The Place
Interior-wise, you’re looking at a hip, edgy venue that offsets all the concrete colors with punches of contemporary art and waterfalls of greenery that tumble over the windows. The overt hipness is reflected by a crowd that’s heavy on tattoos, piercings and odd urban style: you know you’re somewhere cool.
The Food
In a word, playful. Largely based on Korean cuisine, find Westernized versions of Asian classics: deliciously sticky chicken wings in hot gochochung sauce or more-ish soft-shell tacos with bulgogi sauce and water greens. More true to its roots, the kimchi is everything it should be: spicy, tart and pungent.
Not everything is a success.
Our follow-up visit sees the appearance of underwhelming scallop tacos with a non-descript jalapeno mayo, and a wilting salad with broad beans and chanterelles. Can you do better at home? Possibly. Nonetheless, there’s enough to suggest it’s all an accidental blip.
Back to form, dessert, of which there’s only one, is daft, silly fun in the best possible sense: find a wedge of matcha ice cream drizzled with miso caramel and then squashed inside a mini donut. Sweet, salty, hot, cold, it’s a pudding designed with Instagram in mind.
The Drinks
Exotic. Classics are available, but it’s the Asian-influenced cocktails that you need to look out for. Order, for example, the Elo Melo, a refreshing summer cooler that mixes rum and Malibu with yuzu, vanilla, coconut powder and homemade sorbet made with a Japanese melon liquor.
Whoever thinks up the cocktails could do with a knighthood. Away from the hard stuff, drinks include basil & grapefruit lemonade, coconut water and Kombucha, a fermented tea-based drink with lemongrass and ginger.
Overall
Imperfections and inconsistencies exist, but these you let slide – if for no other reason than the knowledge that when it goes right then fireworks happen. Engineered to make eating fun, The Cool Cat is the kind of spot you can’t help but enjoy. Leaving, it tends to be with return visits in mind.
The Cool Cat TR
ul. Marszałkowska 8
