Restaurants
A Dong - Far Eastern Vietnamese Chinese, ***** Brodzinskiego 3, phone 6564872
Without a doubt, the best Chinese-Vietnamese restaurant in Cracow
(for that matter, one of the best restaurants in Cracow, period).
Their Mongolian "Seafood Boiler" dish deserves special mention
(kind of a Far Eastern fondue - pieces of various seafood are cooked at
the table by the customer in a small, charcoal-heated kettle of hearty
bullion). A Dong also offers exceptional duck dishes; crispy, fried frog-legs,
and stuffed octopus. The restaurant received a "Z³ota Kawka" award nomination
from the Galician Academy of Taste (a Cracow-based restauranteurs' association)
for 1997.
Alef - Jewish, ***** Szeroka 17, phone 4213870
A not-strictly-kosher Jewish restaurant set up in one of the most
beautiful historical buildings of Krakow's Kazimierz district, with
additional accomodations a couple of doors down in the building that
once served as the area's mikvah, or ritual baths
(at 6 Szeroka street). The must-try list would have to
include gefilte fisch (stuffed carp), stuffed goose-necks,
Czulent, grape leaves, and goose livers fried with almonds and raisins.
Evenings feature live klesmer, gypsy, and Russian romantic music.
Amarone - Italian, ****** Florianska 14, phone 4221244
An Italian restaurant, located in Cracow's "Hotel Pod Ró¿±" (there
is also an entrance from Sw. Tomasza street). A
wonderfully daring example (for Cracow) of modern
adaptation of historical architecture - the courtyard of the
400-year-old building that houses "Hotel Pod Ró¿±", covered with a
glass roof. Nothing hum-drum about their menu, either (anyone
for some Pigeon Carpaccio?). Good pastas and desserts,
in-house wine cellar.
Baba Ryba - Fish & Seafood, **** Sw. Agnieszki 1, phone 4218774 
A restaurant-within-a-restaurant which offers seafood has opened in
the extra dining rooms belonging to Cracow's well-known
"Chlopskie Jadlo". Though it has neither a separate
entrance nor an address of its own, Baba Ryba (which means "Old
Fish-Woman" in Polish), does have its own kitchen. The
decor is a hyper-realistically faithful reproduction of the interior
of an old sailing ship (you can almost hear the waves splashing
up against the sides). The menu offers a trove of both
fresh and salt-water fish. Excellent herring, prepared a number of
ways; delicious smoked eel. The dining experience is aurally
enhanced by a live sea-shanty group.
Cechowa - Polish, ** Jagiellonska 11, phone 4210936
A favorite locale of Cracow's considerable population of
intellectuals who eat lunch at a restaurant on a daily basis. The
panelled interior is decorated with the coats of arms of various
Cracovian artisans' guilds of yore. A typically Polish menu (Beet
soup with Polish noodles, white sausage in onion sauce, pierogies,
roast beef, pork chops with cabbage) with reasonable
prices.
Chimera - Polish, ***** Sw. Anny 3, phone 4232178
Chimera started out as a restaurant in the street-level space of the
building it occupies to this day. A salad bar of that same name, run
by the same people, has since come to be in the cellar below. The
restaurant offers roast pork, lamb, goat, beet soup with kulebiak
(a type of stuffed pastry), tongues in Polish sauce, and excellent
home-style fruit liqueurs.
Chlopskie Jadlo - Polish Cracovian, **** Sw. Agnieszki 1, phone 4218520
The Cracow branch of the Glogoczow-based restaurant (on the road to
Zakopane). The decor is a realistic rendering of the interior of a
traditional Polish peasant hut, considering they're located in a
19th-century tenement building. Offering a country-style Polish menu
(Chlopskie Jadlo means "peasant fare" in Polish), this restaurant
has been an enormous success of national proportions in the last
couple of years. Home-baked country breads, spreads, pickled stuffed
cabbage, Polish mushroom soup with noodles, big bowls of pierogies,
pork ribs.
Cyrano de Bergerac - French, ****** Slawkowska 26, phone 4117288
A world-class French restaurant consisting of two elegantly and
invitingly arranged dining rooms in renovated cellars dating from
the middle-ages, plus a charming and quiet open-air patio in the
courtyard of the building above in the summer.
Unparalleled foie gras, served hot or cold with an exceptional
honey-lemon sauce, turnedos with morels, Bernese garbure soup with
pieces of goose-meat, perch-pike, turbot,
burbot, and mullet prepared in various ways - all true poetry. A
wine cellar of the highest class. Expensive, but worth every bit of
it. The Galician Academy of Taste awarded Cyrano de Bergerac
its "Z³ota Kawka" award for 1997, recognizing the the restaurant as
the finest in all of Galicia (the southeastern third of present-day
Poland that was a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire in the 19th century).
Da Pietro - Italian, **** Rynek Glowny 17, phone 4223279
Cracow's first Italian restaurant, located in a gothic-renaissance
cellar. Their kitchen's repertoire is ethnically correct, if not
stunning. Decent salmon and beef carpaccios, good cream of spinach
soup with garlic, delicious vitello tonnato (marinated veal,
served cold in sauce with tuna and anchovies). Grilled
meats, pizza, and an Italian wine list.
El Paso - Mexican, *** Sw. Krzyza 13, phone 4213296
Typical Tex-Mex kitchen with standards like chili con carne, nachos,
tacos, burritos. Tequila seems to taste especially good in this
establishment, the interior of which is reminiscent of an old
cowboy saloon. The reason for this is probably the fact that it is
served with salt and lime and not lemon, as is
usually the case here. Several brands of Mexican beer also offered,
with the ever-popular Corona leading the pack.
Elektor - International hotel, Szpitalna 28, phone 4218025
This restaurant was the talk of the town when the Royal Couple of
Japan, who stayed at the Elektor Hotel, expressed their partiality
to Polish-style young potatoes with butter and dill leaves. The menu
offers a basic assortment of local cuisine as well as a range of
international dishes. Commendable wine list, which one can put to
the taste test in the Elektor's wine cellar.
Hawelka - Polish, **** Rynek Glowny 34, phone 4224753
The name of this locale is rooted in Galician and Cracovian legend,
according to which Antoni Haweˆka opened a breakfast eatery in the
back of a general store, which soon became a full-service restaurant
known throughout the kingdom. After World War II Haweˆka was
nationalized (like most private enterprises in Poland at that time),
but has regained its luster since the passing of the communist era.
The expansive ground-floor dining room features a huge portrait of
the emporer Francis Joseph. An ideal place for a sentimental,
reasonably quick, reasonably priced dinner. Recommended choices
would be ¾urek (a hearty, white borscht - pronounced "zhurek"),
goulash, Cracovian duck (with mushrooms or kasha), cabbage
pierogies, or fish soup with Viennese noodles and beer by the mug.
Cracow residents take pride in the fact that Vienna also has a cafe
called Haweˆka which was established by a relative of Antoni's,
Leopold.
Hawelka - Tetmajerowska - Polish, ***** Rynek Glowny 34, phone 4220631
A floor up from the above-mentioned locale is an exclusive and very
expensive restaurant with its own kitchen. The menu isn't all that
extensive, but it's a carefully chosen selection of Polish classics.
The service is excellent, plus they have their own wine cellar.
Kartagina - Tunesian Mediterranean, *** pl. Dominikanski 6, phone 4225227
An Arabian restaurant run by Tunisians. The locale is divided into
two parts; a self-service buffet bar, and a full-service restaurant
with waiters. The menu contains Middle-Eastern classics like:
Falafel, kebabs, brik, shalarma, spicy Merguez sausages, and several
types of cous cous. The self-service section also has a salad bar.
Na Wawelu - International, **** Wzgorze Wawelskie 9, phone 4116598, 4211915
The only restaurant on the Wawel Castle hill, located in a building
erected at the beginning of the 19th century by the Austrians.
Flagship locale of the Rotarians, Na Wawelu is an all but obligatory
item on the itineraries of visiting foreign dignitaries.
Uninteresting interior; the menu has French elements to it, having
been created by a chef from that country who ran the kitchen at one
time. Excellent perch-pike carpaccio, classic and very ample
chateaubriand with terragon colbert sauce. An extensive and
professionally compiled French wine list. Pricey. Open from noon to
8 PM; one can linger as long as one likes, but you have to get there
before 8, when they close Wawel Castle and you can only leave.
Nowina - International Polish, ***** Glogoczow, Dwor, phone 2731226
Though it's located just near the main Cracow to Zakopane highway
(or "Zakopianka", as the route is known here), it's unusually
picturesque here, the restaurant being located on the property of an
erstwhile country manor, surrounded by century-old trees. Renouned
for its cold meats, pates, lamb, vegetables (all prepared completely
by them). Unparalleled omelets with rum. Most of their
produce is grown by them locally. A recent addition to the menu is
roast pigeon, a rarity in Poland. Nowina recieved a "Zˆota Kawka"
nomination from the Galician Academy of Taste,
Orient Ekspres - International, ***** Poselska 22, phone 4226672
The strong point of this locale, the interior of which is set up to
resemble a turn-of-the-century railroad passenger car, is definitely
its desserts: Famous Hungarain Gundelpalacsinta (crepes with nut
filling in a bittersweet chocolate liqueur sauce), crepes with
butter-sauteed almond slivers, or typical French-style chocolate
creme. Before these, however, one can also check out their Flemish
beef (fried and smothered in beer and onions, served on toast
covered with dijon mustard), or flounder broiled in tomatoes and
garlic. A great spot for dog lovers, or a not-so-great spot for dog
non-lovers, as the owners' French bulldog can often be seen around
the premises. Orient Ekspres recieved a "Zˆota Kawka" nominations
from the Galician Academy of Taste in 1997, 1998 and 1999.
Paese - Corsican French, ***** Poselska 24, phone 4216273
A Corsican restaurant with a rustic tavern look on the inside. This
is one of the favorite dinner spots for Cracow's artistic Bohemia,
politicians, and aristocrats alike. Their guest book is literally
bursting with glowing comments and famous signatures from all over
Poland. One should try the mushrooms in bechamel sauce, garlic
soup, beef sirloin in roquefort sauce, and - absolutely - their
fresh seafood. The menu also offers Portugese-style baked sardines
and French-style deep-fried lobster. Ample wine selection at
reasonable prices, including Corsican wines. Reservations are
usually required, especially evenings and weekends.
Piwnica pod Ogrodkiem - International, Jagiellonska 6, phone 4216029
A pub located in a cellar, but which also sets up an open-air garden
in the courtyard of the building in the summer that is very popular.
An expansive food menu, the house specialty are Normany crepes
galette, made with buckwheat flour, with a variety of fillings.
Large selection of beers and other alcohols. Weekends feature live
music.
Pod Aniolami - Polish, ***** Grodzka 35, phone 4213999
Located in a piously renovated, very old cellar, once home to a
medeival alchemists' workshop. The walls are adorned with an
assortment of hangings and other articles from that period worthy of
a museum. Most of the cooking is done on a grill or in a Dutch oven
that stands in one of the rooms. The menu is Polish, but with a
distinct Podhale (the southern Tatra mountain region, home to
Poland's "g¢rale", or mountaineers) accent, as evinced
by items like grilled oscypek (pronounced "os-tsi-pek", a type
of smoked cheese), mountaineer-style rolls and
¾urek (a hearty, white borscht).
Redolfi - International French, Rynek Glowny 38, phone 4230579
Cracow's oldest confectioners' shop, taken over by the state-run
"Spoˆem" concern immediately after WW II, is thankfully once again
privately owned, though no longer strictly a confectioners' shop.
Redolfi now also offers light meals, drinks, and has its own outdoor
garden, frequented mostly by foreigners.
Szuflada - International, Wislna 5,
This place has good reason to define itself as a "surrestaurant", as
the decor is a mixture of the concepts of Salvador Dali, Max
Ernst, ans Kazimierz Mikulski. The food, however, fails to attain
such plateaus. Wide selection of spirits.
Taco - Mexican, *** Poselska 20, phone 4215441
Sister location to "El Paso", with a similar
menu, usually full of students and young people. If you ask, they'll
make you some really hot chili.
U Ziyada - Kurdish International, *** Jodlowa 13, phone 4297105
View-wise, this is Cracow's nicest restaurant/cafe location. Atop a hill
on the banks of the Vistula river in 1928, a renouned architect by the name
of Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz (renovator of the Wawel Castle) built a round villa.
During WW II the Germans erected a building styled after the Fuehrer's
alpine residence. The structures are currently owned by the Jagiellonian
University's Collegium Polonia, the restaurant and cafe are run by a
well-connected Kurdish gentleman by the name of Ziyad. A magnificent view
of the Vistula river, Tyniec and Bielany monasteries stretches out beneath
the terraces of the edifice. The menu offers Polish and, interestingly
enough, Kurdish cuisine.
Vega Vegetarian Bar - Vegetarian, Sw. Gertrudy 7, phone 4223494
The only strictly vegetarian locale in Cracow. Vegetables, tofu- and soy-based
dishes, bran muffins, fresh-squeezed juices, candles, live music on weekends.
Inexpensive.
Villa Decius - International, 28 Lipca 17a, phone 4253390
A deluxe restaurant, beautifully located in a meticulously renovated
renaissance villa which was once occupied by an Italian coutier to Queen
Bona, Justus Decius. The villa is surrounded by an old park in an elegant,
lush district of Cracow called Wola Justowska. The menu is a cosmopolitan
mixture of Polish, French, and Italian dishes, and the dining experience
is enhanced by renaissance music, which is played live.
Wentzl - Central European French, ***** Rynek Glowny 19, phone 4295712
A legend among restaurants in Cracow. The locale was established toward the
end of the 18th century, and takes its name from that of the original owner.
Nationalized after WW II, it functioned under the name "Pod Obrazem"
("Beneath the Portrait") due to the Baroque image of Mother Mary which
adorns the front of the building (the only building on the Main Square
that survived Cracow's great fire of 1850). According to an old Cracovian
saying, the two best places in the city to blow your horn (which in Polish
not only refers to literal trumpet playing, but also means "to have a good
time") are from atop the Mariacki Church tower, above the portrait, and
beneath it at Wentzl's. Famous for their trademark "Cracovian maczanki",
with is a type of meat-stuffed pastry smothered in onion/carraway gravy.
The locale was closed during the 1970's and recently reopened. The menu
harkens back to the Austro-Hungarian period with dishes like wienerschnitzel,
Hungarian-style perch-pike, goulash soup, crepes a la Gundel,
and - of course - maczanki. Weekends feature dancing with a live jazz combo.
Wentzl also boasts Cracow's only revolving dance floor, found downstairs.
Wierzynek - Polish, Rynek Glowny 15, phone 4229896
Though it cites a famous legend of a feast given in 1364 for five European
kings of the time by a Cracovian Burgher by the name of Mikolaj Wierzynek,
this locale in fact was established in 1945 and was originally called the
Tavern at Wierzynek's. Shortly thereafter the place was nationalized and
transformed into a showpiece for the Polish Peoples' Republic, where various
dignitaries were regularly feted. With the beginning of Poland's new era at
the beginning of the 1990's, Wierzynek found itself at the brink of bankruptcy
but, under new management, is presently getting back on its feet. A curious
footnote, however, is the fact that the restaurant is employee-owned.
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