Kraków · Where to eat

Creative Polish tasting
A vaulted cellar off Bocheńska in Kazimierz where Przemysław Klima cooks a set menu for the whole room. Tuesday to Saturday, doors from 17:00, closed Sunday and Monday.
Order: The Full Experience set menu, the longer of the two; a shorter tasting menu for those with less time; natural and low-intervention wines poured alongside
Why go: Poland's only two-star kitchen, and it works out of a Kazimierz cellar rather than a grand hotel.
Locals order: Take the wine pairing rather than ordering by the bottle; the cellar is built on small natural growers.
book via DinnerBooking, weeks ahead

Modern Polish grill
Klima's second and much easier room, on Dajwór behind white tiling with counter seats facing the pass. Closed Mondays; Tuesday to Friday it opens at 16:00 and orders stop an hour before the doors do.
Order: Kaszanka made in the kitchen rather than bought in; meats cooked over the open grill; Karpatka, the Polish choux cake, put back on a modern menu
Why go: The two-star chef's everyday room, using the same suppliers at a fraction of the bill.
Locals order: Order the resurrected Polish dishes rather than the international ones; that is the argument the kitchen is making.
book on DinnerBooking; it fills early

Modern sharing plates
A brasserie-styled room on Estery with high tables and a terrace facing Plac Nowy, wine bar as much as restaurant, with around 200 labels. Parties over ten are handled on a separate events line.
Order: Oysters from the raw list; arancini and tempura among the small plates; ceviche when the fish is worth it
Why go: A Kazimierz room where sharing is the format rather than a section of the menu.
Locals order: Take the terrace in summer; it faces Plac Nowy, which is the reason to be on this street at all.
book online, by phone or by email

Israeli-Polish sharing
Marble tops and high seating on Meiselsa, closer to a wine bar than a restaurant, with service that keeps the room moving. Weekdays it opens at 16:00, weekends from 13:00, and it shuts at 21:30 on Sundays.
Order: Lamb kebab off the grill; pitta baked in the kitchen; Israeli and Polish wines by the glass
Why go: Israeli street cooking argued through Polish produce, a few streets from the Remuh cemetery.
Locals order: Weekend lunch is the quiet service; the evening room is loud and books out days ahead.
book online, by phone or by email

Natural wine bistro
A small semi-vaulted room with whitewashed brick on Krakowska, easy to walk straight past. Closed Tuesdays; 17:00 starts on weekdays, 14:00 at weekends.
Order: Risotto built on Polish porcini; French bistro plates rebuilt on local produce; orange and skin-contact wines by the glass
Why go: A wine list built on orange and natural bottles, with cooking serious enough to keep pace with it.
Locals order: Ask Ida Malec's team what came in that week rather than reading the printed card twice.
book online; the room seats very few

Regional Thai
A loud vintage-styled canteen on Rajska with an open kitchen counter, modelled on Bangkok's late-night eating. Sharing is the intended format and the prices assume it.
Order: Dishes drawn from all four Thai regions; cooking over open fire at the counter; Thai-leaning cocktails from the bar
Why go: The first Thai kitchen in Poland to take a Bib, run by a cook who spent nearly twenty years in London.
Locals order: Order more small plates than seems sensible and put them in the middle; the kitchen assumes you will.
book ahead; the counter takes walk-ins

Old Polish
A sequence of decorated halls on the Main Square trading on a feast laid on for Casimir the Great in 1364. Closed Mondays, and Tuesday to Thursday it is dinner only from 17:00.
Order: Roast meats and game from the old repertoire; freshwater fish; forest mushrooms when they are in
Why go: The address has been feeding people since the fourteenth century, which nowhere else in Poland can claim.
Locals order: Poles come for the rooms as much as the plates; Friday lunch is when the halls are quiet enough to look at.
book online; ask for one of the upstairs halls

Grilled Old Polish
Gothic cellars beneath a Grodzka house held by the same family since 1893, all stone vaulting and candles. Open daily 13:00 to 23:00; flambé dishes need notice at the time of booking.
Order: Meats grilled over beechwood; pierogi in several fillings; regional soups
Why go: Beechwood rather than gas, which is why the cellar smells the way it does.
Locals order: The courtyard tables above ground are pleasanter in summer than the cellar everybody photographs.
book online or by phone

Polish-Italian
Two warm, cluttered rooms on Grodzka on the Royal Route, small enough that walking in rarely works. Weekdays from 13:00, weekends from noon.
Order: Roast duck with apple and cranberry; scallops on black tagliolini; schnitzel with braised cabbage
Why go: The Italian half of the menu is not a concession to visitors; it has been there from the start.
Locals order: Order the duck. It is what the regulars order and what the kitchen is set up to do.
book by phone or email; the room is small

Polish with house vodka
Red walls, thirteen tables and about forty-five seats on Józefa, with a garden when the weather allows. Acoustic sets on Wednesday and Friday from 20:30.
Order: Crisp golonka; braised beef cheeks; Mrs Rysia's pierogi
Why go: The house starka is aged in oak on the premises, which is where both the name and the point come from.
Locals order: Drink the house starka rather than a commercial vodka; it is why Cracovians bring visitors here.
book online or by phone; thirteen tables only

Cukiernia and Polish kitchen
An art café opened in 1895 on Floriańska, its back rooms hung with Młoda Polska drawings and relics of the Zielony Balonik cabaret. It serves full meals as well as cake, but the interiors are the reason to sit down.
Order: The Michalik and Wawel layer cakes; kremówki; ice cream made to the house recipe
Why go: The room that housed Polish cabaret at its beginning, still serving cake inside it.
Locals order: Walk past the front café into the stained-glass rooms at the back; most visitors never get that far.
walk-in; the back rooms fill mid-afternoon

Refined Polish
A first-floor room at Rynek Główny 17 under a vaulted ceiling, run by the same group as Wierzynek. Two propositions share the address, the main dining room and the smaller Le Privé.
Order: Polish classics rebuilt for a fine-dining room; a separate Le Privé menu run alongside; window tables looking straight onto the Main Square
Why go: One of the few Main Square addresses where the cooking earns the postcode.
Locals order: Book Le Privé rather than the main room if you want the kitchen working at full length.
book online; window tables go first

Dry-aged beef
Reopened at Rynek Główny 27 next to Piwnica pod Baranami, running from 10:00 with breakfast until noon. Parties over ten have to ring rather than book online.
Order: Steaks from beef aged in the restaurant's own fridges; żurek; pierogi served alongside the meat
Why go: A Kraków steakhouse that ages its own beef and still puts żurek in front of it.
Locals order: It opens at ten and serves breakfast until noon, which is the cheapest way into an expensive room.
book by phone or WhatsApp

Modern Polish
A fourteenth-century house on Kanonicza at the foot of Wawel, three suites above and a small dining room below. Przemysław Bilski cooked at Zafferano and Locanda Locatelli in London before taking it on.
Order: Polish sturgeon caviar with blinis, quail egg and crème fraîche; game and regional produce as the season turns; a card that changes with it
Why go: Kraków's oldest street, a Gothic house, and Polish caviar rather than imported tins.
Locals order: The restaurant and the suites share one website; search Kanonicza 22 rather than the restaurant name.
book online through the Kanonicza 22 site

Italian grill
A red-brick vaulted room inside the Balthazar Design Hotel on Grodzka, busy enough that walking in rarely works. Same ownership as Huma and Kogel Mogel.
Order: Bistecca alla fiorentina from beef dry-aged thirty days; Dover sole over the wood grill; a choice of sauces with the steak
Why go: A Florentine steak handled properly under a Gothic Kraków vault.
Locals order: The wood-grilled sole is the order that separates the regulars from the first-timers.
book ahead; the room runs full

Modern Polish
The dining room of Hotel Copernicus on Kanonicza, wood-panelled with a stone fireplace inside a palace of fifteenth-century origin. The lunch menu is markedly cheaper than dinner.
Order: Pierogi filled with Polish cheese; old Polish recipes rebuilt with modern technique; a wine list weighted to Italy
Why go: A Gothic façade on Kraków's oldest street, and a kitchen that does not coast on the address.
Locals order: Come at lunch. The set menu is the best-value serious cooking inside the Planty.
book through the hotel

Parrilla steakhouse
A smart Grodzka room built around an open parrilla grill, from the Fiorentina and Kogel Mogel owners. The list is long and weighted to red.
Order: Prime cuts over the parrilla; beef pretzel with gherkin and caper cream; Polish and American beef offered side by side
Why go: An Argentine grill dropped onto the Royal Route, with sides as considered as the beef.
Locals order: Order something that is not steak alongside it; the kitchen is better than the format suggests.
book ahead

Neighbourhood modern
A casual bistro on Dietla with counter seats facing the chefs, more neighbourhood room than destination. The wine list turns over constantly.
Order: A Polish base with flavours borrowed from much further afield; generous plates rather than tasting portions; orange and skin-contact wines by the glass
Why go: Counter seats close enough to watch every plate leave, in a room with no interest in ceremony.
Locals order: Ask what is open on the wine list this week; last week's card will not help you.
book ahead; ask for the kitchen counter

Seafood
Three small connected rooms on św. Marka in the Old Town, each done differently, blending original features with newer furniture. Monika Turasiewicz built the place around French seafood.
Order: Whole fish baked over salt and herbs; fish flown in from France several times a week; plates built to be shared
Why go: The most convincing fish restaurant in a city three hundred kilometres from the sea.
Locals order: Ask which fish landed that week and take it whole over salt; that is the kitchen's method.
book ahead; the rooms are small

Krakovian classics
A retro-leaning brasserie on Sienna with several rooms, one brick-vaulted, and an enclosed garden terrace. Regulars rather than tour groups.
Order: Modern versions of old Kraków dishes; hot apple pie made with Szara Reneta apples; plates from the wider Polish repertoire
Why go: Kraków's own dishes taken seriously in a room that does not present itself as a museum.
Locals order: Ask for the garden; the vaulted room is darker and considerably louder.
book ahead, particularly for the garden

Modern Polish
A small room inside Hotel Indigo on św. Filipa, powder-blue banquettes and Polish Poster School prints, with a compact open kitchen.
Order: Bread baked in the restaurant; Polish classics rebuilt rather than reheated; produce bought at the Stary Kleparz market up the road
Why go: The market is two minutes up the street and the menu reads exactly like it.
Locals order: Walk to Stary Kleparz before lunch; it is where the kitchen shops and it is worth seeing anyway.
book online

French bistro
Two levels on Józefa in Kazimierz, a street-facing ground floor and a candlelit cellar below. The weekday set lunch is the cheap way in.
Order: Quiche; crème brûlée; a set starter, main and dessert lunch, Tuesday to Friday only
Why go: French bistro cooking priced as though Kazimierz were still an unfashionable district.
Locals order: Come Tuesday to Friday for the set menu; it does not run at weekends.
book online; the cellar is the quieter half

Offal-led modern
Loud music, cocktails and stripped-back décor on Brzozowa, staffed young and run at pace. The menu leans hard on offal and makes no apology for it.
Order: Horse tartare, the house signature; sweetbreads and brains; a set lunch at a fraction of the evening bill
Why go: One of very few kitchens in Poland building an entire menu from the parts other restaurants throw out.
Locals order: Take the set lunch if the offal card looks daunting; it is the cheapest serious meal in Kazimierz.
book ahead; small, loud and full

Basque
A tucked-away room on Brodzińskiego in Podgórze, across the river from Kazimierz. The list is largely Spanish with plenty available by the glass.
Order: Pintxos at the bar; herb-fed Iberian pork tenderloin; torrija with mint ice cream
Why go: Basque cooking done properly on the Podgórze bank, which almost no visitor crosses.
Locals order: Start with pintxos standing at the bar before you sit down, the way it is done in San Sebastián.
book ahead; it is very small

Milk bar
The blue-and-white Bar Mleczny sign on Grodzka, sitting on the Royal Route and so the easiest milk bar in Kraków to find. You order at the hatch and carry your own tray.
Order: Soups by the bowl; pierogi by the plate; naleśniki to finish
Why go: A subsidised state-era canteen still working fifty metres from the tourist route.
Locals order: Read the board before you join the queue; you order in one line and collect in another, and neither waits.
walk-in only, self-service

Modernised milk bar
A cleaner, brighter reading of the milk bar on św. Tomasza, run by an Irishman and navigable without Polish. The daily set runs at about 30 złoty for soup and a main.
Order: Pierogi; potato pancakes; crêpes, both sweet and savoury
Why go: Milk-bar prices without the milk-bar queue and shouted order.
Locals order: Breakfast is the local habit here rather than lunch; the room is quietest before eleven.
walk-in; table service rather than a hatch

Pierogi counter
A corner counter on Bonerowska with barely any seating, so most people carry the box to the nearest bench. Cheap enough to treat as a snack rather than a meal.
Order: Boiled pierogi with potato and cheese; savoury fillings by the plate; sweet pierogi when the fruit is in
Why go: The pierogi Cracovians actually name, sold from a shop with nowhere to sit.
Locals order: Take the box into the Planty rather than trying to eat standing at the counter.
walk-in and takeaway; almost no seats

Kraków street food
A small shopfront on Sienna near Mały Rynek, grown out of a food truck that still parks at the Judah food market on św. Wawrzyńca.
Order: Maczanka, slow-roasted pork neck in a bun dipped in its own juices; toppings and sauces chosen at the counter; the same thing from the truck at Judah
Why go: Maczanka is Kraków's own street food, older than the zapiekanka and far less advertised.
Locals order: The Kazimierz truck at Judah runs later than the shop and the queue moves faster.
walk-in, order at the counter

Zapiekanki
One of about a dozen hatches cut into the Okrąglak rotunda on Plac Nowy, a 1900 building that was once a poultry slaughterhouse. The hatches run to roughly 02:00.
Order: The plain mushroom and cheese zapiekanka; loaded versions with meat and sauces; ketchup and garlic sauce added at the hatch
Why go: Half a baguette under grilled cheese, sold out of a former slaughterhouse until two in the morning.
Locals order: Judge the hatch by its queue rather than its sign; locals pick whichever window is moving.
walk-in, cash is safest, open very late

Polish home cooking
A cluttered, antique-furnished room on Mostowa near Plac Wolnica, good for coffee early and a drink before dinner. Bottled microbrews and Ukrainian beers on the list.
Order: Polish staples through the day; breakfast plates in the morning; pasta and salads alongside
Why go: Kazimierz prices as they stood before the district turned into a destination.
Locals order: Go for breakfast; the room belongs to the neighbourhood before noon and to visitors after it.
walk-in; the room is small