If you’re looking for a cozy, unassuming restaurant serving excellent food in the center of Szczecin, Public Fontanny is a great choice. It has been operating for about 15 years, which is quite long for Szczecin, where a lot of places disappear a few years from opening – that alone is a good indicator of its quality.
Also, the owners pride themselves on the fact that for the last three years, Public Fontanny has been featured in the prestigious Gault & Millau restaurant guide.
The interior is modeled after a certain type of a small restaurant in Berlin – wooden floors, comfortable sofas with colorful cushions, discrete lighting, black-and-white photo art on the walls, and a funky bathroom lined with Banksy posters.
All of it tasteful and pleasant, contributing to a nice, relaxed atmosphere. The guests’ favorite sitting spot is a small terrace overlooking Aleja Papieża Jana Pawła II, or the Fountain Avenue as locals call it.
What about the food?
The restaurant specializes in pizza, pasta, and salads, with some other items, such as pad thai, thrown in. There’s always a seasonal menu – when we visited, apart from interesting-sounding pasta and pizza dishes it included bouillabaisse. This pizza, made on thin crust, is reputedly the best in Szczecin. We tried Peperone, with salami, grana Padano cheese, and mozzarella, and loved it!
Of the salads, Pravda is the visitors’ favorite; we were told it’s been on the menu since the beginning and has many loyal fans. And who could blame them? What we got were succulent, melt-in-the-mouth pieces of grilled chicken, coated with sesame seeds and resting on a generous portion of various salad leaves, melon, redcurrant, spiced olives and seasonal vegetables, all served with a tasty feta sauce.
We didn’t try the pasta this time around but instead went for the breakfast dish with the intriguing-sounding name shakshouka. Writing that it consists of poached eggs in tomato sauce with vegetables doesn’t remotely give it credit – we found it utterly delicious, thanks to its delicate consistency and the exotic spices.
Of the drinks, a large selection of healthy fruit-and-veg mixtures deserves a mention. We tried Bio Public – an energizing cocktail made of green parsley, lemon juice, kiwi and mineral water. Apart from being quite refreshing, apparently it cures hangovers as an added bonus.
A Berlin-styled restaurant couldn’t do without decent beer; its selection of wheat beers and classic lagers is imported from Germany and includes such impressive-sounding names as Störtebeker Bernstein-Weizen.
The restaurant staff are very friendly – they’ve assured us that their aim is for every visitor to feel well taken care of – and they speak fluent English.
It only took them 15 minutes to serve us all the lunch dishes – quite impressive!
There’s free wi-fi – it’s possible to bring your laptop and work at the restaurant;
The prices range from 16 to 35 zl for a pizza, 35 to 44 zl for a salad and 32 to 39 zl for pasta. A smoothie costs 17 zl and the bio cocktail with parsley 16 zl.
The atmosphere of the place may be informal, but this doesn’t deter business groups, who often come here for lunch or dinner;
There’s an English version of the menu;
The restaurant does catering, home deliveries and events.
To sum up, Public Fontanny has made a really nice impression on us. We heartily recommend it and will definitely return for more!
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