Monique Bakery and Wine

The coffee, the view, the atmosphere

Weekend, no hurry anywhere. Perfect time to slow down, relax and have a bite. After having lunch in the food court at Galeria Mokotów my little son was 'strongly persuading' me to find a place for desert. We passed Starbucks, I even paused for a moment thinking of getting a muffin or Belgium waffles. Yet, decided to explore the area and found a nice, busy, promising bakery+wine cafe.

Those colourful Macarons desert caught my attention as well as pies/buns with cherry filling. After couple minutes of figuring out which table to choose we ended up sitting on a couch in a cosy outside area protected with glass.

On spending several hours inside the mall not seeing any sun light, this felt like a breath of fresh air! I can see the sky, people, buildings, cars. High five goes to designers of this comfort. Tall glass windows are rather walls than actual windows. In couple weeks when it gets warmer, I bet the doors will be open and it should be even livelier with the fresh air and some light street noise.

 You are basically on top of the building where one of the parking lots is. Anyway, it feels great to see the sky, don't you think? Or one can simply park nearby and watch their expensive Porsche :).

Never knowing what kind of coffee you might get in a new place I went for a double espresso and milk 'on the side''. Crema looking pretty much like tiger skin, dense body, nutty/caramel notes... I am well pleased! Love, love love! The waiter told us they get coffee from a small roastery near Lublin city. Good to know the owner/manager cares about coffee even though it is a wine +bakery restaurant.

My cappuccino expert confirmed her drink to be decent, tasty with rich milk foam. Macarons had various tastes so some colours deserved more attention than others. Tastes would be very individual here. Overall, Monique is a success to me. Coffee was great, deserts too. Atmosphere was simply contagiously inviting. I could spend 2-3 hours straight just sipping coffee and watching people pass. There is more to try here, maybe other bakery products and wine as it is something they advertise.

Nastrojowa Cafe - sweet place for a chat and coffee

Comfy, quiet and old style

Friday, lunch time, half day till weekend left. What could be more positive? Add coffee and good people. Now you got it all to be happy. Nastrojowa Cafe was our target destination today. Thank goodness, traffic was ok and my pretty french car delivered us to pasaż Ursynowski 9 at Ursynow district of Warsaw quickly. Unless you live or work somewhere nearby, you probably wouldn't know about the place. Tourists would be rare guests here. Yet, if you are close, give it a shot.

You can't but notice drawings on all possible walls inside. Nastrojowa has a mix of things: coffee, gallery of drawings, deserts, Moka pots and even cute old style cups! A memory came up to the surface of my mind. I was in a similar place on my first visit to Warsaw. It had same atmosphere. Just a different location, somewhere down town. Here you are given a choice of various coffee options by origin and flavour. It can be a standard espresso blend or more premium single origins.

Two opposite emotions I have in Nastrojowa. Enjoying great atmosphere, small red armchairs and dim light on one hand, and my soul demanding better coffee on the other. Jonny and I had Peru and Kenya espresso. It wasn't bad, yet not perfect. Lacking body and thickness in crema, to my mind. However, I enjoyed my several sips by adding a little sugar to it.

Hard to tell if the place is very busy or not, for it was middle of a work day. While we were chatting, a lady with an adorable baby in a sling came in for a coffee drink with whipped cream to go and went on her way.

This is a perfect place for conversation. You can either sit next to the window and watch the life happening outside or go up to kind of a inside balcony with several tables there with even more intimate atmosphere. Nice place to stop by after work with colleagues for tea or coffee and desert. Here you can discuss the day or all of your boss's actions))). I am nostalgic when remember such chats at a coffee house with my reception team after night shifts at Alfavito hotel in Kyiv (decent place for a night actually). Good old times indeed.

No reason of being too picky with Nastrojowa. It is not intended for coffee freaks who would turn around on simply seeing grinded coffee sitting in the grinder for more than 5 seconds. This cafe gives you right setting and mood for an open and maybe long conversation.