for a light meal.

As a side dish, I ordered the pierogi ruskie (potato-and-cheese-filled dumplings), which may have had a little onion in them as well and were sprinkled with limply sauteed onion shreds. There must have been a dozen good-sized pierogi, not gluey, not heavy, moderately thin-skinned and delicious.

I also had roast pork, which was a good helping, falling-apart tender in a light, not-greasy carrot-colored gravy.

Meanwhile, my other half ordered more wisely than I and had only the "meat pierogi" (besides the soup). The meat filling seemed to be ground chicken, with probably some mushrooms, and they, too, were sprinkled with limp onion shreds. The pierogi reminded me of the chicken pies (really turnovers) that my Southern grandmother served me when I was a child in the 1940s and '50s, though these were smaller and much moister. I loved Grandmother's chicken pies then, and I loved the meat pierogi tonight.

As a complimentary offering, we also got a plate of four appealing vegetable salads: sliced red-ripe tomatoes in light sour cream, sliced cucumbers in the same sour cream, a carrot-cabbage slaw, and minced beetroot dressed lightly with vinegar. I've always disliked beets, but I was so impressed with everything else that I tried these, too, and they weren't really that bad. (For beets, I guess they were great.)

When we arrived at 7:35 on a Friday night, the place showed signs of being ready to close--only 2 other customers nearing the end of their dinner. And indeed, the grate was pulled over the front door about 7:50, though the friendly server-owner Helena Madej said the official closing time is 8 p.m. every day but Sunday, when it's 7 p.m. About half the menu was unavailable when we arrived (no boiled beef with horseradish sauce, for instance), and I assume if we had arrived about 6 we might have had a larger selection. As it was, though, there were half a dozen main courses still available--roast pork, roast beef, pork goulash, hamburger steak, pork cutlets, and fried whiting.

Clean but with no dcor worth mentioning, the place is quite homely. (In England that means "homey"; it's that, too.) But the battered front door and faade aren't at all promising--more suggestive of entering a bucket-of-blood bar, till you get inside.

The whole bill was something like $19.22--we ordered none of the available (nonalcoholic) drinks--and we still had a carryout container of uneaten pierogi to take home. Chen said it was the cheapest restaurant meal he had had in a long time, and very good for the money. I would add: very good, period.

Bill Kelley, Chicago