Beyond Epoka’s grand, neo-Renaissance facade, a theatre-inspired interior welcomes diners. And the show begins swiftly. Within minutes of entering the landmark restaurant that overlooks Warsaw’s elegant Ogród Saski (Saxon Garden), I’m enjoying the pleasant bitterness of a cynar negroni and admiring plush velvet booths in shades of blue and green. Chef Marcin Przybysz approaches my cosy seating, accompanied by a giant bowl overflowing with fresh produce. He shows me some garden-fresh lettuce, a piece of wasabi root and honey so local it comes from beehives on the roof of the building.
The menu, he tells me, is more a list of recipes than dishes, the numbers alongside each offering representing the publication year of its corresponding cookbook. Nothing I’ll eat tonight is newer than 1877, and two dishes — a mushroom pâté and a dessert with lemons and honey — date back to the 1680s. I can’t help noticing that part of my meal predates both the park I walked through to get here, and the 1857 building in which
