Winter is over, it’s time to leave your house. I realised that I have not been anywhere, not counting business trips, from the start of the year. So when I found out that some of my friends are planning a trip to Poznań to go for a concert, I decided to tag along. Only instead of listening to music I decided to focus all my energy on eating and taking photos of the city. So here’s an alternative guide I prepared for you based on my two-day experience in Poznań.
In this blog post you’ll find some suggestions on what to see in the city of Poznań, where to eat a delicious breakfast, and where to go for a great dinner. I recommend a few places with good coffee and delicious cakes and a bar/restaurant with a great garden which we did not want to leave for two days straight. There’s also the address of the only dinosaur in Poznań hidden somewhere in this post. Interestingly, I will also tell you where NOT to stay overnight, if you value the quality of sleep and peace of mind. There’s also tons of photos because I felt really inspired once I finally left my ‘winter cave’. I hope they’ll inspire you to plan a little weekend trip to Poznań.
Practical information
Let’s start with the least exciting stuff and get it over with. We went to Poznań by train. In Poznań we walked a lot, but as I sprained my ankle two weeks prior, we also heavily used public transport, which in Poznan is very well organized. For a weekend getaway, I recommend you a two-day ticket (48 hours) which costs 21 zł (5 euro). You can buy it, for example, in the mobile app JakDojadę, which I always use when I travel around Polish cities by public transport (Google maps don’t work that well in all of the cities when it comes to bus routes, etc.)
As far as the accommodation goes, I do not recommend the place we stayed at. Moon Hostel might have a great location (right next to the Old Town), but it’s impossible to get a good night’s sleep because of that. Our windows overlooked the courtyard where there is also a Brazilian pub. People where talking loudly for majority of the night. However, I have a feeling that the guests of our hostel where even louder than the pub’s regulars. There were sounds of drunk people yelling until 7 in the morning when I was already up and ready to leave to take some pictures before the rest of the world woke up. On the second night of our stay, some people were even kicked out of the hostel for causing trouble. My advice is: stay away if you can.
What to do in Poznań?
If you’re like me and you’re willing to give up a few hours of sleep to take some photos in the morning light, than I recommend you o for an early morning walk around the Old Town. Fortunately it’s not summer yet, in a sense that I only had to leave my hostel at 7, not 5 a.m. At this hour I only encountered two other photographers and a bunch of garbage trucks. No one else. I enjoyed walking around, checking out little streets adjacent to the main square. I even managed to find a perfect blossoming tree that helped capture that spring feeling. There’s also a cool Golem monument (sorry, no article in english), that looks different from every angle, located nearby.
Another place popular among tourists is the Palm House. Thats the placce to go to if you want some instagrammable pictures. There’s lots of different exotic plants, some colourful birds, butterflies and a separate space entirely dedicated to underwater life, where you can see some creepy fish.Plus there’s the ne and only dinosaur, I mentioned above, hidden beneath one of the trees. Have fun looking for it!
I encourage you to check out the Palm House as it was one of my favourite spots in the city. Plus it’s a rather cheap attraction. You’ll only pay 12 zł (3 euro) for a ticket, and entrance for kids is even cheaper. What I would say hovewer is that it’s better to go on a weekday if you can. On the weekends it gets really crowded and you might have some trouble taking pics and enjoying this place in peace and quiet. Just remember that the Palm House is closed on Mondays.
Breakfast time!
Enough of all this walking around. Time for some food! So let’s start with breakfast options. As I was in Poznań only 2 days I did not manage to visit more than two restaurants to check out their breakfast menu, but the ones I did visit are really great! We started off with a feast at Ptasie Radio. It’s a unique place unlike any other I’ve ever visited. There’s amazing retro atmospehere, vintage decor such as old bird cages and there are also clouds underneath a ceiling! And all this is hidden inside an old tenement house which adds to the authentic character of the place. But what’s even more important is the food, which we really liked. We decided to order four different options and share, to try as mny things as we could. We went for classic scrambled eggs, pancacakes with parma ham and maple syrup, as well as two different version of their bagel – one served with salmon and the other one with fried cheese and mushrooms.
The next day we planned on checking out either Weranda or Lavenda, but it turned out their fully packed on the weekends. So remember to book your tables beforehand. After our first ‘table failure’ we did call in advance every time when we knew we wanted to visit a certain place next, but in the case of those two it was all booked a day ahead. Finally we ended up at Kuchnia & Mech restaurant, which is located very close to our hostel so we kept passing it everytime we were going somewhere. It turned out you don’t have to go far to find amazing food in Poznań. Once again all of the breakast options were amazing. And they were all served with a delicious homemade bread that we’ve fallen in love with. What I liked best was a shakshuka (even though the consistency is quite weird and runny) and a sandwich with beetroot and cottage cheese.
The best food in the world
Whoever made it this far in this blog post deserves a reward. So here it is! My personal recommendation for the best place in the whole Poznań – Gescheft restaurant, where we spent two evening in a row, because we simply didn’t want to leave. But first I have to mention Yetztu ramen shop as it was partially responsible for us finding Gescheft. Here’s how it all went down. My friends really wanted to try ramen at Yetztu, as it is said to be one of the best in the whole country. I didn’t care as much as I’ve been there before (I remember that ramen was ok, but I don’t really remember more so it couldn’t have been that amazing, or maybe it was just on this day, who knows). This time we weren’t lucky enough to have some ramen. When we arrived at the restaurant it was packed to the brim and another group of 6 people just arrived. We decided that we’re too hungry to wait that long and walked all the way back to our hostel looking for another place to eat at. Somehow we didn’t like anything on our way. I think it was faith. On the street next to our hostel we finally stumbled upon Gescheft and it was love at first sight!
The menu at Gescheft reminds me of one of my favourite fusion restaurants in Warsaw – The Cool Cat. There’s quite a lot of creative dishes, inspired by all things Asian. But the staff and the garden hidden behind the restaurant makes it even better than The Cool Cat, to be honest. The food is just as good. We tried their udon (I’ve been thinking of it for the past few days, while writing this blog post, I need a delivery ASAP!), curry with chicken, their original ramen-type soup with coconut milk, a double katsu burger with Japanese pork chop with crunchy panko and, my favourite of them all, norikatsu, which was the same pork chop as in the burger, only served on rice, with sweet sauce and marinated ginger with a hint of horseradish. Delicious! We did try their kimchi as well, which was really good. We were thinking of ordering K-fries, but it was pure greed. We were full already. Plus the portion of fries is enormous!
Gescheft is also a good place for a drink or a beer. They have quite a selection of craft beers. The next day we came back specifiacally for a jug of Aperol Spritz, that the waitress told us about. It’s 1 liter of goodness. Maciej tried one of their coctails as well and definitely recommends the one with passion fruit. All in all Gescheft is amazing and I’ll definitely come back there as soon as I can.
The next day we craved some pizza so we checked our options. Turned out that the place with the best rating that was also close enough was Przyjemność, which means pleasure. And I must admit that their pizza definitely can be a source of pleasure. We tried four of them: Summer Thai’gherita, a classic with an oriental twist; Ninja Turtles with pepperoni and Tallegio cheese; Spicy Blue Wave with burrata and nduja and the weirdest one of all – Mac’n’Cheese pizza. I wasn’t the biggest fan of that last one, but the rest of the group loved it, so it’s a matter of personal preferences.
What you have to take into consideration when planning a meal at Przyjemność is that it’s a very popular place meaning a) table reservation is definitely needed and b) you might have to wait for a long, long time to get your food. We waited 1,5 hours, but we were warned by the staff that it will take that long. It was fine with us as we weren’t really hungry, plus it was a lovely warm day and we had a table outside, so we just enjoyed sitting in the sun and drinking liters of white wine (perhaps one too many).
Coffee break
Sometimes we did need a little break from all this food, then we just went for a coffee. Sometimes a piece of delicious cake as well 😉 We started off our coffee adventure at Szop cafe. ‘Szop’ means raccoon and that’s exactly what this place is all about. At least on social media. The owners of the cafe have a cute little raccoon and they sometimes bring him with them. We were not lucky enough to get to meet the cute animal, but maybe that’s for the best, actually. I’m not sure how I feel about making a business around an animal, especially a business such as a cafe, where lots of people come and want to play with said animal. Maybe I just feel passionate about it because raccoons are my favourite animals and I hope to get one someday as well. I can already see him destroying my apartment 😀 Anyways, Szop cafe is great, even without a raccoon. The coffee is really good, the place is not big but cozy. Unfortunately they did not serve breakfast on the weekend so we only grabed a cup of coffee each and carried on with our hunt for food.
The place I liked the most, as far as the cafes go, was Vandal Cafe. There used to be a clothes shop as well (I think, I might be wrong), but the room was empty when we went there. I don’t know whether the shop is permanently closed or where they just changing the stock. It’s worth visiting Vandal purely for the coffee anyway. Well, maybe for the interior pics as well, since it’s really cool and original. But let’s get back to the coffee. I wanted to go for my usual favourite, tonic espresso, but I was encouraged by the barista to try something new – espresso with fresh grapefruit juice. I have to admit, it’s a revelation. I’ll be recreating it all summer long! Be sure to visit Vandal on your way back from the Palm House. It’s really close and there are some amazing old buildings on the way.
We loved a dog-friendly cafe called Taczaka 20 (it’s the address of the place) as well. The interior is cool, minimal and trnedy. There’s a bicycle above the counter. The staff is lovely. The coffee is good. There’s amazing light inside, so you might want to stop by and read a book or a magazine when you get tired of walking. But the best thing about this place are the delicious cakes! We’ve tried every cake they hd available that day. All were great, but the one I chose was definitely a winner. I’m already looking for recipies to make it at home. It was a vegan cake made from dates, coconut milk, chia seeds and mango. Fresh and not to sweet. Perfection!
I did cheat a lot, because I’ve been to Poznań on a business trip a few months prior, so I decided to include the few places I managed to visit then in this blog post. One was Yetztu, where I went for ramen, and the other one was a great and cozy Cafe La Ruina. In there you’ll immidiately feel the globtrotter vibes , mostly because of a huge old map on the wall. I guarantee you that you’ll think of your next trip while drinking coffee there.
See you next time!
Two days is deffinitely not enough to see everything that’s worth checking out in Poznań, so I’m hoping to come back as soon as possible. Expect a second part of this guide than 😉 I’ve got a long list of places that I wanted o visit that I didn’t have time to this time, including Porta Posnania which seems like a really cool tourist attraction. We’ve been wanting to go for some crazy ice cream at Fudge Filosophy, as well as some cereal goodies at CornAir. I’ve also tried to get some food at Raj, since I’ve heard how delicious everything they serve is, but somehow it was always closed every time I was in Poznań. So those are some more places on top of my ‘must-see’ list, be sure to check them out if you’ve got some more time. And do let me know in the comments what you thought.
As usual, there is more pictures in the ‘Cityscape’ portfolio HERE. Look for Poznań between Budapest and Vienna. Consider it a new map of the world 😉
