Daquise

Daquise was established in 1947 just a few yards from South Kensington Tube station. It was opened by a Mr Dakowski, the restaurant name being a conflation of his and his wife’s name Louise. The dining room is narrow and lengthy, with fairly close packed tables. The a la carte menu had a range of Polish dishes, with quite a lot of choices for each course.

The wine list was short and aggressively priced. It had 28 labels and ranged in price from £26 to £85, with a median price of £37 and an average markup to retail price of 3.7 times, which would be shocking even in Mayfair. Sample references were McGuigan Black Label Shiraz 2022 at £36 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £6, Maquis de Rothbery St Emilion 2021 at £46 compared to its retail price of £15, andRiesling Adoria 2018 from Poland at £40 for a wine that will set you back £13 in the high street. For those with the means there was Georges Burrier Pouilly Fuisse 2018 at £75 compared to its retail price of £20, and Chateau du Moulin Noir Lussac Saint Emilion 2011 at £85 for a wine whose current market value is £18. I was sufficiently appalled by the markups that I drank water, which perhaps demonstrates that there are limits to how greedy wine lists can be and still actually generate a profit. You can charge what you like, but you have to find someone to actually pay for the wine on a restaurant list.

Polish eggs (£8) were hen’s eggs stuffed with egg, horseradish and dill and then fried. These were crisp on the outside but no discernible horseradish whatsoever, and a special scientific instrument would be needed to find the dill. Consequently, you appeared to be eating an egg stuffed with egg, which was harmless but not very interesting (11/20). Better was pierogi (£8), the Polish dumpling made from unleavened flour wrapped around a filling and then boiled. They were offered here as a trio with three different fillings: cheese, potato and onion, cabbage with wild mushrooms and, completing the trio “meat”, which I presume was pork. The texture of the dumplings was quite good, and the assorted contents tasted properly of their components, with reasonable levels of seasoning. I can recall better dumplings in a restaurant in Krakow, but these were fine (13/20).

Veal schnitzel £20) was topped with a fried egg and was decent enough. The breadcrumb coating could have been a lot crisper than it was, and the veal had limited flavour, so in the end the effect was rather bland, bordering on soggy (11/20). Hunters stew (£18) was better, a mix of cabbage and pieces of pork with mushrooms cooked with wine and vinegar. The cabbage was quite good though the pork pieces were overcooked and there was a touch more vinegar than was necessary. It certainly needed something to balance the richness but this was just a bit too sharp. Still, the dish had a hearty flavour that was nice enough despite these issues (13/20). On the side was red cabbage (£3) braised with apricots and prunes. I am a big fan of red cabbage and to be honest this was a pretty lacklustre version. I think the best way to enliven it is with a little apple and vinegar to get a slight sweet and sour effect. The version here was just bland (11/20). Some mash that appeared with the mains was harmless enough.

Apple cake (which seemed more of a tart, priced at £8) came with cream and was a very large slice indeed that would have been ample for two people. It was rather dense in texture, the apple flavoured with a little cinnamon, though the pastry base was decent (11/20). Service was, to be honest, a bit of a shambles. They had entirely lost our reservation, though fortunately they had a spare table. It proved hard to get attention from the waiters e.g. to get extra water or even a glass of wine. Doubtless they were pre-occupied but they did bring to mind the old joke of a waiter’s tombstone being engraved with the phrase “God finally caught his eye”.  The bill came to £50 each but that was with just water and a single glass of wine between two. If you shared a bottle of wine then a more typical cost per person might be around £65. This is not a lot of money in itself but then the food was not terribly inspiring either. The restaurant clearly has its fans, and on this Friday lunchtime, it was pretty busy, with a number of Polish speakers around us. I rather struggled to see its appeal.