Eat Pierogi Make Love
The business plan came from the pierogi parties Guy Daley and Dominka Sikorska used to throw when they first got together.
Why go
Sikorska grew up in Poland, Daley was headed for fashion, and neither planned on dumplings until a first child made stability look appealing (Broadsheet). The Pierogi Pierogi truck came first, at Grazeland and Meredith and markets around town, with the dumplings wholesaling into Smith & Deli and Oasis Bakery. This Brunswick East room, opened in February 2024, is the permanent version, and the format is a Polish drinking house rather than a dining room. There are fourteen clear vodkas plus tinctures the kitchen makes itself, bison grass, quince, orange and cloves, and a Food for Wodka list of snacks built to sit beside them. Daley's line on the whole project is that Poland is not grey, it's not bleak, it's not anything like that. It's beautiful.
The fit-out argues the same thing sideways, taking brutalist concrete and beige grid tiling and hanging Polish posters on it.
Order this / avoid
- Order: pierogi ruskie first, since potato and cheese is the version the truck was built on. The smashed potato with gzik, which Daley says tastes like Polish spring. Pork skewers in blueberry sauce on a bed of bigos. Leniwe, the lazy dumplings. Then a tincture, and the Martini dirtied with cucumber brine.
- Avoid: Tuesday and Wednesday, which are dark. Treating the vodka as shots; the whole list is built to be drunk with the snacks.
What locals & experts say
- Alice Manderson, Broadsheet (February 2024), reporting the opening:
Polish food is hot at Eat Pierogi Make Love. Expect brightly garnished dishes, apple-cinnamon cocktails, a plethora of vodka options and, of course, pierogi at the brutalist-inspired shop.
That is an openings report.1 - Guy Daley, co-founder, on why the room exists:
Making love is spreading love, spreading understanding and spreading joy, that's what we want to do with this business.
1 - The gap, stated plainly. No critic has reviewed this kitchen. No Melbourne chef names it across 74 industry picks. Nothing dated after February 2024 could be found, which is why this entry claims nothing about how it cooks today.
Good to know
- Where: 161 Lygon Street, Brunswick East, which is the northern end of the street rather than the Carlton stretch.
- Timing: at opening it ran Monday and Thursday 5pm to 10pm, Friday and Saturday noon to midnight, and Sunday noon to 9pm. Those hours are two years old, so check.
- Booking: worth calling ahead on a weekend.
- Diet: there is a deep-fried vegan pierogi on the menu.
- Sunday: an Eat Polska Sunday session of kotlety mielone and kotlety schabowy was announced at opening. Whether it runs is unconfirmed.
- Hygiene: Victoria publishes no consumer-facing food-hygiene rating, so there is no Australian equivalent of an FSA score to record.
Verdict
could-visit — Guy Daley and Dominka Sikorska used to host pierogi parties when they started going out, and when they were expecting a child they turned that into a business plan, then a food truck, then this. Daley's stated aim is to argue that Polish food is worth taking seriously, and the format he built for it is closer to a Japanese izakaya than a restaurant: a Food for Wodka snack list of rainbow pickles, mountain cheese with cranberry, pate on rye and sauerkraut fritters, meant to be eaten alongside fourteen clear vodkas and a set of house tinctures on bison grass, quince and orange with cloves. The Martini is dirtied with Polish cucumber brine. That is a coherent idea and it is cheap. It sits at could-visit because the entire evidence base is one opening report from February 2024 and nobody has reviewed the food since, which is a hole rather than a verdict.