The 10 Best Cafés And Teahouses In Kraków

Bunkier Cafe protrudes elegantly from the side of Kraków’s famous Bunkier Sztuki Gallery. While the interior is a charming conglomeration of quirky antiques and reclaimed timber tables that’s truly worthy of the contemporary exhibitions next door, the real pièce de résistance here is the garden area, which fills with tea drinking locals during the summer and transforms into a heated enclave of coffee aromas during the colder months of the year.

A plethora of dusty antiques, dim lighting, scrawled graffiti art and flickering candles, Antycafe on central Sławkowska Street is the Old Town’s answer to Kazimierz’s iconic Alchemia bar, although set to sepia tones and funky music, and perhaps leaning a little more towards brooding black coffees than heady Polish beers. The resident crowd is varied and eclectic, ranging from introvert book readers who conceal themselves between the shadowy alcoves, to tight-jeans hipsters and backpackers. Inside there’s also a large smoking area and plenty of bar side seating.

Leave your wallets at the door for your trip to Café Fińska, because this one’s hailed as the first free café in all of Kraków. Something of a bohemian art experiment gone wild (Fińska was actually created as part of the city’s annual ArtBoom Festival), payment here is made with creative contribution, discussion and participation, rather than with cash. Feel free to leave your mark on the ever changing array of graffiti art, sculpture, portraiture and poetry that abounds throughout Fińska’s small rooms, or perhaps even join in with one of the regular performance workshops, book readings or debates that take place in the tight-knit joint on Józefińska Street in Podgórze.

Drawing brilliantly on the Jewish roots of Kraków’s old Kazimierz district, this elegant and intriguing coffee house entices passers-by with a cozy interior of plush furnishings, packed bookcases and strong coffee aromas. It’s actually run under the patronage of the city’s Jewish Culture Festival Association, which is why the menu includes traditional Finjan-style brews and an array of Middle Eastern mezze dishes. What’s more, guests can expect some of the best coffee beans in the city here, sourced from a local seller and cooked up by Cheder’s in-house team of professional baristas.

Hidden in the gloomy basements below the cobbled lanes of Kraków’s central Old Town district, this curious little tea house does well to transport drinkers to the serene and soothing surroundings of the Orient, with slouched cushions for seats and the twanging tones of Chinese bamboo wind instruments and bowstrings echoing throughout. Behind the small, mahogany bar, a staff of tea enthusiasts are at hand to help you choose the perfect tipple, with box upon box of chai, green leaf, black leaf, oolong, matcha, herbals and yerba mate just waiting to be brewed.

The chosen meeting point of expats, Erasmus students and language teachers Kraków over, Les Couleurs brings a dash of Parisian charm and elegance to the bohemian heart of beatnik Kazimierz. Inside, a mix of beaux arts and art deco decorations are set over several disjointed spaces, ranging from the hazy smoking area out front, to the covered conservatory towards the back. Naturally there’s a real wealth of coffees on offer, all brewed in seconds by the masterful hands of trained baristas, while tea, beer and some sweet cakes are also on the menu.

Very much one of the new breed of Cracovian hipster places to drink, Tektura is a stripped down coffee bar with oodles of green tea, chai and a menu of healthy salads, sourdough sandwiches and homemade cakes. The interior is a uniform array of square tables and comfy sofas, anchored on a large social drinking area, which is often found laden with Macintosh-touting yuppies lost in their work. What’s more, the location on Krupnicza Street on the edge of the Old Town makes this one a great choice for anyone looking to escape the overtly tourist cafés of the centre for somewhere at the heart of one of Kraków’s most burgeoning of coffee streets.