The Best Bars in Zielona Góra, Poland

Prywatka is a gem of a bar and a real taste of old fashioned times in Poland. This could be classed as a vintage ‘PRL Style Pub‘, owing its interior décor to days of yore. Adorning the walls are all sorts of relics and paraphernalia. To match this feeling that you have gone back in time, the prices for drinks and bar food are surprisingly low. To top this all off, the bar is situated as central as you can get – it sits in the old town square, the Stary Rynek of Zielona Góra.

A classy basement joint serving typical Polish beers on tap mixed with a hearty pizza menu make Piwiarnia Warecka a favourite for live sports, mingling with friends and forgetting about work. The downstairs venue has no windows, so time appears to be of no element. The walls are covered in old newspaper cuttings and photos, and the bar has Wi-Fi.

On a prominent corner just opposite the main train station in Zielona Góra sits the Hotel Retro. However, the hotel has a swanky bar on the ground floor on the corner that is open to the general public and has an exquisite food menu with typical Polish options. It is a very friendly bar with a pleasant waitstaff in a cosy setting. For a treat in winter, try the grzane piwo (hot beer) accompanied with some traditional Polish food such as the golonka z pieca (oven-cooked pork knuckle) or the pierogi z mięsem (Polish meat dumplings).

Another bar in the centre of Zielona Góra that is a modern day throwback to the Communist era is Czar PRL-u. This venue is round the corner from Prywatka, and you could argue the bars are rivals. This doesn’t seem to stop either of them from filling up at weekends. The difference with Czar PRL-u is that it has outdoor wooden benches in a beer garden and an emphasis on live sports, most recently martial arts. Czar PRL-u has a good bar food menu, which includes local pierogi (Polish dumplings) and tatar (steak tartare).

All good Polish cities need a decent Browar (brewhouse), as this is where you can sample the best Polish craft beer as well as a wide range of exported beers. While a few such establishments exist in Zielona Góra, Minibrowar Haust seems to be the most well known, the most professional and certainly one of the most popular. Beers on tap are often changing, but try and catch the porter, the Snotgreen, the Piwonauta or the Victoria if you can. To keep your stomach well fed, good pub grub is available with both Polish and international options on the menu.

Advertising itself as an artistic beer basement, Kawon is a bit of a treat. It is a large basement bar that hosts concerts and parties and is one of the city’s premier venues for live music. When concerts are on, there are tickets issued and a special area for the performers. The bar is always well stocked with local and international beers, wines and spirits.

Polish people love a good shot of vodka. Polish vodka, of course, not Russian. So while touring the bars of Zielona Góra, look out for the Lucky Shot Bar. Here you can pop in for a while to drink beer and the odd shot. Or you can simply use it as a quick stopover on a pub crawl to neck a few shots. The range of shots is predictably large and mostly vodka-based. The shot range contains flavoured Polish vodka such as cherry, lemon, raspberry and the famous Zubrowka (grass from Bison fields in northeast of Poland). The bar also has a green beer and some delicious cocktails.