Exciton-polaritons have been shown to be an optimal system in order to
investigate the properties of bosonic quantum fluids. We report here on the
observation of dark solitons in the wake of engineered circular obstacles and
their decay into streets of quantized vortices. Our experiments provide a
time-resolved access to the polariton phase and density, which allows for a
quantitative study of instabilities of freely evolving polaritons. The decay of
solitons is quantified and identified as an effect of disorder-induced
transverse perturbations in the dissipative polariton gas