Mao caught my eye when I was walking back home from the city center, one day during the summer. At first I noticed price offers highlighted with white marker on the windows. There was a lot of them so I didn’t even know where to start reading. Aperol Spritz on Tuesdays for 9,90 PLN? WOW! I guess I know now where my next girls night out will be!

Wait to be seated

We arrive at Mao after 4 p.m. , so the lunch offer is just ending. Oh well… Bar is really empty but the sign on the door tells us to “wait!” so we are waiting, and waiting, and waiting… No one cares so we start heading to the nearest table. Then waiter finally appears and says “no, no, no you need to wait until we will show you to the table!!”. In the end, he guides us to the table at the end off the room. The important thing is that at last we are seated. Let’s just eat already!

There is a lot of space in this restaurant. There’s a main table where everyone can seat, some small tables for two and also a few round tables for bigger groups of friends. Nice, finally a place with enough s[pace for me to bring a bigger group of friends. There’s always a problem with having to  squeeze people at a tiny table. One point for Griffindor yyyy… Mao!

A looot of food on a tiny table

The menu in Mao is extensive. Mao is a restaurant as well as a cocktail bar, but that time we only went there to eat. We’ll try their cocktail next time. We are trying to pretend that after NYE we are doing an alcohol detox (we are lying to ourselves obviously, but aren’t we all? ;)).

My main purpose, when going to Mao was to eat dumplings, so that was my choice for the main dish. Dumplings with pork, leek and coriander for me please! Maria ordered a Mao Burger with sweet potatoes chips and kimchi for her main.

After Christmas our  stomachs are used to consuming obscene quantities of food, so we feel like we can eat everything in the world. We end up ordering a mix of starters as well. A mix consists of 7 small bowls with different starters, that you choose from the menu. The plan is to try half of the menu in one go. How sneaky we are.

Starters are here. Thank God because I’m so, so hungry. Those little bowls are so cute, but they nearly don’t fit on the table. I have no idea how the main courses are supposed to fit here as well. Hmm… I think someone was a little bit sleepy when ordering those tables…

From 7 bowls I liked, lets say, 3. Nuts are nuts so nothing special, shrimp chips I remember from my childhood (I was a fan of looking at them when they expanded in the pot full of hot oil) Very good eggplant Suan Rang and cut beef. Those two I can highly recommend, they have nice and intense flavors.

As we suspected, main dishes bearly fit on the table. Dumplings were ok, but not particularly exciting. Burger is served in a very good steamed bun. But something was missing there. In our opinion red wasabi sauce should be inside already and that would add some flavour for sure. The sides are are shrimp and sweet potatoes chips, as well as a very tasty kimchi.

Dessert? No thanks, I’m full! But I know that they have matcha and white chocolate cheesecake, which really screams my name.

Oh, I almost forgot about the drinks! Despite the fact we weren’t drinking alcohol that day, we ordered non-alcoholic version of their cocktails. Maria went for a mango lemonade which was very good. My choice was Licziczi (I wanted Matchaczi, but waiter told me that he dooes not reccomend it). The cocktail was very sweet so I asked to do something with this, and waiter gave me a glass of lemon juice. After adding it, the drink was quite ok.

A good place for a meeting with friends

If you are looking for a place where you can eat quite good food and have some fancy drinks as well, that’s the spot. Every day in Mao you will find a different kind of offer for food and drinks. Saturdays promo is for Long Island Iced Tea, plus a  mix of offers from the entire week. That’s cool.

I think I’ll go there one more time to try alcoholic drinks. Inspiration for those was the Chinese zodiac calendar. You will find this calendar in almost every place in the restaurant so you can find put which zodiac sign is yours.

As far as the food goes, I will give it a second chance as well.