If you’re planning to visit the Hel Peninsula, add this place to your itinerary: Lazurowa Restaurant in Szafir Hotel, located in Jastrzębia Góra. It’s a delicious place, with dishes based on seasonal ingredients. I know what I’m saying, I was there in late June.
Chef at Lazurowa Restaurant
From the very beginning, eight years and counting, the kitchen has been run by Tomasz Leśniak, a head chef with 20 years of experience. His specialities are Polish and Mediterranean cuisine. And it is these two that dominate the menu of the Lazurowa Restaurant. The head chef is also a grill expert. Together with his then-deputy head chef, he came in first during the 2019 Polish Culinary Competition, and won the Gold Grill Team title. Their winning recipe was perfect roast beef with low-salt pickle salsa, served with potato confit and crème fraiche. The secret behind the salsa? Ingenious: low-salt pickles with coriander, garlic, and lime. I was really sorry I hadn’t been able to try it, but I found comfort in the thought of trying head chef’s other signature dishes.
First, I got the recommended steak tartare with herrings (from local suppliers only), chopped with apple, dill, shallot, and sour cream and white mustard seeds dip. I was surprised how delicate this dish was, lacking the usual, aggressive, salty fish notes.
The generous amount of dill, and crunchy apple chunks complemented the dish perfectly. A starter recommendation by the deputy head chef, Bartosz Kozłowski, is really something: prawns in bure blanc sauce, with garlic, chilli, and ginger that breaks the classic flavour of the dish. Unfortunately, I had to postpone for the next time, as fresh, smooth, and perfectly balanced pink chilled beet soup (chłodnik) was already waiting for me. I love chilled beet soup, and not a season goes by without me trying several of its variations. Every so often, the soup tends to have too much garlic in it, or it’s too thick or too thin. This one was just perfect.
After refreshing soup, I was treated to mouth-watering beef cheeks with barley groats and parsley, broad beans, and demi-glace. I think cheeks are my favourite type of meat: if prepared right, there is no other meat this tender. What I had, did not disappoint me. Barley groats and broad beans complemented the main course perfectly, and might’ve just as well been served as a stand-alone dish.
If “beef cheeks” sounds too intense for you, I’d recommend fried herring served with new potatoes and dill, buttery broad beans, and horseradish & honey sauce. I was intrigued by the addition of horseradish, so I decided to ask the head chef, Tomasz Leśniak.
He said, “I first saw my grandmother combining horseradish and fish. To me, it’s one of the best flavours I’ve ever discovered. I used the same trick during the Gold Grill Team contest, where I combined silky avocado, mackerel, fresh grated horseradish, and cinnamon. The latter was supposed to be an element of surprise, and it worked. All the food tasters were surprised. Our competition dishes were available in our restaurant”.
Finally, it was time for dessert. Since strawberries are in season, I had to try them caramelised, with panna cotta and white chocolate. Warm Kashubian strawberries, served under a creamy slice of vanilla delight were the perfect culmination of the feast that I had the privilege to be a part of in the Lazurowa restaurant. Just take a look at the photos, they tell the whole story!
