My sister was in town a little while ago. She is just shy of the 21 mark (and as the youngest of four, she is literally counting the days left until she can join us for happy hours), so instead of scouting out craft cocktails and craft breweries, we made sure to find some delicious food.

I’ve been hearing about Apteka pretty much since the day I moved to Pittsburgh. “Vegan Polish food. Trust me, you gotta try it. At the very least get the pierogis.” I’d never had Polish food before moving to the city, and I’m not vegan, but the buzz around this place had put it on my mental “must try” list, and my sister more than happily agreed to try it out while she was in town.

We headed over to Bloomfield on the early side of the dinner hour, lucked out with parking right across the street, and headed in.

We quickly studied the menu, which is posted on butcher paper just inside the door, ordered at the bar, and grabbed a number and a bottle of water with glasses.

Since we were on the early side, we had our pick of where to sit in the dining room. Fair warning: I’ve heard the line to order can be out the front door. By the time we left, all the tables were filled.

We ordered the Kluski Slaskie – a tasty dish of potato dumplings in a carrot porcini broth.

The Pierogis were a must. It was the one dish that everyone had raved over. Seven little fried pockets, filled with either mushroom and sauerkraut or celeriac, apple, and potato, served with black radish, cucumbers, almond milk yogurt, and pepita.

We rounded off our table with an order of kartofle z jorgurten (please don’t ask me how to say that…luckily the lovely staff offer any pronunciation help you might need). It takes a little imagination to see how the ingredients – potato, kraut, almond-cashew milk yogurt, dried apple, and lingonberry – work together, but it might have turned out to be the table favorite. We debated ordering a second!

We left Apteka with smiles on our faces and still wondering if we should have ordered one more kartofle z jorgurten. I’m already looking forward to the next time I’m back. I’ll have to try one of their delicious sounding cocktails – made with homemade syrups and infusions and using the freshest ingredients.

After opening just last March, both the restaurant and bar have already won high praise from many local media outlets and, maybe more importantly, patrons. They definitely deserve it!