Our server was friendly but the food she served up was not.

The coffee was wretched and dried out my mouth, not a good thing on the day of a bad hangover. Leif confirmed this diagnosis, so I know it wasn’t just my aching head talking.

Leif’s standard over-hard eggs came over-easy much to his dismay. The shredded potatoes tasted like MSG, were pre-frozen and dry. The toast was fine, but Leif’s “garlic sausage” (it’s a Polish restaurant, why don’t the call it koubasa or however you want to spell it?) was a bit of an oddity. They gave him a sausage loaf that rather looked like an old stuffed sock. It didn’t taste much different and Leif couldn’t finish it.

I ordered their Mixed Grill ($7.25) and it wasn’t that bad. The meats were all seared on the grill and were cut into small enough pieces that I couldn’t pick out what would be drastically wrong with them. The ham, bacon and garlic sausage bits were okay in that form, and the tomatoes did a decent job of keeping things moist.

This breakfast brought about new words for our Brekkipedia.

“Ganky” – The dry-your-mouth-out flavour of the coffee.

“Slurge” – The multi-coloured grease stain pooling on the side of my plate.

They gave us our bills on individual trays with tiny candies. Took me a little by surprise and I don’t think any other restaurant has done that. The candies were good.

Twenty minutes after leaving Polonez my stomach was churning in an unnatural way, even given my hungover state.

I don’t recommend Polonez. Travel the extra few blocks to go to one of the many better places in St. Boniface.

October 12 2008

Polonez Restaurant (in the Marion Hotel)

292 Rue Marion

Hours of operation:

Mon - Sat         11 AM - 7 PM

Sun                   10 AM - 7 PM

Breakfast    $4.45

Polonez is the quintessential hotel restaurant. I say this based mainly on speculation, and the fact that there were partitions. Somehow, partitions always say “hotel” to me. From the ceiling hung large grids. Yes, grids. Don’t ask me why. Hung on the walls was incomprehensible picture-art; I couldn’t tell if they were movie posters, dance troupe shots or what. Somehow they fit with the clientele, who were mainly the elderly and the baseball-cap wearing.

They only carried the Winnipeg Sun, not the Winnipeg Free Press. I’m not sure if that’s a comment on anything but it must be pointed out.

They seated us in those old-style chairs with a folded-over metal frame that don’t require back legs (know what I mean?). As a member of the generously proportioned population, those chairs scared me, but they had no trouble holding out.

There was a dancefloor in the middle of the restaurant, complete with hanging disco ball and unnecessarily large speakers.