An impressive, spacious and sophisticated interior coupled with excellent Italian cuisine-these are the San Lorenzo restaurant's strongest points. Inconspicuous from the outside, it is in its interior that the restaurant gradually shows its advantages to visitors.

The bar section, decorated in dark wood and glass, is downstairs. Its chandeliers, period paintings and mirror have all been brought from Italy. Business lunches, pizzas, salads and focaccias are all available to eat on this level.

Exquisite dishes are offered in the restaurant section, which is reached via a broad, curved staircase that has a Mediterranean feel. "We specialize in fish and sea food dishes," said manager Roman Piechnik. "Every season we offer a special menu-at the moment we are serving dishes with mushrooms. Truffles will come next." In the coming weeks, one will be able to taste delicacies such as beef carpaccio, marinated by San Lorenzo cooks and served with raw boletus mushrooms and parmesan, and salads composed of raw boletus, shrimps and ruby red grapefruit, served with a vinaigrette sauce.

Most of the dishes are prepared according to the restaurant's own recipes, which means that even guests from Italy are sometimes surprised by the unique taste or combination of ingredients. However, guests can be sure that the dishes' Italian origin is always evident. This is hardly surprising given that both the restaurant's chef and owner come from Italy. The owner and his Polish wife make regular tours of Italy to discover new tastes and transport them to their restaurant. Their dishes are the products of months of searching for a selected taste.

The restaurant section is composed of two rooms on different floors. The first room is larger. The second, upper section, is quiet and cozy.

In terms of soup, cream veloute is the one particularly popular with the guests. "The pasta and ravioli are made in our own kitchen," added Roman Piechnik. The restaurant serves black ravioli stuffed with fresh salmon and red caviar (zl.37) and spaghetti with fresh lobster (zl.110, the most expensive dish in the menu). Another interesting proposal is monkfish, wrapped in Parma ham (zl.89). The menu also includes a selection of cheeses imported from Italy that are rarely available in Poland. A board of four cheeses costs zl.39.

"The wine cellar is very popular with our guests; a room that in other restaurants is often hidden," added the manager. It is a special glassed-in room in the bar section with a temperature of 16 degrees Celsius. Anyone can come here and receive advice to help them select the right wine variety and vintage. The San Lorenzo has a wide selection of Italian wines, spirits and cocktails.

For dessert, guests can choose between a piece of delicious chocolate layer cake with vanilla cream and strawberry ice-cream prepared according to a Sardinian recipe (zl.18), a pear tart with chocolate ice-cream (zl.17) or tiramisu. The quality of the San Lorenzo dishes and interiors is best reflected by the large numbers of foreigners who frequent the restaurant, particularly those who speak the language of Dante.

San Lorenzo, 36 Jana Pawła II Ave., booking: tel. 0-22 652-16-16, Mon.-Fri. from 11 a.m. (bar section) and noon (restaurant section), Sat. and Sun. from noon. Open until the last guest leaves
(kitchen until 11 p.m.). Garden open all year round.