This small dodgy, dive bar is known for its live rock and blues concerts (Thursday-Sunday), patient barmaids and plastered, hard-livin' local clientele who are never too shy to buy a sober stranger a drink. Smoky, steamy and frightfully claustrophobic, Awaria features a narrow underground corridor [...]

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Peer through the Stygian gloom and you’ll find a bar like no other. This cellar is a complete dive, complete with squelchy floors, a scrum at the bar and rude doodles in the grotty toilets. The crowd consists of local nutcases, students, backpackers and Goths, a bubbly mix that isn’t av [...]

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Self-assuredly cool and confident, Boogie exudes style with a glossy black and creme interior. Local jazzsmiths strut through sets on Friday nights in this intimate space where things start classy, turning downright silly as the night raves on. [...]

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To get the most out of Budda you need to visit in summer when adjoining courtyard gardens transform into an al fresco dance arena. On those chillier evenings make for the warmly lit crimson interior which comes illuminated by hundreds of flickering candles, while drinkers down potent concoctions under the conceited gaze of gold buddhas. Check out the unique mezzanine level for something a little different, while couples suffering a lull in their relationship should choose a cosy nook and study the wall paintings of randy Indian figures entwined in Kama Sutra embraces.   [...]

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Owned by two amiable artists, Cafe Szafe has a warm, inviting atmosphere unique to most Kraków bars - a trait which has endeared it to locals and expats alike. With a secluded back room that frequently hosts concerts, film and photography exhibitions, Szafe gracefully accommodates barflies and [...]

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Carpe Diem’s primary feature is a ceiling which does its level best to decapitate all those who visit. Survive this hazard and you’ll find yourself drinking in a typical cellar venue, this one with a half-hearted maritime theme that includes fishing nets, lanterns and a model galleon hanging precariously above. The bar staff appear grimly determined to keep the fridge unplugged at all costs.    [...]

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From the same team as the 'Be Retro' vintage clothing store around the corner, you would expect Color Spot to have a slightly more savvy sense of style. Full of plastic-looking wooden counters and tables, cheap white chairs and beige wooden panelling on the white walls, the design element most iron [...]

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Existing primarily to catch the run-off from Piękny Pies at about 5:00am (you can disregard the opening times we list), if you find yourself in DeCafencja you've truly gone the distance and deserve congratulations (and maybe just one more beer) if you're still standing. A one-room affair with temperatures reaching microwave levels, it certainly does nothing to deter creatures of the night from cramming in between the sidewalk giveaways that go for furniture. Here you'll find all manner of characters to engage in drunken banter or desperate flirting; keep your hand on your beer and your butt on the barstool and you're doing better than most. A sordid, laughable, yet lovable local institution.
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Café/bar crossover with a soulful vibe that makes it a sensible spot for conversation. Not a pissed backpacker in sight, and a light, airy atmosphere.

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If you find yourself being approached by a young lady or ladies taking an overactive interest in you and suggesting you join them for a drink, please be aware. While we do not wish to suggest that you are not the handsome dude that you clearly are, we have received increasing reports of incidents w [...]

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Cheekily stationed in the midst of Kraków's embassy row, the massive Irish MBassy is a popular place for weekenders and expats to get their passports punched and forget where they are. Numerous TV screens beam down live sports over three stories of original brick and gothic details, punctuated by sponsorship signage, sports and Irish memorabilia. Absolute madness during matches, the doe-eyed staff do well to keep track of the orders fired at them, while a decent line of pub grub - burgers and baguettes – makes this a one stop solution for a long night.
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Your standard Krakowian cellar bar in most respects, Re is a standout for two reasons. The first is its success in bring touring international acts to Kraków: some of the city's most exciting and memorable concerts happen at this small venue, including contemporary indy bands from America and abroad. The second is its beer garden, which at one time ranked as the best in Kraków, but has sadly been encroached on by the neighbouring English Football Club and Rooster. Still, this tree-filled courtyard is as pleasant a place as you'll find for a drink with friends on an amiable afternoon.
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A cultured cigar and piano bar, Le Fumoir’s art-deco interior is a perfect background to drink port and make important decisions. As you’d expect, impeccable service, cracking live music and a list of cigars from all corners of the world. Top marks. [...]

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Following their success in Poznań and Łódz, Lizard King has brought music to the masses of Kraków, largely deprived of a proper rock venue until now. Free entry to see their nightly noisy Polish rock acts has already made this place immensely popular, despite the expensi [...]

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Guests get buzzed through a glass door before being led down the stairs by a tall hostess who would be equally at home on the centerfold of a magazine. Supremely classy M Bar is a great detour from Kraków’s student infested cellar drinking pits, and the perfect escape from the stags that [...]

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A small, dingy, obscure locals bar, there's one reason and one reason only why you should visit Non Iron. Not the atmosphere, company, music or design, but for cheap, delicious beer. Here you'll find dark and amber ales from Kraków's old Smocza Jama brewery (13zł/litre), Kozel, and ot [...]

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Home to many things including a mediocre disco and an even less exciting restaurant, Panorama’s genius comes in the guise of offering perhaps the best view in Kraków. Assuming that the weather is being kind, the terrace perched up on top of the Jubilat shopping centre provides a wonderfu [...]

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One of the trendiest drinking dens in the Old Town, head to this unmarked first floor bar to feel like you're 'in the know.' Full of stylish haircuts and sexy dresses, Pauza twins as a photography gallery with perfectly illuminated high-quality exhibitions, making the hipsters feel justifiably art-smart. Furnishings are modern with low loveseats and stools and some enviable tables in the windows overlooking Floriańska. Despite an atrocious queue for the toilet and typically trendy house music, this is one of the best hangout spots in the Old Town.
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Comfortably off the Old Town high streets, Philo's polished woods, beige leather seating, beavy of bookshelves and top-mark house tunes played at chill-out volume attract a crowd of students and dropouts engaged in deep discussion while earnestly working their way through a pack of cigarettes. An ideal place to build your reputation as a hard-living intellectual.
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After a couple of refurbs, Pod Papugami has doubled its capacity, the upstairs has been beset by some fake brick finishing and brightened a bit, and though it may have lost some character, generally it now feels less like you're doing your drinking inside an ephysemic lung thn previously (not a bad trade-off). Over two levels full of wooden fittings, Irish bric-a-brac, plasma screens streaming sports, small barmaids, pints of Murphy's, Guinness and Kilkenny, and a billiards table in the poorly ventilated downstairs, Pod Papugami has a friendly sociable atmosphere beloved by lads and gentlemen alike. A great place to meet people and find out just what exactly 'the craic' is, PP actually captures everything we like about being in an Irish bar.
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Located in the Sheraton's magnificent showpiece atrium, QUBE is as sexy a spot as you'll find for a drink in Kraków, as you'll notice from the glass ceiling many stories above and the beautiful waitresses gliding around dispatching cocktails fixed by the expert barstaff. QUBE's real claim to f [...]

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There's a new sheriff in town. Evoking an American gold rush-era western saloon and cathouse in design, Saloon deftly avoids cowboy kitsch in favour of gold satin drapes, faux-19th century wallpaper, beige leather booths and dark stained woods. In terms of aesthetic they've nailed it, and you almost expect to hear bottles breaking and see pistols pulled over the honour of some busty Delilah. But time spent with a tumbler of whiskey at the bar has this outlaw wishing they pushed the concept even further, ditching the contemporary funk, hip-hop and pop dominating airplay and dolling the staff in their bordello, bandit and bankrobber best. Or just put a mechanical bull in the back and we're there every night. Ride 'em, cowboy.
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A wacky bar seemingly plucked from the pages of an Arabian Nights fantasy. Lose yourself in a maze of chambers, each boasting names such as The Sultan’s Room and Shisha Bazaar. There is a menu – pizza, pasta etc – but the real reason for visiting is the selection of water pipes; order one to your table and let the day slip away, mezmerised occassionally by the flash of a belly-dancing midriff.
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Nine plasma screens for live sports, friendly staff and a quality menu of bar eats that steers towards the Tex-Mex end of the spectrum make SPE an easy place to witness your 'down time' overpower whatever itinerary you thought you had in Kraków. The list of world beers goes above and beyond the usual choice of local liquids, and the American interior is a combo of Yank road signs and pics of rock’n’roll heroes. Though not open late, this low-key expat and itinerants bar is still your best bet for convincing the staff to help you watch your favourite MLB, NFL or NBA team in action.
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Krakow's only sailor bar could be best described in three words only: Never-ending drunken singalong. This smoky, candlelit ship-in-a-bottle is packed full of students and seamen on permanent shore-leave and the selkies, sirens and sea-wenches that love them. Surrounded by nautical knick-knacks, salty, sea-creased musicians sing shanties into the wee hours (particularly on Thursday nights) and fellowship is found at the bottom of every bottle. Our favourite pub/plank to walk. Fetch aft the rum, Marcin!
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Perhaps the most enchanting and laidback bar in the Old Town, Święta Krowa is an intoxicating alchemic elixir of alcohol, incense, candlelight, cloves and ambient eastern grooves. Hidden in a small, soulful brick cellar off Floriańska, The Holy Cow inhabits two oriental s [...]

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You will love the menu: a faithful reproduction of the Kraków transport map with station names replaced by drinks. Next stop, Herb and Honey Coffee? Located next to the US Consulate Tram Bar is alternative without going over the top; here you can escape the standard Kraków tourist crowd, [...]

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A basic cellar decorated with tatty brewery bumph and a giant Black Death Vodka pennant. The staff should be tarred and feathered: it’s the customers who should be immersed in conversation, not the barmen. Kraków has better bars. [...]

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Perhaps the only space on the Rynek to survive Kraków's tourist boom with its scummy integrity intact, Vis a Vis is a timeless local favourite unhesitantly happy to tell foriegners to piss off while indulging pensioned Polish drunkards until their heads hit the beermat. Sadly forced to inflate to 8zł a pint, this is still the cheapest drink on the Rynek, making its outdoor tables the first you should look for a seat in before sending your most competent compatriot to fetch a drink inside the small stool-laden bar where watching the local barflies makes for an intriguing social study. One of the few remaining remnants of the 'real Kraków' that the Rynek has left. [...]

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