Eating and sleeping in Warsaw
A lot of my travel meals are so basic that some of you might not call them meals. Still, I did go to some restaurants in Warsaw, most importantly for traditional Polish food. I didn’t seek out any vegetarian options although I’m sure they are available in the growing local food scene. At the recommendation of a young woman at my hotel reception, I joined both townspeople and other tourists at Dawne Smaki where I got sour rye soup and the best pierogis of both 2016 Poland trips trips and all the cities I visited.
Delish!
I chose four pierogis, one each stuffed with cabbage, duck, veal and mushrooms. And the sour rye soup was loaded with potatoes and sausage. I also got a surprisingly good daily lunch special at the National Museum café one rainy day. But maybe I like the bar młeczny – milk bar – best. These are communist-era holdovers which I have read are disappearing. Too bad. For those of us without Polish grandmas, it might be as close to everyday Polish home cooking as we’ll get. At my local milk bar, I ordered at the counter, retrieved my food when it was ready and bused my own table.
My local Milk Bar
My “local” attracted all kinds of customers, and you can even reserve a table there as I saw by a homemade “reserved” sign one day. The food is plentiful, tasty and almost insanely inexpensive. The tricky bit is figuring out what to order since everything on the board in my milk bar was in Polish. I’m sure there’s a posh bilingual bar młeczny somewhere, or take a chance and point at the menu or someone else’s tray.
Apart from that, I had nice sandwiches and pastries from bakeries and picked up salads and sandwiches from grocery stores (the bakery sandwiches were lots better). Check TripAdvisor, Like a Local, Warsaw in Your Pocket or your favorite travel guide – there are lots of restaurants with good ratings, and the lists include some milk bars.
As for hotels, all the brands are in Warsaw and there are other lodging options including apartment rentals and Airbnb. Although it’s not a money-saving choice, my “home away” in Warsaw has been the InterContinental Hotel. I’m treating myself, of course, but I like the hotel, the location, the reception staff and concierges, and I can have the hot or cold breakfast of my choice (which costs extra) at the hotel’s superb buffet overlooking the Palace of Culture and Science. If that building doesn’t appeal, sit on the other side of the table. There’s usually a harpist playing at breakfast so all my days started well. (See my post “In defense of travel breakfast!”)
To get around, I walk and use public transportation – buses and trams as well as intercity trains – and the InterContinental and other city-center hotels are a short walk to the Centralna train station where along with the trains, several bus lines originate. There’s a metro station close by, too. Depending on my plans, I bought day or multi-day transit passes from a machine at Centralna. Easy. The big Złote Tarasy shopping and entertainment center is in the next block from the hotel. I was there at least once a day to meet needs from wool socks to desigual tops to groceries, or to get to the train station via the indoor route. Handy. Across the expanse of the Palace of Culture and Science there are other familiar stores and a TK Maxx (TJ Maxx to us English speakers), another Marks & Spencer, and other stores which also came in handy. Use the underpass to get across the busy Marszałkowska Street.