Ever wanted to visit the famous Polish city of Kraków and interested in the food? Well stick around as I share where we ate on a recent trip and our honest food reviews!

For starters…

I’m a big fan of trying local cuisine wherever I travel and like to push myself out of my comfort zone to try things I normally wouldn’t eat. I definitely embodied this on our latest trip to Kraków where I tried to eat as many local delicacies as possible. I had absolutely no idea what to expect from Polish food (other than it being very meat-heavy!) and was excited to try new things.

Streetfood

Something sweet

We arrived in Kraków by plane, and then hopped on the train from the airport to the city centre. Kraków train station is phenomenal and massive with loads of shops and places to eat that we’d never heard of before. It’s about a 20 minute walk to the Old Town, which is where we were staying so we decided to go looking for our hotel and see what food was on offer on the way.

It didn’t take us long to see some fantastic food places; the Polish love a bakery! The most popular chain we saw was Dobra Pączkarniawhich which had the most delicious-looking shop fronts as you can see from the above photos! After a super early morning flight, we decided to perk ourselves up and get a pączki, a delicious type of Polish doughnut which seemed to be everywhere and what this chain specialises in. They come in a range of different sweet flavours and we went for chocolate and coconut. We couldn’t believe the price either, 7.50zl (about £1.49!) and they were massive! After a sugar high, we continued on our search.

Like a bagel but better!

Once we got into the Old Town, we noticed street vendors selling a very specific bagel-looking snack which everyone seemed to grab and go. Obwarzanek is a Polish type of bread snack, but typical to Kraków so we just had to try one. They come in different flavours and I went for a plain one which was like eating a very salty bagel. We also tried a sweet version which had a berry jam filling and icing. At 2zl (£0.40), we noticed people grabbing these in their lunch break and eating on the go.

Zapiekanki

A must see in Kraków is the area of Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter. Not only is it a beautiful part of the city, it also has some very interesting food. Keeping with the street food theme, we headed to Plac Nowy where we came across a very quaint market selling traditional Polish gifts, but also a food we hadn’t seen before – Zapiekanka. Each vendor sells the same food but with a slight alteration to the menu. It’s like eating pizza dough with a bunch of different toppings. With well over twenty choices per menu, we really were spoiled for choice. I ended up getting a rather weird combination of flavours which included peaches and cheese! Be warned though, for anyone who doesn’t like mushrooms (like me!), most of the toppings sit on top of a bed of mushrooms, so ask to remove these beforehand! They cost us £4-£5 each and were massive, I actually didn’t finish mine. They’re also very messy to eat, hence the bib!

The main course

After a busy first day seeing the sights, by the time evening rolled around, we were both starving and ready for traditional Polish food. After some research, we found a very highly-rated restaurant called ‘Old Town Restaurant and Wine Bar’ and decided to try it and were not disappointed! I tried some Polish wine (who knew Poland made wine?!) that tasted of cherries and was delicious. A large glass was around £4.50 and we soon started to realise how good the food was here despite it being so cheap (compared to where we live in the UK).

Our tour guide earlier in the day had mentioned Zurek soup and we had to try this. This is a soup that comes served in a bread bowl (which is a bonus) and consists of white sausages, smoked meats and rye sourdough. Considering this is a starter, it was huge! I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did but it was so tasty and even ate some of the bread bowl. For a main course I had a simple chicken and rice dish with vegetables which sounds very bland and boring, but is probably the best chicken I’ve ever had. Not only did we have two drinks, starters, mains and deserts, when the bill came, they also offered us a complimentary shot of Polish alcohol – I have no idea what this is called but it tasted of berries and was lovely! The whole meal cost us about £45 which we thought was super reasonable and both really enjoyed the food. We would definitely go back to that restaurant when visiting again.

Another favourite which we tried was Barszcz Czerwony, an authentic Polish beetroot soup. In general I dislike beetroot, but spotted it on a menu and given how reasonably priced it was, decided to give it a try and wow was it good!

The cheque please!

The food in Kraków was some of the best food we’ve ever had while travelling, and it was so much fun to try Polish cuisine. The low-cost in foot, coupled with how good it is, makes this city a must for any foodies visiting Poland!