Widow’s House is a restaurant located in a Lomnica Palace in Lomnica. The ambience is exactly what you may expect, old, antique, castle like but cozy at the same time. There are two rooms in the restaurant, each room has about 4 tables only, which helps to create private atmosphere. Old clocks, mirrors and paintings make you feel you are on a movie set.

This is something I am familiar with as there are quite few places like this in the area, yet every time I visit a palace I get fuzzy feeling how nice it is to be somewhere where pulling an iPhone out of a pocket feels inappropriate and definitely out of place and time. Here, you just sit on Luis XVI couch and wait for your meal.

We ordered appetizers and main entrees only. After Christmas everyone was already full so this week there is no dessert. For appetizer we ordered liver parfait with apple mousse; grilled goat cheese with walnut dip and boar soup/broth. Everything was good and tasty with a slightly different flavors than you expect. Liver parfait was a little bit dry as it was not chicken liver that is usually served at restaurants, it was boar or deer liver. I think that may be the reason why it was dry. It was served with white toasts, apple mousse and cranberry sauce. The combination of apple sauce sweetness and strong wild animal liver flavor created nice balance. The goat cheese was local and it was very light with no overpowering flavor some goat cheeses usually have. It was plated on arugula salad with walnut dip and whole wheat home made bread. This was very good appetizer. We also ordered boar’s soup because that is not a menu item you can find everywhere. The broth was dark and delicious, I think I became a fan of boars now. I have to say the portions are large as for starters so be prepared.

Everything was served in a timely manner and mains arrived quickly after appetizers. We got goose breast with apples, red cabbage and local dumplings; cooked blue trout served with light lettuce salad and potatoes. The goose breast was covered in flavorful glaze and the meat was soft. What I like about this dish were dumplings, usually they come plain and replace potatoes, but the dumplings that came with goose breast had many herbs and spices in them. This is unexpected take on traditional side dish and I liked it a lot. Blue Trout was broiled which was nice since usually fish is served fried in Poland. It was very light white fish meat with a hint of salt, not much was added to it. The fish is served as a whole and it is not difficult to eat or clean. The side salad with yogurt sauce was refreshing addition but no excitement here.

Widow’s house has solid food, I would like to see few menu and execution improvements. The parfait should be more moist and the side dishes are the same in most entrees. I give the food 3 plates, solid food with no surprises. However, the ambiance, location and good service make me bump it up to 4 plates. This place itself, its surrounding and ambience will make you come back. The dinner time you spend here is definitely not wasted and most likely you will return here.

Cuisine: Traditional Polish

Avg price per person: $50, Visa and MasterCard accepted

Attire: Casual

Overall Rating: 4 plates