Krakow is Poland's second most populous city and is the country's most important tourist destination, with its historic centre declared a World Heritage Site. It has a great cultural attraction, in which its gastronomy plays a significant role, with hundreds of restaurants where you can enjoy the particular, tasty, and forceful Polish culinary art. If you are planning a trip to this beautiful Eastern European city, this article will serve as a guide to the typical dishes of the land and where to eat in Krakow.

Polish cuisine

Polish cuisine is strongly influenced by Slavic cuisines, especially Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian, as well as French, Hungarian, Turkish, German, and Jewish. It is characterised by its strong flavours (although not spicy), with dishes based on vegetables and various local products, with soups being of great importance and very suitable for the country's harsh winters.

In summer, it is customary to eat fresh fish from the coasts and lakes, while in autumn the main dishes on offer are mushrooms and game meat.

Breakfasts are usually hearty, very European-style, with scrambled eggs, sausages, and bread, accompanied by tea or coffee.

Poland's national drink is beer, which is drunk in large glasses.

What to eat in Krakow

The flavours of Poland are concentrated in typical Kraków dishes, of which we will give you a brief summary.

Soup. This is ubiquitous in every restaurant in Kraków, and there are countless varieties. The most popular is zurek, with potato, rye flour, boiled egg, garlic, and white pork sausages called kielbasa. Other popular soups include fermented cucumber soup, cabbage soup, beetroot soup, mushroom soup and tomato soup.

Pierogi. Popular baked dumplings with various fillings. They are a very typical starter in the city, as are placki ziemniaczane, delicious potato pancakes.

Bigos. The most typical Polish dish. It is sour cabbage stewed and served with sausages, meat, dried plums and mushrooms.

Meat dishes. The most popular are steak tartar, kotlet schabow (breaded steaks), kaczka jablkami (duck roast with apple), golabki(meat balls with rice and onions), goulash, and the aforementioned kielbasasausages.

Desserts. With a wide variety of sweets, possibly the dessert you'll find most when you visit Kraków is the fantastic sernik krakowski, cheesecake.

Where to eat in Krakow

Krakówhas a wide range of bars and restaurants where you can sample the flavours of Poland and typical Kraków dishes. If you are going to Kraków on a tight budget, don't missthe mleczny bars - milk bars, subsidised establishments dating back to the socialist era, where there is no waiter at the table: you order at the bar, take them to the table and then bring them back. They don't serve alcohol and their prices are really low. A sort of IKEA of the restaurant trade. And the food is not bad at all.

These are some of the most recommended restaurants in Krakow.

Restaurant Hawełka

Located in the heart of the city on the Market Square, it is famous for serving one of the best zurek soups in Kraków, which is served in a kind of bowl made of rye bread, which is also eaten. It has a great terrace where you can eat if the weather is nice.

Restaurant Pod Nosem

A restaurant in the luxurious Hotel Kanonicza 22, it's worth paying a few extra euros to enjoy the cuisine of renowned chef Przemysław Bilski, whose art ranges from the most innovative dishes to the most traditional Polish cuisine, most notably hisspectacular pierogi.

Restaurant Gospoda Koko

Situated in the historic centre of Krakow, it specialises intraditional cuisine, with strikingly large portions (in a city where portions are always large). Service is very fast and friendly.

Restaurant Babci Maliny

In English babci Maliny means "grandmother's raspberry", and this place really does look like a grandmother's house straight out of anAndersen fairy tale, with a rustic and cosy style, where even the tables have the classic crochet rugs typical of grandmothers' houses of yesteryear. As you would expect, the kitchen is traditional and has a milk bar style operation, in which you order at the bar and go to pick it up.

Restaurant Chlopskie Jadlo

Part of a very popular franchise in Poland with 8 restaurants across the country since its foundation in 1995, it offers the full range of traditional Polish dishes, from pierogiand mushroomsto all varieties of meats and soups.