There are restaurants that open with a bang and restaurants that grow like a rumor. Dziurka od Klucza was the latter — a word-of-mouth miracle that began in what felt like a broom closet on Radna in Powiśle: 32 square meters, a few tables, flour on the floor, someone always leaning out the door to see if another friend could squeeze in. It didn’t feel like a “concept.” It felt like someone’s kitchen accidentally turned public.
Behind it were two families — Agnieszka and Stanisław Szpilowski, and Agnieszka and Przemysław Błaszczyk — friends and partners for more than 20 years, bonded by travel, long meals, and a shared affection for the way Italians treat food as daily ritual rather than spectacle.From the beginning, their cooking carried that spirit: handmade pasta with bite, simple sauces, desserts that tasted of care rather than decoration. Nothing fussy, nothing staged — just food that made you want to stay longer than you meant to.
The roles fell into place naturally. Stanisław and Przemek obsess over flavor and technique at the stove. Agnieszka Szpilowska shapes the room — the light, the mood, the welcome. Agnieszka Błaszczyk keeps the sweets tight and the numbers tighter. Four people, moving like one.As the city caught on, the space began to strain at the seams. Tables multiplied, queues formed, reservations disappeared weeks ahead. What started as a keyhole slowly became a landmark.
The move to Służew felt like trading that keyhole for a fortress. More air, more seats, a proper kitchen — but the same heartbeat. Pasta stayed, of course, but so did ambition: beautifully blistered Neapolitan pizzas, long-fermented doughs, and a pizza fritta that placed at the World Pizza Championships in Rimini, holding its own against hundreds of pizzaiolos.
Today, Dziurka od Klucza feels less like a tiny secret and more like a stronghold of hospitality — a place built not on trends or theatrics, but on trust, repetition, and care. The kind of restaurant where regulars are greeted by name and first-timers leave planning their return.
Not a brand. Not a group. Just a team — four people who turned friendship into a kitchen and a kitchen into one of Warsaw’s most loved dining rooms.
That’s why they’re our pick for Restaurateurs of the Year.
Dziurka od Klucza
Fort Służew 1b (Służew)
