The Best Late Night Bars in Warsaw, Poland

Taking its name from the New York skyline, Manhattan is a real surprise for anyone who finds it. Hidden shyly on the right-hand side of Warsaw’s popular Pawilony zone, this is a gem of a place to party until the early hours of the morning (it stays open until the last guest goes home). With a cosy bar area, staff that play music requests and good prices for quality vodka shots, this is a superb bar to mingle in. Manhattan attracts a good mix of Polish locals and tourists, and it has a downstairs seating area to cope with the weekend overflow of customers.

The eponymously named Bar Warszawa offers cracking views of Warsaw’s Old Town. From the front, you get a view of Plac Zamkowy, which is where the Royal Castle and Zygmunt’s Column sit. The venues is split into four parts: the outdoor beer garden (summer only), the main bar, the upstairs bar and the back bar. All four locations offer good Polish food and drinks, all through the night. On weekends, there is live music and you can basically keep drinking until the sun comes up, as long as there are other customers to drink with.

A little hidden treasure across the river from Warsaw’s Old Town is Bazar in the up-and-coming Nowa Praga (New Prague) district. Bazar, which is in a renovated building, advertises itself as the only place on this side of the river where you can get food and drink twenty four hours a day on the weekends. This means you can grab a 4 a.m. shot and a bit of Polish food from the diverse menu. The bar itself also specialises in whiskey and cocktails. The staff members are very welcoming and speak good English.

Piw Paw has three venues and all of them have long operating hours. However, for the late night pub crawlers, or those just out of a nightclub who want that final beer before going home, the Piw Paw on Foksal is a great spot. This cosy venue has over 70 beers on tap, bar snacks and beer bottle tops decorating the walls. It is open 24 hours except for certain holidays.

Trusted cheap Polish bar chain Pijalnia Wódki i Piwa also has several venues throughout the country’s capital. Locals will be aware that no matter how empty or closed these venues appear, they are open all day and night, every day of the year except for public and important holidays. Head to the cosy Pijalnia Wódki i Piwa on Nowy Swiat (New World Street) for vodka, beer, coffee and any cheap drinks and snacks you happen to require late at night. Beers cost as little as 4.50 złotych (£1 $1.40).

Meta is a special bar that warps you back in time. With posters and newspaper cuttings from Polish history adorning the walls, relics hanging from the ceiling and cheap drinks, this is a quirky bar that stays open long into the night. There are a few Meta venues in the city, as it is a chain, but the cosiest is perhaps the Mazowiecka location, which also has a room out the back for those who smoke.

For something a bit out of the ordinary, head to Tramwaj 107. This is a bar with a tram theme. Warsaw has always been a city with consistent and well functioning trams (in Polish tramwaj), and this bar celebrates that fact. It has different ‘lines’ on its menu based on what food or drink you are ordering. It has an outer area and an actual old tram at the front. There is good Polish pierogi and vodka served here, and you can watch sporting events on their televisions. Its location next to Świętokrzyska Metro Station also makes it an extremely handy meeting place or late night drinking den.