Warsaw in Winter: What to Eat and Drink to Stay Warm

Warsaw in winter is grey, cold and dark by four in the afternoon. It’s also when the city eats best. Polish food was built for exactly this weather - sour soups, slow stews, dumplings, hot drinks with something stronger stirred in. Here’s how locals get through November to February, and where to do it yourself. If you want the short version in one evening, our Warsaw food tour runs all winter, and most of it happens inside warm restaurants and bars.

Start with soup. Always.

In Poland soup is not a starter you can skip. It’s the first course of a proper lunch, and in winter it’s the reason to have lunch at all. Four to know:

• Żurek - sour rye soup with white sausage and a halved egg, often served inside a hollowed-out bread loaf. Tangy, smoky, filling. The single best thing to eat on a cold Warsaw day.
• Grochówka - thick split-pea soup with smoked meat. Polish army field-kitchen food, and it tastes like it in the best way.
• Flaki - tripe soup with marjoram and black pepper. Not for everyone. The people it is for will tell you it cures everything, including last night.
• Pomidorowa - tomato soup with rice or noodles. What every Polish grandmother makes on Monday with Sunday’s broth.

Eat where the city eats: milk bars

A bar mleczny (milk bar) is a subsidised canteen left over from communist times, and in winter it’s the warmest room in town. Steam on the windows, a queue of pensioners and students, a handwritten menu, a bowl of soup for the price of a coffee. Order at the till, take your number, collect at the hatch.

Bar Prasowy on Marszałkowska is the modern, tidied-up version; Bar Mleczny Pod Barbakanem near the Old Town walls is the one that hasn’t changed in decades. Our milk bar guide has the full how-to, including what to say at the counter.

The heavy hitters

Winter is when Polish menus stop pretending to be light.

• Bigos - hunter’s stew of sauerkraut, fresh cabbage, several kinds of meat and dried mushrooms, cooked for hours and better on day three. Every family argues theirs is the right one.
• Pierogi - in winter go for the ones with sauerkraut and wild mushrooms, or fried ruskie with crispy onions. Our pierogi guide lists where to find the good ones.
• Golonka - roasted pork knuckle with horseradish and mustard. Order one for two people. Then regret not ordering one each.
• Placki ziemniaczane - potato pancakes, fried crisp, served with sour cream or under a ladle of goulash.

Hot drinks, Polish style

This is where winter in Warsaw gets genuinely fun.

• Grzaniec - mulled wine with orange, clove and cinnamon. Sold from every Christmas market stall and most bars from November.
• Grzane piwo - mulled beer, served hot with raspberry syrup and spices. Sounds wrong, tastes right. Ask for it in any pub that looks like it’s been there a while.
• Herbata z prądem - literally “tea with electricity”: black tea with a shot of rum, vodka or a fruit liqueur. The Polish mountain-hut classic, now in city bars too.
• Nalewki - homemade-style fruit and herb liqueurs (cherry, quince, walnut, honey). Sipped, not shot. Our vodka tour pours a few alongside the classic vodkas.
• Hot chocolate at E. Wedel - the Pijalnia Czekolady on Szpitalna has been pouring thick drinking chocolate for generations. A queue in December is normal.

How to plan a winter day around food

Daylight is short, so use it for walking and save the evening for eating. A rhythm that works:

• Late morning: walk the Old Town and the Royal Route while it’s light.
• 1-2pm: soup and a main at a milk bar. This is the Polish main meal of the day.
• 4pm: coffee and cake, or hot chocolate at Wedel, as it gets dark.
• Evening: a food or drinks tour, or a long dinner with zakąski and vodka. The city lights make the walks between stops the best part.

Dress for it: proper shoes, a hat, layers. Inside, every Polish restaurant is heated like a sauna, so the layers come off fast. And if you’re here from late November, the Christmas markets add a whole extra layer of eating - more on that in our next guide. Until then, see what’s on our winter food tour or browse 20 Polish dishes worth trying.