Visiting Gdańsk with my friends we decided to have some fresh fish in a not-too-fancy place. The Old Town is crammed with restaurants of all sorts and styles, from ubiquitous Italian cuisine to sushi bars. The choice was not easy, but we wanted to go simple hoping for something unpretentious and budget-friendly. We stumbled upon a nice looking wooden barge advertising fresh fish. At the entrance we checked the menu and it seemed to be quite what we were looking for, although I was a bit put off by the list of Italian dishes, including all kinds of pizza, siding with traditional Polish żurek or herring in sour cream. Fortunately, they didn't serve kebab, so we gave it a try.
The barge was cozy enough, we took the table close to the window with a view on the river Motława. For starters I ordered the aforementioned herring in sour cream with apple. It was quite tasty, though served in a clam shell, which I found a bit out of place. Then came the main course, fried flounder with steamed vegetables and baked potatoes on the side. The fish was crispy and a bit fatty, but overall good. What can you expect from a fried fish. Well, certainly not something one of my friends was served. His was burnt to the bone, having completely no meat in it and soaking in oil. I told the waitress about our little problem. She seemed offended by our fussy complaint and asked whether we wanted to order something else for our friend, as if we should just stick with what he'd got. Of course, we asked for another one, which came in just as the rest of us were finishing our meals. Now there were two fish on the plate, certainly more than the 300 grammes we ordered (be aware - the fish is priced by weight). I was wondering whether we would be made to pay double or whether it was their way of making up for the burnt one. However, with my friend's first bite, I immediately lost all my doubts. One of the fish was inedible. I had never tasted such a disgusting thing in my life. It stank of rotten food and tasted equally bad. As we were in a bit of a hurry and the waitress wasn't anywhere round, I had to carry the dish to the restaurant's main building, next to the barge. Inside, I confronted the waitress, but she seemed even more impolite than before and didn't believe the fish was spoiled. When I asked her to at least smell it, she said she couldn't do that (probably for safety reasons) and that she would rather consult the chef. When I got back to our table, we still had to wait for any response from the waitress, who was now preoccupied with other guests and behaved as if we weren't there. After a quarter of an hour she informed us the friend's meal was free. When I asked her for the bill, she didn't even nod, just turned around and fetched it. My friend's fish was indeed free, but the chips and the side salad weren't. Go figure.
All in all, had the waitress handled the situation more professionally, we might've considered it just a silly coincidence (however improbable), but due to her patronising attitude, we were really let down by the place and would not recommend it to anybody, ever. read more
