I recently had the pleasure of being in Wrocław for business for a week, and was accompanied by a…read morevegan co-worker. Wrocław being a pretty hip town, there is no shortage of vegetarian and vegan options, yet Żyzna stands head and shoulders above them.
Much of the vegan food in Poland is not in any way related to Polish food. We have lots of vegetarian options, but no vegan ones. So, when one sees vegan food in Poland it is typically SE-asian style. Nothing wrong with that, but it's pretty generic. Żyzna borrows much from foreign cuisines, but manages to infuse Polish flavor notes into the dishes, and that makes them stand out.
We started with a great potato and white bean soup with marjoram and horseradish. The horseradish was an excellent touch, and ever so subtly tied the soup back to the Polish traditional żurek, or sourdough soup. For seconds, we had a quinoa-based dish that did a nice job of incorporating pickled beets and their brine, and little sprigs of dill, both of those being very classic Polish flavors. The other dish was a vegan risotto with black sesame, coconut flakes, and pea shoots. Also superb.
Dessert was a lavender cake (not too heavy on the lavender) and a sublime chia seed pudding, and coffee with spelt milk.
There is always a new soup of the day, and three main courses. Every week they rotate one of the mains, and it is always something seasonal. There is an assortment of desserts as well. Being a very small operation, they have a limited number of each of the mains, so it is quite possible that even early in the day they might be out of something.
As an avowed meat eater, the highest praise I can give them is that this is really good food that just happens to be vegan. I would happily eat there again, and look forward to my next visit. The flavors are great, the service is friendly and low-key, and the food is expertly presented and priced very fairly. You owe it to yourself to go check Żyzna out.
