Best cocktail bars in Krakow: six rooms worth the night

Krakow's drinking reputation is built on cheap vodka and student bars, and plenty of the Old Town still trades on it. Underneath that, though, is a real cocktail scene: speakeasies behind unmarked doors, bartenders who ask what you like instead of handing you a menu, and drinks that would cost twice as much in Western Europe. This guide is six rooms where the cocktail is the point, split between the Old Town and Kazimierz, ordered by how good the drink is once you weigh the room around it. For the wine version of this night, see our wine bars guide.

Mercy Brown

The marquee cocktail bar in the city, on ul. Straszewskiego at the western edge of the Old Town by the Planty. Mercy Brown pairs serious drinks with music and a room that fills with people who came to drink well rather than cheaply, so it earns the highest rating of the six. Dress the part and book at weekends. Close to the Old Town cafes if you want to start earlier.

William Rabbit & Co

The best speakeasy in Krakow, in Kazimierz on ul. Bożego Ciała, entered through doors you have to know about. There is no fixed menu worth reading: you tell the bartender what you like and they build it. It is the drink-and-secret-room experience done properly, not as a gimmick. Part of the Kazimierz night.

Mr. Black

A minute from the Main Square and almost nobody finds it, because it is up several flights of stairs off ul. Szewska with no fuss at street level. What waits at the top is a dark, low-lit cocktail room that is quiet when the square below is chaos. Worth the climb for the drinks and the calm.

Movida Cocktail Bar

The reliable classic, on ul. Mikołajska just off the Small Market Square. Movida has been making the standards properly for years, without the theatre or the secret door, and that is exactly its appeal. When you just want a well-made negroni without a performance, this is the room.

Forty Kleparz Restobar

Cocktails in a restored 19th-century fort north of the station, with a large courtyard terrace and live music through the warmer months. This is the one for summer, or when the group is too big for a small bar, and it doubles as a kitchen if the night needs food. In our Kleparz guide too.

Hevre

Cocktails under the faded frescoes of a former prayer house on ul. Beera Meiselsa in Kazimierz. Hevre is as much a room as a bar, all high ceilings and worn walls, and it works from coffee in the afternoon to drinks late. You come for the setting, and the cocktails are good enough to keep you there.

How to plan a cocktail night

The two districts are ten minutes apart, so a good night uses both. Start with a classic at Movida or Mr. Black near the Main Square, then walk to Kazimierz for the William Rabbit speakeasy and a last drink under the frescoes at Hevre. Mercy Brown is the one to build an evening around if you only pick one. In summer, Forty Kleparz and its courtyard are worth the short walk north. Cocktails run 28 to 45 PLN, and most rooms fill after ten at weekends, so go early or book. See how it all connects on the food map, or pair it with the wine bars.