Bar Mleczny Pod Temida

Bar Mleczny Pod Temida is a classic milk bar on Grodzka Street, the Royal Route between the Main Market Square and Wawel. Milk bars are Poland's no-frills canteens, a survival from the communist era, and this one keeps the tradition on one of the most central streets in the city: plain Polish food, served fast, at prices that have barely moved in decades.

The menu is the milk-bar canon: pierogi, soups and cutlets, the everyday Polish dishes that fill you up cheaply. You order at the counter, wait for your number, and carry your own tray. It is functional home cooking rather than a refined meal. For the current dishes and prices, check on the day, as the board changes.

Basic and quick, with simple tables and a steady turnover of students, workers and visitors. There is no service to speak of and no frills, which is the point. Expect a queue at lunchtime.

Ideal for a cheap, filling Polish lunch in the middle of a day of sightseeing, and for anyone who wants to try milk-bar cooking on a central street. Not for a slow, seated dinner.

Grodzka runs straight between the square and the castle, so you are minutes from both. For a fuller, folk-painted Polish dinner a few doors along, see Miod Malina, and for a beer-hall meal near the castle, Pod Wawelem. More budget-eating ideas are in the Krakow guide.

The place is easy to find. Look for the standard blue-and-white 'Bar Mleczny' sign on Grodzka, which makes Pod Temida one of the simplest milk bars to locate and one of the busiest in the city. At lunch it fills with Polish regulars as much as visitors.

On the plate, the canon runs to schabowy (breaded pork cutlet), dewolaje (breaded chicken fillet), placki ziemniaczane (potato pancakes) and a rotation of soups, with a few vegetarian options among them. Hours and prices shift over time, so check the current board on the day rather than relying on a posted figure.