Starka Restaurant

Starka Restaurant is famed in these parts not only for their sumptuous Polish cuisine, but also for their head-spinning brand of vodkas, such as cranberry or ginger flavour, concocted on these very premises. The restaurant's atmosphere is classic old Kazimierz, with warm red walls covered by Zille paintings setting the perfect tone for pleasant meal. On the menu are treats such as sour rye soup, sauteed wild forest mushrooms on toast, as well as a succulent marinated pork neck. Patrons can round off their meal with traditional Krakow cheesecake or delicious Polish apple pie. Reasonable prices, free WiFi access, air conditoning, and children friendly make Starka a fantastic addition to the Kazimierz gastronomic scene.

I adore this place. Wonderful vibe, new menu which is slightly more expensive than the old one is superb and the food never disappoints. My favourite dishes are fried camembert and salmon. For the dessert - creme brulee.
Top place.

Fantastic food and staff. I cannot recommend this place highly enough - and I have eaten in an awful lot of restaurants in Krakow! Try the salmon with pistacchio or the duck is always excellent. Sernik (cheesecake) is an outstanding dessert. Most importantly, the waiters are genuinely friendly and welcoming. Just go!

Always great food and friendly service. I have been several times and always had a good meal.

This was an ideal place for our group's last night in Poland - quality food and interesting surroundings all rounded off with a Mad Dog vodka! A memorably evening in Krakow

In first days of August I was walking around Kazimierz to see the district and find a place where to dink something. I've found Starka restaurant by chance, and I've immediately loved the atmosphere there. It was so nice and relaxing that I went there for all my dinners.
What to say about the home made flauvored vodka? No word it must be tasted :-) Really a nice place and nice staff and I've enjoyed the conversation with the two guys there...unfortunately I don't know their name ( so stupid I've not asled them )but they made more pleasent to spend time in Starka. Hope to return soon in the wonderful Krakow and spend another night at Starka.

We found this restaurant through this site, and decided to visit. It was well worth it! Not only did we have a super meal, with very warm and friendly service, but we also discovered a side of Kazimierz that we had not seen before. The street the restaurant is on has lots of interesting shops and bars to have a look around. Galleries too. We loved Starka and we recommend it to all your readers. Joanna and Keith.

Fantastic food and service - as always. Highly recommended.

We went to Starka twice - beautiful setting, warm and very friendly service, the food is of very high quality, and the prices,,, to call them fair would be an understatement. In a word - FANTASTYCZNY. Thank you!

Went with friends on the last Saturay in Feb, was rather dissapointed, Starter of Mushrooms and toast overpriced , we also sent back the apple pie, we had heard so many good thing asbout Starka maybe just a bad night

An excellent place to eat in Kazimierz. No hesitation in recommending it.

I went there for a pre Christmas Eve dinner and loved it. I had a superb mushroom soup and a fish for a second dish. Both were outstanding. Also the atmosphere was beautiful - relaxed yet the service was very professional and friendly. I also tried some flavoured home made vodka
( nalewka) and that was a killer too:)

... and this place is designed by one of the most famous wroclavian architector, Mr Andrew Pospiech.

I love this place! I've been there couple of times and I enjoyed it every time! The food was great and the staff very friendly and helpful. You can tell that people who work there are passionate about it. It's more than just a restaurant. Will come back for sure!

Excellent food and very helpful service. Try the delicious duck if you can, and the mushroom soup. Homely atmospher. Full marks!

On our recent visit to Krakow we ate at Starka twice - we went back a second time because we enjoyed the first meal so much. There is a short menu but everything we tried was excellent. The vodkas are fun too. Very good value for money.

Following previous reviews I ate here (on my own) on Friday night and the staff were welcoming enough and were relatively quick in seeing to me and again reasonably attentive. The food was lovely, sausage to start followed by the rabbit and finished with some apple pie, all of which was perfect in my opinion. I tried the raspberry vodak too and that was pretty good as well. I would recommend a visit.

I went to Starka in April, with my wife. I would reccomend this restaurant to anybody who visits Krakow. The food was excellent at a very reasonable price, so much so that we returned a couple of nights later. The vodkas are fantastic, many different flavours. The host, Joanna, greeted and served us, with a friendly smile, nothing was too much trouble. In fact, one of the dishes, chicken with mashed potato was excellent. I have since e-mailed her to find the recipe for the gravy so i can do it myself, and within a day i have had a reply, with the full recipe! Brilliant service and after-service. Thank you

Went as a party of 10 and it was no trouble to them at, service with a smile throughout. I went for the 2 course lunch and although not huge it was certainly enough and absolutely no complaints at 18zloty. We all ordered different things but everything thing came out at once. The home made coconut and almond cake with baileys and coffee filling was beautiful. I have no hesitation in recommending this place and the food.

Excellent food. The duck was delicious, and everyone in our group had good sized portions. Service was 'relaxed' shall I say - not overly slow or anything, but 'in good time' and actually I liked this as the whole meal did not feel rushed. Happy to recommend.

Good food, worth the wait (not busy but we waited longer than expected for starters). Pork Sirloin was excellent for both of us although they did not have any dumplings? Sampled 4 different vodkas each, 1 of which was on the house, all very good. Very reasonably priced for 2 starters, 2 mains, 1 bottle of good white wine and 6 vodkas all for just under 200 Zloty. Would recommend to anyone to try and we would visit again

Dear Steve,
Yes, we're reading all co mments! Thank you for visiting STARKA and we invite you again for our home made vodka. If it isn't possible please contact me at joanna@starka-restauracja.pl, and Gabriel(he makes all vodkas) and I will send you a bottle for sure. All the best!
--Joanna
P.S. - thank you for the idea about selling the vodka bottled. I'm sure I can set a more reasonable price for the future :)

Like many other reviews on this page I couldn't really fault anything about Starka. Over two nights we tried 4 different main courses, a starter and a soup - everything cooked perfectly and nothing left - a real credit to the chef. We liked the Honey and Thyme flavour vodka the best, but the others are all good too :) I just couldn't understand how quiet the place was, when it's this good.

Only shame is they only offer the vodka in 1 litre bottles (at 200zlotty each!) to buy to take home. Owners: If you read this, make up a more sensibly priced selection box so we can remember the good times!

It's fancy, but not chique (so do not feel hesitant to enter). The food is well presented and tastes very good. Overall the price is surprisingly low for this quality. You can get a lot worse for this money in Cracow!
The restaurant not hard to find. So it surprised me that we were the only people in the restaurant (Thursday night).

For your main course, I can recommend the pork tenderloin. For desert, the apple pie.

we went on may twice, and we were impressed for the good food, reasonable price, charming atmosphere and very friendly staff

Stumbled across this wee bar. Fantastic vodkas - raspberry was my fav. Great beetroot soup and dumplings which I am still savouring the taste off. Very good and perfect for a winter afternoon of nibbles and nice drinks.

We went to Starka on the last night of our short break in Krakow. We had checked the menu on an earlier stroll through Kazimierz and returned to try the food - the restaurant was convenient for a concert we were attending. The food was excellent - the best of the restaurants we had tried during our holiday. The staff were professional, friendly and knowledgeable. The food was imaginatively presented, and the price was very reasonable. Only sorry we didn't have time to return for a second meal - or to try that impressive range of vodkas. We will definitely pay a return visit when we next travel to Krakow.

I went to Starka on the last night of my visit to Krakow based on the recommedations found on this website. I wasn't diasappointed. Lovely food, big portions, great staff. The place had a relaxed atmosphere and the staff were really friendly and welcoming. Oh, and the vodka was excellent! Really glad we went, and will definitely go back again if we return to Krakow.

Bumped into this restaurant purely by luck. We couldn't stay long as we had to catch our flight back to the UK.

Tremendous interior and well presented and cooked food at a reasonable price. Will be back for the full experience later this year.

Fell across this gem by accident and returned another night it was so good. Quiet intimate environment with pleasent and engaging staff. The food was lovely, well presented and good portion size at a reasonable price. We were not hurried between courses but attended to at reasonable time intervals. Well worth a visit.

We went in here by chance as it was a Saturday night and we hadn't booked anywhere so a lot of places were quite full. Starka is situated just round the corner from the courtyard where some of Schindler's List was filmed in the Jewish quarter. The restaurant was virtually empty with only one other couple having a meal which was surprising as the decor and atmosphere were great for a couple looking for good food. We had some fantastic vodka cocktails and ordered a selection of starters as we weren't enormously hungry. All in all the food was great though, presented well and sizeable portions, very tasty and left us feeling sad that more people hadn't spotted this as a good place to eat.