When I was five years old, my family moved to Warsaw, Poland. The Berlin Wall had come down a few years earlier, and Eastern Europe was flush with the promise of capitalism. When we first arrived in the early ’90s, grocery stores had bare shelves and restaurants were few and far between. But in the five years we lived there, we watched the city evolve.
Now, 25 years later, the city has blossomed into one of the most exciting destinations in Europe, full of fascinating museums, avant-garde art galleries, Michelin-starred restaurants, and luxury accommodations. For years, Warsaw has been billed as an “up-and-coming” destination. I think it’s finally arrived.
An Old Town Rebuilt from Rubble
The first place most tourists will visit is the Old Town, which was almost completely razed in the aftermath of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. In the years after World War II, the Old Town was rebuilt from scratch, using photographs and paintings as guides. Today, the area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that’s home to museums, galleries, souvenir shops, cafes, and the Royal Castle. My first stop was a visit to the Museum of Warsaw, which tells the story of the city through everyday objects. It’s a fascinating exploration of Warsaw from the Middle Ages to World War II to the Soviet Era to today. Next, I wandered through the tiny Pharmacy Museum and Museum of Literature before stopping for a beer at U Fukiera, one of the cafes lining the main square with a menu of traditional Polish food.
Polish Cuisine Reimagined
When we first moved to Warsaw in the ’90s, Polish restaurants seemed to serve mostly variations of cabbage and pork, accompanied by a single boiled potato and seasoned only with a handful of parsley. (To this day, I still have an aversion to parsley.) School lunches were borderline traumatizing—I will never forget the all-too-frequent days where they served breaded fish and rice (not so bad) drowned in sickly sweet strawberry syrup (horrifying).
But the city’s restaurant landscape has progressed over the years. Now, chefs are using traditional Polish flavors in modern ways. At Dyletanci, the tasting menu features typical ingredients—horseradish, beets, kohlrabi, mushrooms, and trout—presented in the form of new and inventive dishes, highlighted by global influences like saffron, Roquefort, and truffle. At Bar Rascal, a hip natural wine bar with over 450 bottles on its wine list, I paired beet labneh and trout roe with a glass from Kamil Barczentewicz, produced just two hours from Warsaw.
Food halls are also having a moment in Warsaw. All over the city, from hipster Praga to the riverside promenade, former factories and warehouses have been turned into multi-venue dining hotspots. At Kozyki Food Hall, Ćma is a 24-hour restaurant by chef Matteusz Gessler. There, classic recipes like schnitzel, pierogies and potato pancakes get a modern upgrade. But one of my favorite meals in Warsaw was a classic: tableside steak tartare and vodka martinis at U Wienawy, an old-school brasserie.
Farm-to-Table Vodka
In Poland, vodka is more than just alcohol. An hour and a half from the city, a visit to the Chopin Vodka Distillery is a lesson in Polish history and resilience. The family-run operation uses potatoes from neighboring farms to create a premium vodka shaped by the terroir. While I thought good vodka was meant to be neutral, that’s not the case here. In the Willy Wonka-esque laboratory, master distillers at Chopin work with flavor and texture to create a nuanced and layered spirit. Throughout my stay in Warsaw, vodka turned every gathering into a celebration. It’s a point of national pride—many claim vodka was first invented in Poland, not Russia.
The Most Glamorous Hotel in Poland
Warsaw was once called “the Paris of the East” because of its grand architecture and elegant boulevards. Today, that moniker is a bit of a stretch—the Soviet-era buildings erected after the war have little resemblance to the original city. But there are some exceptions, including the Hotel Europejski, first opened in 1858. The building was burned down during the war, but was later rebuilt. In 2018, it reopened as the Raffles Europejski Warsaw, a place where old-world elegance meets contemporary panache. The art-filled hotel is home to a sumptuous spa, a chic bar that buzzes with stylish locals, and spacious suites that come with butlers that can plan tours of the city in a vintage Fiat, book concert tickets, or just run you a bath. A great hotel serves as more than just a place to sleep, and here, it felt like the keys to my room were the keys to the city.
Warsaw After Dark
Praga, cheekily referred to as “the Brooklyn of Warsaw,” is a gritty neighborhood known for edgy street art and music clubs like Hydrozagadka and Chmury, which host an eclectic mix of DJs and musicians. I had a memorable night out that began with a classical music concert at Fryderyk Concert Hall, followed by dinner at Klub Spatif that turned into drinks and dancing to soulful R&B. (I highly recommend making a late dinner reservation at the bistro and seeing where the night takes you.) If you’re after something a bit more refined, the plethora of venues inside the Palace of Culture and Science (Kulturalana, Bar Studio, Studio Teatr, Teatr Lalka, Pietro 6) offer something for everyone.
Warsaw is a great city for cocktails, too. At Long Bar inside the Raffles, I sipped a “Polish 75” (a French 75 made with the hotel’s custom blend of Chopin Vodka). We also managed to snag a sought-after reservation at El Koktel, where the friendly bartenders mixed up quirky and implausibly delicious drinks made with untranslatable ingredients.
Chic Boutiques
Warsaw is full of great souvenirs—handmade pottery and amber jewelry from the shops in Old Town, or vintage posters from Polish Poster Gallery, to name just a few. But there’s also plenty of great fashion to be found. Mokotowska Street is the hub for this, full of cool shops that capture the essence of Polish style: a little bit sexy and a little bit punk. Just a few blocks had me coveting all sorts of things, including embossed leather purses at Chylak; wool coats at 303 Avenue; lingerie at Wasalaa; slinky frocks at Undress Code; funky knits at The Odder Side; silk scarves at Lilou; vintage jewelry at Jagg; and perfume at Mo61. Magda Burtrym (by appointment only), is the designer’s stylish atelier, a treasure trove of exquisite dresses, purses and shoes.
Art on the Front Lines
Great art is often borne from tragedy, so it’s no wonder that Warsaw’s devastating past has brought about a renaissance of contemporary art. Last year, the Museum of Modern Art opened opposite the Stalin-era Palace of Culture and Science. My visit coincided with the Kyiv Biennale, featuring heartbreaking and hopeful pieces that explored themes of colonialism, cultural identity, and life under occupation. As Poland faces an uncertain future under the threat of war, the contemporary art scene seems to channel those anxieties.
At Foksal Gallery Foundation, I browsed painter Agata Słowak’s Oxytocin show. The disturbing (yet thought-provoking) paintings blend historical motifs with scenes of violence and eroticism. Nearby, a student show at the Academy of Fine Arts was full of freaky sculptures and experimental artforms.
But I didn’t even have to leave my hotel to see great art. The Raffles is home to 500 contemporary artworks, with site-specific installations as well as paintings and photographs displayed throughout the public areas and guestrooms. (Non-guests can organize a tour with the hotel’s curator.)
Throughout the city, art is spray-painted on buildings and plastered to walls. I spent much of my time admiring the wheatpaste posters and making plans to visit for the next International Poster Biennale. The streets that once stood in ruin now hum with creativity, flavor, and life.