We spent two nights in Krakow and enjoyed delicious dinner and drinks each evening. This is not an exhaustive Krakow food and drink guide, but you cannot go wrong at any of these places.
Where To Eat In Krakow Old Town
We winged it the first night. It was the first time to Krakow for both of us and neither of us knew quite what to expect. Many restaurants were full…several on Sławkowska Street turned us away when we asked for a table. But we eventually secured a table (due to a no-show) at Farina.
Farina
Świętego Marka 16
31-018 Kraków, Poland
+48 519 399 474
restauracja@farina.com.pl
6:00PM – 10:00PM (Tuesday)
1:00PM – 10:00PM (Wednesday – Sunday)
Closed Mondays
The focus at Farina is on fresh fish and we were not disappointed by our entrees: halibut for my friend and sea bass for me. We had some potatoes and gnocchi on the side and the fresh bread was delicious.
Our second night, we ate at Cyrano de Bergerac, a French restaurant in a brick-lined, candlelit cellar.
Cyrano de Bergerac
Sławkowska 26
31-014 Kraków, Poland
+48 12 411 72 88
12:00PM – 11:00pm (Tuesday – Sunday)
Closed Mondays
The atmosphere of the restaurant was quite cool and I enjoyed delicious scallops and veal (my friend had turbot and also liked it). Dessert was also a treat: crème brûlée with bourbon vanilla and lovely profiterole ice cream and berries.
Where To Drink In Krakow Old Town
We had cocktails each night and I can recommend two places. The first is called Budda Bar and is located near St. Mary’s Basilica.
Budda Cocktail Bar
Rynek Główny 6
30-001 Kraków, Poland
+48 12 421 65 22
2:00PM – 1:00am (Tuesday – Saturday)
2:00PM – 12:00am (Sunday)
Closed Mondays
Staff were lovely here and the mojitos are all great…my recommendation is the raspberry grande mojito which is $10 (rather high) but is huge (easily the size of two regular cocktails).
The gem we found was called Mr. Black.
Mr. Black
Szewska 21
31-009 Kraków, Poland
+48 884 727 837
5:00PM – 1:00am (Tuesday – Thursday, Sunday)
5:00PM – 2:00am (Friday, Saturday)
Closed Mondays
This cocktail bar features a superb menu of drinks (like Mai Tai, my favorite and made perfectly, or a Paper Plane) and Jakub, one of the best bartenders I’ve ever had the pleasure of chatting with. The cozy atmosphere is amazing, every drink is excellent (pace yourself) and you will thank me for having visited this place.
CONCLUSION
Krakow is full of great restaurants and bars – this is but four of them. But all four I highly recommend and look forward to returning to.
This part of my Poland trip report.
You went to the pierogi capital of the world and had halibut and scallops?? Next time go to one of the many Polish restaurants and have pierogi and kielbasa. That’s eating!
Hey, at least it wasn’t Taco Bell…lol
Where would you recommend?
Kielbasa with a vegetarian and a diet-conscious traveler is probably not going to work.
Pescatarian, no?
I bet you’ve never been to Krakow. They have a lot of great restaurants…. international restaurants. It was same in Warsaw.
It was extremely hard for me to find great Polish restaurants, Poles didn’t seem like to proud of their cuisine. After trying a lot of bars mleczny (literally translated as “milk bar” from Polish), I’ve reached a conclusion that there are some good Polish restaurants, they tend to be filled by tourists, which is opposite from the golden rule, but true in Poland. One example is Jarema.
You should try one of milk bars at least once, but it comes with a lot of challenges for non Polish speakers: they’re Soviet style cafeterias, menu items are on the wall, in Polish only, staff at such place rarely speak English, so deciding what to order wasn’t easy. Probably it’s the easiest to point the dishes with other diners that look good. Another caveat is that, because they’re cheap cafeterias for workers and students, they close early, not a practical option for supper.
If I showed the tab/bill from these restaurants particularly the “service not included”, I’m sure I’ll get gasps from my Polish friends. That’s partly why they don’t eat out much or when they do, it’s at more austere eateries: Unless a Pole is quite affluent, they’re not engaged in fine dining on their own native cuisine.
Also, there’s the “Babcha” (grandmother) factor kicking in: At least until recently, the grandmothers and mothers were expected to cook high quality homemade meals daily and shamed if they didn’t and this included breakfast. Until McD’s, few slavs knew the concept of going out for breakfast before going to work. My friend’s mother recently bought frozen pierogi at the store and I thought hell had frozen over.
I chuckled at “service not included” which implied you were expected to tip which was not part of Polish culture. Tipping did happen for EXCEPTIONAL service or if you were a regular, but was rare but I guess pressure kicks in that as more do it, it becomes expected and there’s “tip creep” kicking in. First 10 percent, then 15, then next 20 percent and heck, even separate tips for the busboys?
Consequently, as Hibiki points out, tourists often flood many restaurants because, hey, the restaurants can impose tipping culture and charge higher prices. My general SOP for finding good restaurants is of course, know the locals in town who know where to go, but also, rule of thumb is that the best restaurants are those out of the center, perhaps on the periphery, that are busy hence if the locals are going out of their way to eat there, something is being done right. Those locations also punished poor businesses severely including one where my wife’s favorite duck place was, it was closed up by the family, and 2 places went under because a place that wants to survive there better have good food at good prices.
PolishKnight,
It’s obvious we don’t tip at milk bars (a complete self-service), but Poles don’t tip even at fine dining?
I didn’t tip at my hotels breakfast buffet (completely self service including coffees) and executive lounge (again, self-service including alcohol). I hate those executive lounges, where attendants are there to pour alcohol at drink station (ie no table service) and Americans still give them USD 5 or 10.
Funny one of the receipts Matthew posted says ‘service not included’ only in English. I’ve seen it many restaurants in Poland, I felt obliged to pay, although their services were in general fine, I had no objections.
In Georgia, though, many places automatically add 10% to the bill, while in general service was poor. I had a particularly bad service, it was such a hassle to ask them to remove service charge and explained why. There was a lot of argument.
In my city with diverse populations, some ethnic groups don’t go out and eat their own cuisines, (eg Filipino, Indian, etc). My coworkers explained to me that when they dine out, they want to eat something different…. Maybe the grandma thing you described going on with them, too.
Poles resist tipping culture but sometimes will tip for exceptional service. Like I said, it’s tipping creep and I’ll discuss it with my friend from Krakow when he visits in spring. I’ve generally been advised that tipping is not expected in Poland and this includes fine dining, but times change of course, everywhere.
Another thing that’s changed in Poland has been stagflation: Poles can work abroad such as the EU and then they come home and spend that money and drive prices up and German and Brits may move or visit Poland for tourism or even part-time living. So prices have shot up, but wages not as much. So “fine dining” on a regular basis is a luxury.
Consider that unlike in the USA, or even much of Europe where cheap labor keeps restaurant prices down with some immigrant in the back working just for the sake of staying in the country, restaurants in Poland are generally staffed by Poles expecting a higher wage although Ukrainian refugees have contributed to a surplus of labor along with competition for access to consumer goods and housing.
As a side observation: Ukrainians and Poles consider each other cousins similar to North/South USA having different cultures or Austria and Germany. They’re different, but similar and Poles and Ukrainians think of each other as brothers, but it’s tougher now for some Poles to get by. Overall, things generally are always improving albeit with ups and downs.
‘you’ refers to Jamieco, I clicked the reply button next to their post, but somehow it was posted to the bottom.
While crème brûlée is commonly made with bourbon vanilla, I highly doubt that you had it with vanilla bourbon as stated.
Very nice review. “Service in not included” and “service not included” is on the bill only in English for two out of 3 of the bills. Funny.
I noticed the same. Priorities, I guess.
Looks like you had a nice time in KRK, and the tipping comments have already been made above. What I found humorous was the incongruity of pricing at Buddha. PLN 46 for a cocktail is insane by Polish standards… but still water is just a Euro! Some restaurants just don’t know how to overcharge very well.
Great review as always,but LOL,some of these reader comments are right out of the soviet era.Most Polish women work and aren’t tied to the kitchen,in fact I would say most today don’t or won’t make pierogi except on special occasions.One need only go on Instagram to see Polish are enjoying EU standards of living.MostAmericans don’t typically dine out at such fine dining spots either.I don’t think going out for breakfast was ever a thing in northern Europe,not a slavic peculiarity
Puff Pastry with Ice Cream is a profiterole. It is not puff pastry, it’s pate a choux. It’s also a classic French dessert. just fyi.
Whatever it was, it was good.
I ate out alone in Warsaw and wanted to try all the different pierogis and the waiter was astounded with what I ordered and what he thought I was wasting. But they were great microwaved they next day 🙂
Amazing war museum in Warsaw too.
Expensive restaurants recommended by a wealthy tourist. How about real polish food where actual polish families who live on less than 4000pln /month eat?
I lived in Kraków for four years, you can get three course meals for under 20pln of delicious home cooked food. My favorite place is Coco, near the market square. I hope you at least visited a milk bar
The place which claims homosexuality is not normal? Yeah, great recommendation. Luckily, they’re going bankrupt
To whoever cries wolf about prices – those are fairly normal prices for restaurants and bars next to the Main Square. Naturally, they will be more expensive but they are also very good. Furthermore, they are far from the priciest ones. I am Polish, 28 years old, live quite comfortably and go to both restaurants once, maybe twice a month with some friends, in fact I eat out 4-5 days a week. Also, @PolishKnight – those are weird restaurants you go to. Most of them in Kazimierz, Podgorze, Rynek etc. will have “obsługa nie jest wliczona” written in Polish when you order in Polish. Krakow is not a rip-off city many claim it to be, at least when you compare it to Prague for example.
Wow, thanks much. I’ve never been to Poland and have wanted to go. These restaurants alone would be worth the visit…. you’ve got me planning already.
Poland are very nice place to visit ,even good place to work ,but you need to search for good places to see not only Warsaw,or Krakow,Wroclaw,Poznan small town like Kornik,Lancut Tarnow Brzesko,Polish cuisine,are not only pierogi but duck,wild board, dumpling with prune,,pyzy stuff with meat,Lazanki, stuff cabbage not mention excellent soups,