Food & Drinks
Food & Drinks in Poland
Where to eat, drink and linger.
Polish cooking runs from pierogi, zurek and bigos to milk bars, Baltic fish bars and a serious fine-dining scene in Warsaw and Krakow. These are the places we recommend across the country, chosen on merit and grouped by city.
All Food & Drinks in Poland
Zakopane
Bakowo Zohylina
A proper highlander karczma with open-fire grilling, live folk music and oscypek cheese.
Lublin
Mandragora
A candlelit restaurant on the Old Town market recreating Lublin's pre-war Jewish and Polish cooking.
Sopot
Bulaj
A seafront favourite doing Baltic fish and seasonal Polish cooking with a sea view.
Toruń
Manekin
A local legend for enormous sweet and savoury pancakes at gentle prices.
Warsaw
Nolita
A Michelin Guide-listed kitchen turning Polish produce into precise modern tasting menus.
Gdańsk
Eliksir
A refined tasting-menu restaurant in the Garnizon district of Wrzeszcz, making the most of Baltic ingredients.
Wrocław
Jadka
An elegant fine-dining room under gothic vaults just off the Rynek, a special-occasion staple.
Kraków
Bottiglieria 1881
Krakow's Michelin-starred tasting-menu room, a modern Polish kitchen paired with a deep wine cellar.
Warsaw
Zapiecek
A dependable chain of folk-styled pierogi houses along the Royal Route, good for a first taste of Polish dumplings.
Gdańsk
Pierogarnia Mandu
A much-loved dumpling house handmaking both Polish pierogi and Georgian khinkali.
Wrocław
Konspira
A themed restaurant on Solny Square recalling the Solidarity underground, with solid Polish home cooking.
Poznań
Bamberka
A handsome restaurant right on the Old Market Square serving Greater Poland classics.
Polish food is hearty, seasonal and built around soup, dumplings and slow-cooked meat, and it is some of the best value in Europe. You can eat a filling plate of pierogi at a milk bar for a handful of zloty, or book a tasting menu at one of the country's Michelin-starred restaurants. Both belong on a food-focused trip.
What to eat
Start with pierogi, the filled dumplings, then work through zurek (sour rye soup), bigos (hunter's stew), placki ziemniaczane (potato pancakes) and, in Krakow, the ring-shaped obwarzanek from street carts. Our Polish food guide runs through the dishes and drinks in full, and what food to try is the short version.
Where to eat it
Eat at least once in a bar mleczny, a plain milk-bar canteen serving traditional dishes at low prices, a tradition that survived from the communist era. At the other end, the MICHELIN Guide Poland lists starred kitchens led by Bottiglieria 1881 in Krakow, the country's only two-star restaurant. In between sit strong regional cooking, speciality coffee and Baltic fish bars on the coast.
By city and by region
The deepest restaurant scenes are in Krakow and Warsaw, with Wroclaw, Poznan and the Tri-City close behind. Cooking shifts by region: highland cheese and grilled meats around Zakopane, fresh fish on the coast, and hearty stews in the east. Browse by city to eat where you are staying.
Food & Drinks by city
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