Desperately seeking boozin' in Kraków, Poland

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Many of the city’s key restaurants are equally well hidden. Though Wierzynek, the most famous restaurant in Kraków and open for an alleged 500 years, is a huge, three-floored presence on the main square, others require more gumshoe work to locate. Chlopskie Jadlo on Grodzka, one of a small chain of traditional Polish ‘peasant food’ restaurants, is virtually signless and windowless: customers push open a heavy wooden door to find themselves in a rustic den of stone walls and wooden benches. A café off the main square on Mikolajska, recommended to me by a group of students from the city’s Jagiellonian University, didn’t seem to have a name at all, and could only be found by following an alleyway toward another restaurant (the Pizzeria Cyclops) and trusting to luck.

After a hearty, cheap meal of Polish bosi (stewed cabbage, pork and mushrooms in a bread bowl) at this latter café, I walked south of the Old Town to Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter. In Kazimierz, nightlife is very different. If the main square is suited to detectives and drinkers (oh, and stag-weekenders), Kazimierz, site of the annual Jewish Cultural Festival (June 24- July 26 2006), is the place for couples, conversation, and a quieter night. In recent years, trendy bars and cafés have sprung up around the main square, Estery, providing a more inviting – and visible – cluster of bars for those wary of the Old Town’s trial-and-error trail.

Sat in a snug, candle-lit bar on Estery called Alchemia, I decide that Kazimierz is better suited to my civilian ways than the Old Town. No unmarked stairwells, no creaky iron gates, no Bond villain bouncers. And no detective work required.

Getting there
EasyJet flies from Luton, Liverpool and Bristol to Kraków from £40.98 return inc taxes. Book online at www.easyjet.com or call 0905 821 0905.

Stay at
HotelClub.co.uk offers nights at the Amadeus Hotel in Krakow from £125 per room per night including breakfast. To book visit www.hotelclub.co.uk.

Where to go
Alchemia, Estery 5 (00 48 421 2200).
Chlopskie Jadlo, Agnieszki 1 (00 48 421 8520).Pizzeria Cyclops, Mikolajska 16.
Tram Bar, Stolarska 11 (00 48 423 2255).
Wierzynek, Rynek Glowny 15 (00 48 422 9896).

Tom Lamont
Time Out London Issue 1861: April 19-26 2006