Endzior

Endzior is one of the hatches in the round brick pavilion in the middle of Plac Nowy, the old market square at the centre of Kazimierz. The pavilion, known locally as the okraglak, is the home of the zapiekanka in Krakow, and Endzior is the name most people send you to. It is cheap, quick and open late, and there is usually a queue.

The zapiekanka is a long half-baguette, split and toasted, topped with mushrooms and melted cheese and finished with a squeeze of sauce. From that base the toppings multiply, so you point at what you want and pick a sauce at the end. They are large, hot and filling, easily a meal on their own. This is street food eaten standing on the square, not a sit-down restaurant.

Plac Nowy is the heart of Kazimierz nightlife, ringed by bars, and the pavilion is its late-night engine. Crowds gather at the hatches after the bars fill, so the scene is at its best in the evening. By day it is a calmer stop between the district's synagogues and markets.

It suits anyone wanting a fast, cheap, classically Krakow bite, and it is the obvious late-night fuel after a night in Kazimierz. Alchemia is a few steps away on the same square if you want a drink first or after.

You will find it in the central pavilion on Plac Nowy, in the middle of Kazimierz. For a sit-down Polish meal instead, Andrus and its maczanka krakowska are within reach in the centre. The Krakow guide covers the district in full.

The pavilion Endzior trades from has its own history. The rotunda, the okraglak, was raised in 1900 as a covered market hall, and from 1927 part of it served as a Jewish ritual poultry slaughterhouse that ran until the German occupation. It went back to market use after the war and was entered into Kraków's register of historical monuments in 2008.

Endzior turns up under a few names, including Mini-Bar Endzior and Zapiekanki u Endziora, so do not be thrown if a map or listing labels the same hatch differently.