Podhalanka
1549 W Division St
(between Ashland Ave & Bosworth Ave)
Chicago, IL 60622 (773) 486-6655
- Nearest Transit:
Division (Blue)
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol: None
37 Reviews for Podhalanka
I have eaten here 2 times, once last year and just this past May! This is Poland at its very best! Kind and fun people! Very good good food just like being back in Poland ! And the price is right I had a drink( coke light) soup and all this soups are good, potato pancakes with meat and a cucumber salad all for like 10 bucks!! So, if you are looking for the real deal in Polish food , this is it!! ENJOY!!!
Let me preface my gushing over this place by stating my country of origin:
I am from Ukraine.
That being said, perhaps it's really nostalgia for flatly lit, oilcloth clad, empty and stuck in time places that made me so happy in Podhalanka.
Now, if you are do not have inexplicable longings for Soviet Era/deeply 70s/even deeper in the boondocks kind of feel then perhaps you should avoid this eccentric hole in the wall.
I went with Mom who admittedly makes way better potato pirogi, but having them served to us along with some sour borscht and beet salad was just a fun experience.
Especially that we are in Chicago in 2007 and the place feels more like 1977 Poznan.
I didn't know how much I loved polish food until I went to this place for a friends birthday. The waitress hugged me, and brought out a picture of her daughter who she said looked like me. Everything was so delicious and they give large portions for good prices.
The cucumber salad is amazing, and get the pierogis fried if you want them to be super tasty.
Also, the potato pancakes looked really good too.
Great at home atmosphere...Great People... Great Food.
oh, and it's B.Y.O.B
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The name is kind of like Paul Anka and the man on the tv inside had the biggest mustache ever.
The food rules, the atmosphere is perfect. They even have greeting cards!
However, if you have a really high opinion of yourself, you might not like it.
So I am all about cheap, but good eats. This place rocks and my husband who is part Polski agrees. He says the pierogies are spot on and it reminds him of his Grandma's. This place is nothing but the real deal. We have been on the hunt for authentic and true pierogies for ages and were happy to note that this place was a hop, skip and a jump from our place.
We were total gluttons and spent $25 with tip for two people. Between the two of us we had 2 orders of pierogies, cucumber salad, white borshdt and an order of potato pancakes. The cabbage and the potato/cheese pierogies are a can't miss with grilled onions, tender dough and authentic flavor. The cucumber salad has sour cream, a touch of vinegar and some sweetness. The white borsht with sausage has a beautiful texture and a perfectly balanced smoky flavor. And finally-the potato pancakes served with homemade apple sauce and sour cream are OMG! MMMMM!
Bathroom: Utilitarian
Atmosphere: Right out of Poland, No Frills, Plain
Service: Excellent
Food: Home cooked Polish food
In Poland they don't smile much and say crazy things like Please, Thank You, Enjoy your meal or How was the Food! You eat what they give you and you'll like it! Food is a necessity. Not a luxury to be taken lightly......
That being said, I Love this place! Vegetable soup was big enough to be a meal, the bread was very fresh. The stuffed Cabbage was amazing. Everything did need a little salt.
I left with this very comfortable satisfied feeling that lasted the rest of the day, I needed it!
At this point, my loyal readers, both imagined and fictional, you may wonder why it seems that I am handing out stars the way some Republicans hand out corporate tax breaks. Following are my reasons:
1) Chicago has some of the best restaurants in the world, and when I'm through eating at every restaurant in Chicago I will then proceed to St. Louis where I will reserve a total of five stars for all of the city's restaurants put together
2) I love eating and would give five stars to the act of eating itself if such were on Yelp
3) I always look in the window before going inside. If the clientele look like jerks, I won't bother to go in and face my one star experience.
Well, the trouble with this place is, the window out front is too dirty and cluttered to look through.
But I took my chances and went inside anyway.
Five stars. Good, reliable Polish food, good service. Expect the Polish basics like sausage, pork, cabbage, and pierogi, all of which are inarguably bland in comparison to southern cuisines. But, to get the most out of your meal you really have to try what I consider to be the highlight of Polish cuisine and a staple at every Polish main meal, the soups ("zupy"), which are very far from being bland. They have eight soups on the menu, and though on any given day they'll only have a few ready, they all seem to be good. The zurek (white rye soup with sausage) is excellent, as is the mushroom soup (like a typical chicken-noodle soup-type broth with dill). I'm holding out for a day when they have ogorek.
This is also a place where most would probably feel comfortable eating alone. There's plenty of space along the bar, along with a selection of Polish and English-language newspapers.
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So what's not to like?
1. That purple freezer burned juice they serve.
2. The food.
3. Really, everything. I liked Lutnia(another, better Polish place), and I get why people would like the diner/home feel, it just didn't deliver.
4. Poland
I was a regular here during my 3-month stay in Chicago. You get soooo much food for like $10. You can feed yourself for 3 days. Heavy potatoes. And the pierogies are making my mouth water right now. I also love the decor. It's like walking into grandma's house. If I ever go back to Chicago, I'll be sure to stop by. It definitely made my little fetus happy as well.
This place was alright. The food was good, but not great. Everything could have used a bit more salt, for my taste. The portions were big and the meal was cheap, but it was nothing impressive. That being said, this is not the kind of place you go to be impressed. This is a place you go to enjoy homemade Polish food. I cannot say for sure if the food here is authentic, but I feel there must be better Polish food in Chicago.
I don't care how much of a loathsome Wicker Park hipster you are, you'll never be able to replicate anything as kitschy as Podhalanka. The pierogies here are incredible.
The best thing about it is that every time you go in there, it's like you're visiting your long-lost 80 year old Polish aunt. I always had the same server here, and she wasn't really a woman of many words. She'd just serve you, make sure you liked it, and gave you her special fruit juice.
Normally, I'd take a star off for the fact that she always charged you for the special fruit juice that was never ordered, but the food here is seriously that good.
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The best food made by loving women. This is comfort food from people who care about clean, tastee food. The soups are even better. This is not an elegant place, but a meal with friends will be a warm joyous event. Nothing is bad and the potato pamcakes are great so order these and share. Parking is a problem so take the Blue Line to Division and you are there. Make sure you take a large soup home for any sick friend. Never a bad meal.
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I'm very glad places like this exist as a window to other (not too distant) cultures:
+ intimate atmosphere
+ very, very honest food
+ low prices for filling meals
- authenticity does not equate to tastiness
- service naturally slow
Podhalanka is a refreshing view into a Polish domestic kitchen, masquerading as a tiny restaurant. Staff is sparse and hence service slow. Expect a meal cooked as if it were for family on no special occasion--the food is about as straightforward and ordinary as you can imagine. Those might sound like rather negative words, but Podhalanka's main (if only) appeal is to offer the experience of sitting down at a Polish dinner table, and it achieves this completely.
The downside, as you might expect, is that most of the offerings taste like food one can have at home. It's not terribly in keeping with my taste in particular, but for those who grew up in an eastern European household, it might be pleasantly evocative. One surprise to naive me was that the pork shank I ordered was not roasted, as other restaurants had accustomed me to expect--here pork is boiled and served with horseradish. In hindsight, remarkably bland meat served with a piquant garnish like that makes perfect sense in a restaurant like this, and also makes sense in the culture it originated from. Potato pancakes were about as flavorful as your average potato pancake, and the same can be said about the stuffed cabbage.
There might well be some hidden tasty treasures on the menu, but make no mistake--the restaurant as a whole will likely leave a much stronger impression on you than the food itself will.
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An acquaintance of mine long ago said to me "they have the best pierogis in there".... and I just kept driving by and saying that dump has good pierogis?.....Years later I finally stopped in and discovered for myself that the pierogis are wonderful and very good.
Don't judge a book by it's cover is the lesson the be learned here. While the outside facade of this Polish restaurant lacks curb appeal, this restaurant located near the once, very center of Chicago's Polish community...Milwaukee, North and Ashland Ave. is a great reminder of the areas not so distant past.
Inside the place is charming, homey and very much like going to a tiny restaurant in Poland and the owner, Halina, will never forget your face even if you were there only once before. All the Polish trinkets set on display, the TV fixated to the news blaring on from Poland and the regulars fluently speaking their native tongue, all add a little something that makes one feel not so in Chicago but in Poland.
While I may not be Polish but, Ukrainian and I know my pierogis(varenyky)...Podhalanka isn't like my grandmother's but, I wouldn't draw any comparison those. Podhadlanka's are excellent and properly seasoned and the dough is reasonably thin and not chewy. While some prefer the Wrigley's chewing gum kind that is just like chewing on a wad of gum.... That would be grounds for instant disqualification in a pierogi contest! You would get those at the old Busy Bee!
The soups are hearty and flavorful. Try the breaded pork cutlet, it's a Polish standard and here it is outstanding.
Halina works hard and takes great pride in the food she presents and the level of service she offers to her customers. A very nice lady!
Support this place! Eat Here!
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I love this place. When I first moved to Chicago I went to Podhalanka for lunch one day and was immediately hooked. It was spectacular. AND CHEAP. Pirogies and potato pancakes are great... I suggest just letting whoever is taking your order just bring you the best thing that day and enjoy. Your meal seems to come with a bottomless basket of sliced sandwich bread to soak up the rich delicious sauce (after slathering it with butter, of course).
I honestly haven't been back in a while after an extended absence from the neighborhood, but we've moved back recently so I'm planning on a return trip soon -- updates to follow!
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Dig, dig, dig, dig it. That's all.
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Podhalanka is the Polish alternative to your traditional greasy spoon. It's basically a Polish diner. I'd say 3.5, but I rounded up.
Ever since the Pierogi Factory closed down (RIP), I've been trying to find a new place to get really good pierogis. Podhalanka's were alright, but not quite on par. I'd give them another try. The potato pancakes were pretty good, nice and crispy, and came with a good portion of applesauce and sour cream. The split pea soup wasn't all that great, it definitely needed some spices. On the other hand, the cucumber salad was pretty solid. It was just like something by boyfriend's mom would make at home. You also get a nice basket of Polish rye when you sit down.
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I don't know how much more authentic this place could get. It looks like a Polish Grandma's basement. There is even an older Polish lady with a muumuu and a hairnet cooking everything in the back. Don't expect snappy service. Plan to eat some seriously hearty food and tell the waitress dzienkuje (pronounced "jin-kooyah". Means thank you).
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I like it.
It's Polish.
It's from another time and place--before most of the folks west of here really lived in Wicker Park.
Great soups & borscht!
Cheap.
Don't go here for the flavor of the food (some polish food approaches bland at times)
Go for the flavor of the place.
No place like it (as it says on a sign over the bar.)
It has the papers (if you need something to read). People speaking polish (if that is your thing). Odd cards (if you need to write your grandma). Solid food (see above). And Polish Juice (which is sweet and I liked)!
Great prices. It's not a white linens, better-than-thou kinda joint. It's more of a quaint, comfortable atmosphere with touches of culture around every corner. And the food...
DELICIOUS! The white borsht was amazing. The polish sausage in it was so fresh and had the best taste. The pierogis with potato and cheese were good...but the potato pancakes were out of this world. OUT OF THIS WORLD, motherfuckers! Eat them. Eat them and love them or I shall smite thee.
Seriously though. Crunchy in all the right spots. They knew just where to touch me that would make me pull out...
...my wallet and leave a generous tip. You pervs. I'm a girl. I can't pull out.
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Going in this place is like entering someones home.
its totally old school.
the owners are amazing.
they know their regulars and are very friendly.
you will sit down, soup, a large bread basket and a drink will be set in front of you. the perogis, soup, potato pancakes, omlets are all amazing.
fthis is totally a polish mom and pop place.
i love it and eat there regularly for a very low cost.
this place is under 10 for 2 people most of the time.
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Took my boyfriend here in memoriam of his Polish grandma...it was wonderful! Very quaint! I knew I hit the nail on the head when we walked in, and he said "It smells like my grandma's kitchen in here!"
For the record, the woman working here told us that the juice was from blueberries, not beets, just an FYI!
I had the cabbage soup (a HUGE bowl, and it was DELISH!), the potato and cheese pierogies, and potato pancakes (so I love potatoes!)...boyfriend had the vegetable soup (not NEARLY as good as the cabbage, but not bad), and some sort of stuffed beef (it was stuffed with vegetables and bacon) and served with a side of mashed potatoes that my boyfriend swore were just like his grandma's.
It was a lovely meal. We loved seeing people come in that actually spoke Polish to one another (one mumbled something to me as he walked by in Polish, but I had NO idea what!) and that it felt very authentic and homey. I will definitely have to go back to try some of the other things on the menu!
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This place is worth going to just to say you've been there. The potato pancakes were AMAZING. So delicious. Everything else was fine--nothing awful, nothing to write home about. It is super cheap, which is nice. It's a whole lot of starch--if you want something green, this isn't the place to go.
My biggest frustration was when the check came, the owner was rather rude about our spliting the bill. She yelled at us and got frustrated that we hadn't asked for seperate checks. We offered to put it all on one card if that was an issue but she just huffed off. To boot, the service was SLOW and we were the only people in there. I'd be unlikely to go back unless I was having a major potato pancake craving.
I've passed through this intersection for years but never stopped in, probably because parking is a challenge and I usually have been running to and from the el and transferring to the bus. However, today was a snowy day so I decided to get something local and this place was on my list. Definitely a gem for the area and a remnant of by-gone days. I got (carryout) beef gulash and stuffed cabbages along with tomato and vegetable soups. Most entres run about $8.25 while dinners with soup and salad are about $12. Bottom line: spartan place with incredible home cooking and generous portions. I have to go back and try the potato pancakes Yelpers have been raving about. As for being bland, cuisines are not as spicy as you go further away from the equator. Polish cooking uses spices typical for this latitude: dill, carraway, juniper berries and if the cook gets wild and crazy, a little paprika. As for stuff being undersalted, I actually prefer it this way and can add salt to my palate.
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The potato pancakes here seriously rock! I first went here with my realtor when I decided to move to the neighborhood and I discovered through my real estate search that he had excellent tastes in restaurants.
Great comfort food. Great prices (not that I paid, but I looked at the menu, lol). Great service.
I will certainly go back here, but probably not until fall when its cooler out and I'm more in the mood for filling meal.
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so this seems to be the place where the souls of Polish Grandma's and their cooking skills come to rest.
I ate here early this spring with my boyfriend. He said the golabki tasted just like his grandma's. I never got to meet his grandma, but after sampling his order, I have an idea of what I missed out on..
Unfortunately, I wasn't that hungry when I went so I just got cheese blintzes and the beet/carrot/cucumber salad combo. Nonetheless, it made an excellent impression in my food-memory, and we ended up battling over the last of the blintzes.
As others have mentioned, it's a bit of a time warp..but it's a nice, nostalgic one, and the prices come along for the ride.
I'm an Italian kid, I'd never had Polish food until I was in my 20's, and funny enough, it was purchased for me by Letizia (as in Letizia's Natural Bakery) one night after we pulled a muffin-baking all-nighter. It was delicious. I'm scared to eat it anywhere else because it was so good here.
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Podhalanka is an absolute hidden treasure!
If you're an image snob, don't bother. There is nothing newer than 1972 in this diner-dive. There doesn't need to be. The food speaks for itself. Amazing, totally authentic Polish food, exactly how my grandmother made it. Podhalanka offers huge portions, cheap prices, and friendly service.
No one comes to Podhalanka for mod styles, ambient trance music, or the pretentious snobbery that you find at Chicago "hot" spots. People come to Podhalanka for huge, warm, comforting bowls of Cabbage or red bean soup, pirogies, and mouthwatering entrees. Also, there's a free glass of "komput" (sweetened drink made from dried fruit) with your meal.
Yum
PS. DO NOT bend the menus back or the sweet lady behind the counter will reprimand you for this naughty, destructive behaviour; as it is frowned upon.
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A couple of years back when my Polska friend Natalia visited, I went here for the first time. There is no explanation why it took me a couple years to come back, but on Sunday afternoon, Dan, Zachary, and I went to Podhalanka. I ordered the potato and cheese pierogies and the chicken sandwich. The pierogies were the best I've had thus far in my life. I think it will be my staple. The prices here are amazing and the portions are hefty. The chicken sandwich I ordered is a breaded and fried chicken breast. It's actually reminded me a lot of wiener schnitzel which I probably have not had in 15 years now, but damn, that is one tasty sandwich. Sadly, I forgot to order it without mayo so I had to suck it up and cringe while eating it but the next time, no mayo. How much do you think this huge sandwich was? $3.25. Unbelievable.
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Really this place gets 3.5 but I rounded down because I really didn't get any entertainment aside from noticing the Polish decor. The menu is a simple two pager. When you order you get a basket of Polish Rye bread and some butter.
I had ordered the cucumber salad and the meat pierogis and a 7up. The cucumber salad was done with Miracle Whip so it was tangier than i expected.
The pierogis were good, you get nine of em and a healthy doseage of melted butter and onions.
The girlfriend had potato pancakes and split pea soup. All told, i laid out a twenty(with tip) and took off.
Lastly, the smell of this place; magnificent. You walk in from the street, open up the door and you are nearly transplanted to Poland via the nose.
what brings this place down: you walk in and can either sit at the diner bar, or the tables. Everything seems antique- from the chairs to the stools to the tables and to the menus; nothing has seemingly changed from the opening of this place.
The service is basically dependent on the owner, Halina, or her help from the back, so you may experience a wait for the check or for service.
Lastly, although I had a healthy serving of bread and cucumber salad and the nine meat pierogis, I had still walked away hungry.
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If you ever want to feel like you just got "beamed" to a different country for an hour then come to this little joint: very unassuming on the outside but the food was amazingly cheap and very filling! Not that I know what authentic polish food is like, but it has that homemade authentic feel. Its not gourmet, just very good comfort food, and a cute setup overall. The lady serving was very nice, almost grandmotherly. Why don't I go here more?
I lived in Poland for 3 years and this place is quintessential Poland!!! The food is awesome. The best Polish in the city, I reckon. You won't get more authentic tasty Polish food anywhere else outside of the NW suburbs.
And the owners are SO nice! Sometimes E. Europe rest. can be hit or miss when it comes to hospitality, so it's great that this place has good food and good service.
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I think Podhalanka functions by the same rules as embassies - when you enter the doors you are officially on Polish territory. It's amazing what people can do with the basic ingredients of pork, dough, potatoes, beets, and cabbage!
I love the soups, the pierogi (I get the "mixed"), the fresh buttered rye bread, the men watching Wheel of Fortune during an early dinner, and the friendly owner. I miss living right around the corner.
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the simple fact that i have lived in close proximity to podhalnka for over 3 years is great.
the bad BAD part is that i haven't ever been there before last night.
i got my hair cut last night and strange beauty show and was STARVING, so dan and i decided on some chow. now i was hungry enough that i was TOTALLY thinking wendy's. but as we were walking across ashland i mentioned that i had always wanted to try the little polish place and that it was always closed whenever i wanted to go there.
well, it was NOT closed last night!
i got a bowl of the sour borscht (with delicious hunks of polish sausage swimming in it) and an order of "meat" perogis. unbelievably good. dan had a dinner that was some kind of steak and it was an insane amount of food. he got soup (bean, which he said was really tasty) meat and potatoes and a plate of salads...one that was cucumber with some delicious sauce on top and some grated beat salad. thank god dan hates beets, because the beet salad was really good.
all in all, this place is totally unique and delicious as all get out. we could see the kitchen in the back and it reminded me of a kitchen in a church basement...and that isn't a bad thing.
at the risk of sounding cheesy, this food was TOTALLY made with polish grandma love.
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OH DEAR JESUS! There is NOTHING like Podhalanka for some seriously great, comforting Polish food! This place was my savior when I worked around here because a bowl of soup with three slices of Polish bread was $2.85! I love Polish soups and these were no exception! The tomato rice and white borscht are so yummy and steamy hot and dipping your buttered bread in them just makes this meal the most perfect Chicago winter meal you could ever want. The only soup that's gross is the chicken noodle and weirdly enough this seems to be consistent with all Polish places. It's like Polish chicken noodle soup is just hot water and noodles ick!
The blonde woman who is always there and always your server is the sweetest woman ever. At first she seemed mean, but then she just warmed up and she was so nice, like a sweet Polish Auntie. When you go in for a sit down meal, there's always plenty of free sweetened hibiscus tea(if it really is beet juice it doesn't taste like it one bit it tastes like hibiscus tea), which happens to be my favorite tea ever! The menu is reasonably priced and stocked with Polish goodies. My favorite is the golabki, I just can't get enough of it! The pierogi is fluffy and cooked in plenty of butter and onions MmmmMMMmm!
The inside is a pretty dumpy with a couch (?!?!?!?!?!?) in the middle of the place,but don't let that put you off! Just grab a stool at the counter and thank God you're eating at Podhalanka!
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Everything was wonderful - the pierogi, the soups, the pope. The best polish food in the city and the kindest people! Thank you!
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if i wasn't eating my mom's polish food when i was growing up, i was eating podhalanka's (and don't tell my mom...but podhalanka's was always better). i can still see the styrofoam take-out container with the pork chop, beets, cucumbers, and potatoes with koperek (that green stuff on them). and the KOMPOT (fruit juice). it's GREAT. this place has been around forever and brings back so many memories. with all that's changed in wicker park, it's actually NICE to see the same tables and chairs and smiles that i saw back in the 80s.
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