Sobieski is a family affair with a charming atmosphere and hearty menu featuring homemade Eastern European dishes
Mia Thomas
Sun
Tom Filip, manager of Sobieski, and chef Manpreet Pandher proffer a Polish beer and Eastern European dishes. Photograph by : Mark van Manen, Vancouver Sun
Dining out in the depths of winter calls for comfort food. And it doesn’t get more comforting than the array of choices at Sobieski Restaurant in Abbotsford, where Eastern Europe is the inspiration in the kitchen.
Traditional Polish meals are the house specialties, but other culinary cultures have a look-in, particularly in the selection of schnitzels.
A recent visit got off on a bad footing when the hostess, in spite of several promises that she’d be with us “in a minute,” left us waiting at the door for five minutes — on the clock. With only three tables occupied, and everyone else already eating, there was no excuse.
However, it was one of only a couple glitches in what was otherwise a pleasant evening out.
Sobieski has a cosy atmosphere, with soft lighting and comfortable, well-spaced seating.
My companion and I selected an appetizer we’d never heard of before: Cheese blankets. We also ordered cups of borscht to warm us up.
Unable to choose from a tempting array of entrees that included perogies, potato pancakes and cabbage rolls, we finally decided on the Sobieski Platter for Two. It was advertised in the menu as a selection of schnitzel, cabbage rolls, perogies, Polish sausage and cabbage, served with potatoes and vegetables.
We had a choice of perogy fillings — cheddar and potato; white cheese and potato; meat, mushroom and sauerkraut; meat; and mushroom and sauerkraut — of which we opted for the latter.
The cheese blankets turned out to be salmon and cream cheese rolled up in filo pastry. And absolutely delicious.
The soup never did arrive, and it was a little difficult to capture our otherwise friendly server’s attention and ask. Which was glitch number 2 that evening.
But we temporarily forgot about the borscht once the platter arrived.
From the reference to a platter for two, we were expecting a sampling from the menu. What we got would have satisfied four growing teenagers: A whole schnitzel each, two or three perogies each, a cabbage roll and a sizable chunk of Polish sausage each. No one was going hungry tonight.
We tried a bit of everything, and it was all wonderful and well-cooked. The cabbage, which is rarely seen nicely prepared in a restaurant, was very good, as were the cabbage rolls.
The schnitzel — we had chosen chicken; pork was the other offering — was tender and prepared to perfection, and the perogies proved a tasty choice.
But it was all a little overwhelming, and we might have appreciated it more if there’d been a little less.
Sobieski Restaurant has been a family-run business since it opened seven years ago, said manager Tom Filip, whose cousins are the owners and whose aunt is the head chef.
“It’s Eastern European,” Filip said later in a telephone interview. He said the menu was, for the most part, developed by the family. “Perogies, schnitzel, cabbage rolls: Everything is homemade right here on the premises.”
The combination of home and charm creates an atmosphere that draws a loyal clientele.
“It’s definitely the good food and the ambience, the feel of the place, that attracts people,” Filip said. “People enjoy it because it’s quiet.”
Mia Thomas is a freelance writer.
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AT A GLANCE
Sobieski Restaurant
103 – 32071 South Fraser Way, Abbotsford
604-864-8088
Menu at www.sobieski.ca
Open Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 4 to 9 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
