Earlier this year I happened to see the headline of an online article saying that Warsaw was the up and coming place for vegan eating in Europe. So what better way to spend my 27th birthday than taking a weekend in the cold capital of Poland?
I have really tried to find that article about vegan eating in Warsaw, but in vein. Maybe I dreamt it, but if I did, that means my dreams were telling me the truth because being in Warsaw was like walking on vegan clouds.
Despite it being early October, arriving to Warsaw was almost like going into the future to December. It was freezing. So the first thing we did was to go and buy some warm gear so that we could walk around and explore the beauty of the city without getting a cold. (I’m not going to lie - there were a lot of shopping happening on my end. I just couldn’t resist that feeling of happiness when realising how much cheaper everything is here than back home. I’m so grateful I didn’t pay for checked-in luggage, cause then I probably would have no savings left)
Warsaw, or Warszawa as the correct way to say it is, has been called a phoenix because of its way of recovering from major horrendous events and attacks from other countries, again and again.
After seeing the beautiful sculpture of a mermaid by the river going through Warsaw, I read a beautiful story about the myth of how Warszawa got its name. There was a fisherman named Wars, who threw his nets into the water of the Vistula River. He tossed the nets deep and when he went to retrieve there was a wet wench. He couldn’t believe it when he realised that she wasn’t any lady though, she had a tail with fishy scales and Sawa was her name.
Because of its eventful past, Warsaw occurs to be a bit of schizophrenic city, The architecture is amazing, and you’ll easily spot cool new high buildings and on the next block there’s abandoned old buildings that looks like homes for ghosts.
The most notable and impressing of them all, is the Palace of Culture and Science. For just 20 zloty we went up the amazing palace one night and the view was magical.
Compared to London, Warsaw seemed so empty of people. There weren’t many crowds to bump into people with every step you take and I couldn’t believe how clean the streets were downtown.
We had a great time just strolling around the city spotting cool street art and the many sculptures living here, along with so many soya lattes that I’ve lost count for how many I had this weekend. They were lush everywhere we went and it was great that every cafe we went to had soya milk available.
The people we spoke with, whether it was cafe, restaurant or clothing store staff, or random people we bumped into on the streets, were all really nice. Most of them seemed nervous and excited at the same time to speak English as well.
It’s hard to resist having a few pints while in Warsaw. It is ridiculously cheap and there are bars and cool looking pubs on almost every corner. We accidentally ran into this local square with a few different cool bars in the middle of the city and tasted some different polish beers.
There isn’t that much to do around Warsaw in winter, (in summer you could always chill by the beach close to the city center!) but we managed to keep ourselves busy. I went for a polish yoga session in Yoga Republic one day and we spent a lot of time in Warsaw Old Town - number one thing to do in Warsaw according to TripAdvisor.
Old town is so different from the city central and when we got there it was as if we had found where all the people were. But there were just tourists.
The big square and the view from here was stunning and the buildings, the little polish stores restaurants and bars looked impressive.
We stopped of at an Irish pub here one night to enjoy some very tasty polish beers and listening to funny live music.
On a tiny square, behind the St John's Cathedral you can find the Wishing Bell. This was the perfect way to start my birthday as it is said that of you make a wish by the Wishing Bell - it will come true! (I am still waiting to see if this is true or not)
Later on that day for my birthday we had booked massage and spa treatment at Relax In Spa. It was the best thing we did on this trip, escaping the rain and just be totally relaxed in a spa with a glass of wine and the most amazing massage.
It is safe to say that veganism is a big deal in Warsaw. Apparently it has just been a vegan explosion within the last couple of years as more and more vegan places have popped up around the city.
I was told that there is a famous vegan local blogger called Marta Dymek Jadlonmia. So it definitely seems like veganism is a local trend, especially since most of the vegan restaurants and cafes are located in an area of the city which not that many tourists visits if it’s not for the vegan goodie treasures.
But even if you don’t have the energy to try to find the pure vegan restaurants you can be sure to find falafel and hummus almost anywhere you turn.
Me and Guy spent 2 and almost a half day in Warsaw and visited 8 different restaurants, and there were much more to explore if we would have had a longer time in the city. These are the places we had time to pay a visit to -
Tel Aviv Food & Wine
This little fine dine restaurant used to be vegetarian but turned all vegan a few months ago, hurrah! There is English menu available and both the staff and interior was lovely. It felt very fancy sitting there.
They serve all the Israeli food you can imagine and the best part is that they all day breakfast is available. I also noticed there were gluten free options available.
We started off with some freshly squeezed juices and after carefully choosing between the many different juice choices I went for plain grapefruit juice, so lovely and refreshing. To eat, I had the classic Israeli breakfast dish Shakshuka for the first time in my life and it was really flavourful. Although I wish it had been more tofu involved. It wouldn’t really have filled me up if it wasn’t for the bread.
Guy went for the chorizo, which came with mayo, spreads and bread and it was amazing. I definitely regretted my choice. (Which is why I’m happy to have a boyfriend who is happy to share his food).
Vegan Pizza
Just a two minute walk from Tel Aviv we found pizza paradise. It’s a small pizza place which does both delivery and take away and they have menus in English. The staff was great and even gave us a Vegan Pizza sticker each to “take home to London and show everyone!”
Though they are closing at 11pm usually, we had our pizzas to take away as they were closing for the day 20 minutes after we ordered.
The menu was almost overwhelming. You can choose gluten free or wheat pizza base and then there is so many different options for toppings. I wanted the tuna pizza but they were out of the tuna, so instead me and Guy shared two very rich flavoured, thin crisp chorizo pizzas - one with mushrooms and a garlic sauce base and the other with tomato base.
The one with garlic base was so creamy and nice, but after two slices it was almost too much with the very creamy cheese on top. So the one with tomato base was my favourite. It was not hard to smash those pizzas in one go.
Momencik Vegan Burritos & Tacos
As the name suggests - burritos and tacos. What could go wrong here?
This little street food gem is on the same street as Tel Aviv and Vegan Pizza, but we walked passed it a few times without noticing because of the small sign outside and the fact that it didn’t look like there was anything down there in the basement venue at first glance.
It’s not my favourite place we went to and I couldn’t really understand the hype about it. The food was really good, the nachos that came with lots of cheese and soy mince melted perfectly in my mouth and the chocolate milkshake went well with it. The burrito that Guy had was really tasty as well, but the whole atmosphere in here made the experience less amazing. I don’t know if they usually have music in the background, but they didn’t when we were there and it just made it feel like I was sitting in a library.
If it’s one thing I don’t like about restaurants is when there is just silence and everyone can listen into each others whispery conversations.
Krowarzywa Vegan Burger
I would have no clue of how to pronounce the name, but Krowarzywa apparently means “the cow is alive”, which made me fall involve with this place even before we visited. They have two locations in the city, one of them just of the busy main street, again very close to the other vegan restaurants above.
It is said that this burger joint competes with Momencik of the best vegan fast food in Warsaw. I think it’s safe to say that I would be team Krowarzywa.
This whole thing a choosing became a challenge again. Whole wheat or gluten free bun, different burgers to choose between, two sauces of your choice and whether to add cheese or not.
After having the top Fergburger in Queenstown, New Zeeland I didn’t think that I was ever going to find a burger as yummy and juicy as that one - until I had my tofu burger with pickles, mayo and dill in Warsaw. I’m glad I didn’t order fries, because I was stuffed after that monster of a burger.
Mango Vegan Street Food
Another famous vegan street food chain in Warsaw is Mango vegan street food. Cool fact about this place, which you could probably figure out by the name - everything on the menu has something containing mango. Although my first impression was that it should have been Falafel Vegan Street food, because it seemed like the majority of the items on the menu was falafel.
My crazy hunger decided to go for the falafel plate. A bold move for me since that came with 9 falafel balls, flatbread, mango chutney, mayo and a spicy dip. I couldn’t eat even half of it before I was absolutely stuffed. But the falafel balls were really great and having a falafel brunch it was a great way to start my birthday.
Guy had the quinoa burger with the most amazing melted vegan cheese.
Lokal Vegan Bistro
If you go to Warsaw, promise me that you find Lokal Vegan Bistro. This was my favourite restaurant we went to. The food is meant to be a vegan copy of traditional polish food, which is a great way for vegans to explore the polish cuisine which is usually just meat and cheese otherwise.
The English copy of the menu was lost without a trace when we were there, but the very kind man working there translated the whole menu to us. We had the schnitzel with mashed potatoes and mashed pumpkin and it makes my mouth watering by just the thought of it. I couldn’t even finish my mango lassi that we had with the lunch because I was so stuffed that I almost had to roll out of the restaurant.
Very busy place and I am so glad we were lucky enough to get a table so we didn’t miss out on this vegan piece of heaven.
Edamame Sushi
A restaurant with a menu full of only vegan sushi. Do I need to continue? This was the obvious choice for me for my birthday dinner.
We ordered a few different types of sushi, a few pieces with tofu and avocado, a few with tofu and eggplant and a few plain avocado. The whole presentation of the sushi was amazing, pink rice and even the ginger and wasabi looked impressive.
Vege Miasto
Another birthday treat was our visit to this funky cafe and restaurant. We sat a table that made us feel like we were mannequins.
We didn’t come here for, what looked like, amazing food - it was the cakes the got my attention. Just a short walk from Old Town and from making my wish at the Wishing bell I could finally have my birthday cake. There were so many to choose between in the counter. Unfortunately for us, all in polish, so we just trusted our eyes when we made our choices.
The best out of the two was the one with caramel topping that was almost like a chocolate caramel cheesecake. Honestly, christmas in my mouth. The pieces were huge and left us feel very satisfied in that oh so sweet way.
