Goldwasser Restaurant

Few restaurants have a better stage than Goldwasser. The terrace sits directly on the Motława, near the Crane, with boats, brick façades and Granary Island performing in the background. Inside the handsome townhouse, the menu moves between regional Polish cooking and an unapologetically international taste for luxury. Venison tartare, lobster cream, duck breast and ambitious steaks share the card; some arrive with edible gold, because a restaurant named after Gdańsk’s famous herbal liqueur was never going to embrace understatement completely. The essential finale is the white-chocolate sphere scented with Goldwasser - followed, naturally, by a glass of the liqueur itself, with its flakes of gold turning in the light. The building also contains seven stylish apartments overlooking the river, useful if dinner, the view and a second digestif make departure feel unnecessary. Touristic? Certainly. But when the setting is this good and the city’s history is poured into the glass, resistance seems rather joyless.