What to eat in Warsaw
Four dishes eaten every day in Warsaw, and the milk bar where all of them fit on one table at a subsidised price.
- Żurek
- Sour rye soup, white sausage, egg
- Pierogi ruskie
- Potato and cheese dumplings
- Kotlet schabowy
- Breaded pork cutlet
Warsaw eats in a milk bar day to day, and the menu is the same in every one: żurek, pierogi, cutlet, gołąbki. The institution survived a post-1989 decline and a 2011 funding cut, and today it's state-subsidised again. Prices for the milk bar, a restaurant at night and a street kiosk are set out below, with each dish.
Sour rye soup with white sausage
Żurek is a soup based on soured rye starter, cloudy and tangy, with a piece of white sausage and half a hard-boiled egg. It's served as a hot starter or a light meal, in milk bars and in almost every restaurant serving Polish food. A bowl is €2.88.
Potato and cheese in dough
On the same menu as żurek sit pierogi ruskie, boiled dumplings filled with mashed potato and white cheese, served with melted butter and fried bits of bacon on top. 'Ruskie' in the name points to Ruthenia, a historical region that covered south-eastern Poland and western Ukraine, where the dish comes from. A 250-gram portion is €4.31.
The breaded cutlet
A third dish on the same table is kotlet schabowy, a pork cutlet pounded thin, coated in breadcrumbs and fried. It's Poland's answer to Wiener schnitzel and the usual main course of a set lunch. A 140-gram portion, without sides, is €3.31.
Cabbage rolls in tomato sauce
Fourth comes gołąbki, cabbage leaves wrapped around minced meat and rice. In Warsaw they're usually cooked in tomato sauce, without sauerkraut. A 200-gram portion is €3.42.
Where all of this lands on one table, cheap
All four dishes are on the menu of the milk bar (bar mleczny), a Polish institution from the mid-twentieth century. It's a state-subsidised open-counter canteen, where you order at the till and eat at a table with no table service. The subsidy keeps the price down, so a two-course meal with kompot is €5–10, and the kompot alone is €0.80.
A restaurant at night, or a kiosk on the way
Move from the milk bar to a restaurant with table service and dinner is €11–28, depending on whether it's one course or three. Something quick on the way comes from a kiosk, where kebab in a wrap or a roll is €4.35–6.15. The same kiosks usually also sell zapiekanka, a baked open baguette with mushrooms and cheese.
Before you go
Short answers to what people ask most before setting out.
Do gołąbki always come in tomato sauce?
In Warsaw, usually yes. Elsewhere in Poland the same rolls are also served with sauerkraut.
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