Best places to eat in Gdansk
Like every large European city, Gdansk has a wide variety of food to offer. If you have a lot of money to spend, there are plenty of high-end restaurants you may visit. If you are on a tight budget, still you can find places with plenty of dishes to choose from. So, if you are wondering what the best places to eat in Gdansk are, and have a dilemma about where to eat in Gdansk, below you will find the answer – our suggestion of the best restaurants in Gdansk.
Food halls in Gdansk
Food halls are a new concept in Gdansk, but you probably know it from other European cities. This is a common area with plenty of different bars around. This is a great place when you want to dine out with friends, but each of you would like to eat something entirely different.
There are four food halls in Gdansk:
Slony Spichlerz (Chmielna Street, near Motlawa river) offers 9 different bars, serving burgers, fish, ramen, noodle, sushi and more. Prices here are slightly higher than in similar bars in the city.
Stacja Food Hall (Kilinskiego Street, Gdansk Wrzeszcz) – this one is bigger and offers a greater variety of food. It is located on the second floor of Galeria Metropolitarna and offers almost every type of food, including some local (Kashubian) cuisine. Prices here are a bit cheaper than in the city centre. It is one of the best places to eat in Gdansk Wrzeszcz.
100cznia and Ulica Elektrykow Food Halls are a bit further from the city centre, in the remains of the former shipyard. It is a great place to go to on a warm evening, as all the restaurants have an outdoor only area (100cznia) or the food hall has no heating facilities.
Where to eat in Gdansk – Fast Food in Gdansk
You didn’t come to Gdansk to eat at McDonald’s or KFC, did you? You can find both in the city centre, but without a doubt, it’s kebab that is the most popular fast food in Gdansk. But don’t expect it to be similar to those that you might have tried in Turkey or any Arabic country. What you get here is usually a bread roll with meat (usually chicken, sometimes lamb), salad and lots of sauce inside. You will kebab bars almost everywhere, but the most popular are those in Szeroka, Rajska, Kolodziejska and Targ Drzewny street. Kebab usually costs 20-25PLN.
Best restaurants in Gdansk – Milk bars
Where to eat in Gdansk if you are on a tight budget? Milk bars are a communist relict, though they still work quite well. The government used to subsidy food here, but now they frequently work as regular bistros. The price is still an advantage here, as well as the variety of dishes offered. There are no waiters, no menu and no alcohol here. Prices are often listed on the wall (don’t expect to see any English here), and you can see the food before it is served. You will get some dishes as you order them, for some of them you need to wait, usually no more than 5–10 minutes. But don’t expect that someone will bring it to your table – you need to listen to the ladies shouting that your food is ready. Milk bars serve traditional Polish cuisine: soups, pancakes, dumplings, meatballs etc. It is unlikely that you’ll pay more than 20-25 PLN here. The best recommendation is the queue in front of the bars, but don’t worry – everything goes really fast.
There are two milk bars in the city centre: Bar Neptun is located in Dluga Street, while Bar Turystyczny is located at Weglarska/Szeroka corner. One more bar like this (though not exactly a milk bar) is Bar Familijny Kos in Tkacka Street.
Mid-range restaurants
Among dozens of mid-range restaurants in Gdansk we can recommend at least three. Pyrabar (Garbary Street) has its roots in Poznan, where people cal potatoes “pyry”. Pyrabar offers a good choice of dishes with potatoes as base vegetables. But that doesn’t mean that their menu is boring – just the contrary, though to appreciate it completely you need to speak Polish – the translated menu doesn’t reflect the ideas. Main courses cost up to 35 PLN (soups about 12 PLN), and their size is more than enough to fill your stomach.
Another restaurant – Mandu – is located opposite to main railroad station in Gdansk – at Elzbietanska Street. It offers a great variety of dumplings – typical to Poland, but also for international cuisine. Although Polish dumplings are delicious, I was disappointed with Georgian Chinkali – they didn’t look or taste like those in Georgia. There is another Mandu restaurant in Oliwa (Kaprow Street). In both locations, it is likely that you will need to wait for the table.
Gvara is another restaurant that I can recommend, it is a bit more expensive, though. They are located on Chlebnicka Street. Their menu is simple, and most dishes cost no more than 50-60 PLN. I recommend their dessert – Gvarne cake.
Best restaurants in Gdansk – High-end restaurants
There are so many high-end restaurants, that it is difficult to recommend any in particular. But as Gdansk is situated by the sea, and close to Kaszuby region – rich in lakes and rivers – we would opt for restaurants that offer fresh fish. Those would be both Tawernas (Powroznicza and Targ Rybny), Zafishowani Restaurant (Dlugie Pobrzeze) or Bar pod Ryba. If you don’t fancy fish, there are many restaurants with international cuisine: Thai (Szeroka street), Russian (Ogarna street) or Argentinian (Szewska street) and many more.
Ritz Restaurant – founded by a Polish Master Chef winner (Szafarnia Street) – offers a 7 – courses tasting menu for 359 PLN, while at Fino restaurant (Grzaska Street) you’ll get a tasting menu for 335 PLN.
Best cafés in Gdansk
I wouldn’t pretend I have been to half of cafés in Gdansk – there are simply too many of them. But I’d like to recommend the one that I like:
πkawa, or Pikawa (Piwna street) is one of the most popular cafés in Gdansk – it’s not unlikely to wait for a table here. They offer a great variety of coffee tea or chocolate and delicious cakes.
