At hub.praga, Chef Witek Iwański combines dedication to regional ingredients with genuine care for guests — and his establishment embodies how he would like to be treated as a diner.
Until recently, you could easily have missed this eatery. Without any large outdoor signage and only elegant gold lettering on the glass front door, hub.praga was something of a well-kept secret. Today, it proudly displays the iconic red MICHELIN plaque, making it far easier to spot from the street.
Iwański, who is well known to Polish foodies, boasts a career that has taken him from national resort hotels and luxury properties such as Raffles Europejski to acclaimed restaurants around the world, including stints at Maaemo and Daniel. Much of his culinary inspiration comes from frequent trips to Scandinavia to the heart of the New Nordic movement, where the concepts of seasonality and locality thrive even in challenging climates, precisely because such conditions demand and inspire culinary creativity.
Savings, Ideas and Energy
After years of working for others, five years ago Iwański embarked on his own project: hub.praga. “I didn’t decide to open my own place overnight,” explains Iwański. “It took years to come together and I had to build up both financial and creative capital. For a long time, it was just one of those ideas that sits in the back of your mind, something you might never act on. Then the pandemic hit and gave me the push."I left my previous job and suddenly found myself at a crossroads. I had a small nest egg, a few ideas and the energy to do something new. I could have gone back to a hotel or a manor house, but that wasn’t what I wanted.
"I thought, if I still have the energy, why not pour it into something of my own? That’s how it started. It was a mix of many things, but one big turning point was finding an interesting venue.”
That venue was part of a freshly renovated tenement building in Warsaw’s Praga district, long regarded as less posh than the city center but increasingly home to creative projects and innovative restaurants.
Showcasing the Very Best of Polish Produce
The concept stemmed from Iwański’s professional experience, personal cooking philosophy and his own perspective as a guest. He wanted to showcase the very best of Polish produce, to cook familiar ingredients in new and creative ways and to make guests feel truly comfortable.
“I didn’t want to serve fussy little plates full of showy gimmicks. I wanted it to feel like a family-style bistro, a place for friends, but I did want to showcase my full range of kitchen skills. From the start, I knew I wanted to serve interesting food based on ingredients that may, at first glance, seem basic. The goal was to highlight technique and creativity through simplicity. I knew there would be lots of vegetables and not much meat. I wanted to do something Warsaw hadn’t seen before.”
At the start, hub.praga offered a more casual à la carte alongside a tasting menu. Over time, it has evolved into a fully-fledged fine-dining experience, while retaining a warm, welcoming, relaxed vibe.
“Even though the restaurant is much more refined today than it was two or three years ago, the original feelgood mood is still present,” says Iwański.
Produce-Centric Cuisine
While many restaurants claim to be seasonal and local, hub.praga truly delivers. From the first asparagus of spring, grown just a few kilometers away. and wild zander from nearby lakes to Polish summer truffles foraged in limestone-rich regions, every dish tastes like a seasonal postcard of the best Poland has to offer.“Eighty to ninety percent of every restaurant’s ingredients are very probably identical, because we all source from the same system,” explains Iwański. “It’s really just that last 10 percent that makes the difference. That’s what I focus on by finding ingredients that aren’t necessarily forgotten but are underappreciated and that have become invisible in everyday restaurant cooking.
“It could be something as humble as celery root, but crafted with savvy technique, a strong idea and a bold flavor. Such is the philosophy behind hub.praga: The ingredient is the star of the show around which everything else revolves. Take something as basic as a beet — with the right treatment, it can become really exciting,” says Chef Witek Iwański adding that in Warsaw, he is truly lucky to have a great vegetable and herb farm just a few kilometers away from his restaurant. “Not many capitals have this kind of clean, artisanal, small-scale farming right on their doorstep. Their produce is incredible,” he enthuses.
A Tasting Menu and a Dish That Never Leaves the Menu
After taking a seat at hub.praga, guests are welcomed with a small cup of seasonal broth, served warm or chilled, depending on the time of year. After a series of delicate appetizers, one of hub.praga’s signatures arrives: A dish that never leaves the menu yet is never the same. It’s a striking plate of seasonal raw and pickled vegetables, dressed with a big-boned vinaigrette and herb oil in a refreshing, almost mandala-like composition created from the best veg from nearby farms.
As the tasting menu unfolds, diners might enjoy beef tartare layered over bone marrow and chicken liver parfait, finished with finely grated, dried beef heart; a composition of Polish crayfish paired with Antonius caviar, one of the world’s most respected caviar brands, which to many guests’ surprise is based in Poland; or juicy, tender turbot served with teardrop peas and accompanied by a ballotine made from every remaining piece of fish. “When you have a great ingredient, you mustn’t waste even the tiniest morsel,” says Chef Witek Iwański.
Locality Extends Far Beyond the Plate
The menu currently features Polish summer truffles sourced from Roztocze and Ponidzie, regions whose limestone-rich, rocky soil is ideally suited to truffles. “It surprised me when I discovered we had truffles like this in Poland,” says Iwański. “And our guests are just as astonished. In fine dining, truffles aren’t new and are a symbol of luxury, but when we explain that these are Polish truffles and go on to describe the region, even providing the name of the dog that sniffs them out, our guests’ eyes light up. It’s incredibly motivating.”At hub.praga, the concept of locality extends far beyond the food. The wine list is thoughtfully curated from Polish vineyards. Dishes are presented on Polish-made tableware and wooden accessories handcrafted by local artisan and former chef Kamil Kocoń. For the main courses, diners are provided with handmade knives, forged by Polish bladesmiths.
This constant pursuit of refined, delicately balanced cuisine, every detail of which is pondered and puzzled over, earned hub.praga a MICHELIN Star this year. Every time you go, there is something new to discover, be it a novel ingredient, artisan or producer. The future of hub.praga promises even more discoveries to come.
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Hero Image: © hub.praga
