In the afternoons, Balsam turns into an über-cool meeting place for Warsaw’s bohemian crowd. But if you’re planning to dine on a Saturday night be sure to reserve in advance. If you're just getting drinks from the bar, you'll see most people swigging down a beer or two or three or four (zł.7-10) and some mad dog shots of vodka, raspberry syrup and tabasco (zł.7) that can give you quite a kick!
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Menu
Balsam is proud to serve you delicious meals of Fusion cuisine.
Balsam Club
You too may be sceptical. Praga devotee that I am, I didn’t quite believe that the ultimate hipsters’ hideaway could really be lurking down in southern Mokotów, planted firmly on the left bank of the Vistula. But my introduction to Balsam was a bit like falling in love – I just dropped in for a casual drink on Friday night, and pretty much stayed the weekend. Sprawled through a series of vaulted rooms under the brick arches of the 19th-century Mokotow fort and littered with a crazy collection of retro furniture, Balsam manages to be both calculatedly cool and completely unpretentious. The regulars roll in wearing jeans and t-shirts, and although the rest of us may throw on a cute top or collared shirt you’d be hard-pressed to find a single stiletto or miniskirt in the entire place. In Warsaw’s glittery left-bank club scene, it’s a badly-needed breath of fresh air. You enter Balsam through a glassed-in wooden deck decorated with red plush sofas and aged barrels of Jack Daniels, where stands of towering birch trees outside gives the place a deliciously cosy, hidden feel.
But the real fun is in the six or seven rooms inside the old fort itself, where dance floors, chilled-out lounge areas and projection screens combine to keep you grooving well into the wee hours. Music styles change at the whim of every new DJ, so there’s generally something for everyone. The dance floors are intimate enough that getting close to strangers is not only encouraged, it’s practically required, and you’re never far from a candle-lit nook to take your partners if you decide you like their moves.
Balsam's softly-glowing Winter garden veranda distinguishes it from the others. It's usually about zł.10 to get in but you're pretty much guaranteed to want to spend the rest of the night here, either chatting away in the lounge or twisting and turning to reggae, swing and soul on the dance floor.
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Opening Hours & Reservations
Daily from 12PM till the last guest
T: (+48 22) 898 2843
The only trouble with this place – or, it may rather been the boon that keeps this place from getting overcrowded – is that it's rather hard to find unless you know where you're going or have got a savvy cabbie who can get you there without a hitch. Located just off Racławicka along the airport route, you've got to turn into a lot that looks deserted.
Review written by Warsaw Insider
