The food of Podhale: where to eat in Murzasichle and around

In Murzasichle itself

Koliba in Murzasichle is the nearest address and the first one we give guests asking about dinner after they arrive. Highland cooking in its classic form, without experiments.

U Studniara and U Wdowca are two inns proven over the years. Both go for the same thing: large portions, regional dishes and prices that do not surprise you when the bill comes.

U Góralki serves home cooking in a highland version, good for when you have had enough of generous inn portions and simply want a solid lunch.

A little further, but worth it

Skupniowy Upłaz is an inn on a trail, so it is best combined with a walk in the mountains rather than driven to specially for dinner.

Le Chalet offers cooking in a more modern form. A good choice for an evening when you want to eat somewhere calmer than an inn with a band.

Karczma Watra is a category of its own. You go there not only for the food but for a highland dance evening with live music. An atmosphere hard to copy anywhere else in Poland.

Karczma u Wnuka, the oldest restaurant in Zakopane

If you are to eat in Zakopane only once, eat here. Kościeliska 8, a quarter of an hour by car from Murzasichle, in a building that is itself a listed monument.

The house was built around 1850 by Józef Krzeptowski and was the first two storey building in Podhale. The inn has been running in it since 1870, and the name everyone knows today appeared in 1907, when Krzeptowski's granddaughter married Jan Wnuk. The same family has run the place ever since.

This is not an inn built for tourists. Tytus Chałubiński, Helena Modrzejewska, Kazimierz Przerwa Tetmajer, Jan Kasprowicz, Władysław Orkan and Wincenty Witos came here, the people who invented Zakopane and made it famous. The walls and the furnishings remember those days, because nobody replaced them with styled copies.

From the menu it is worth taking the kwaśnica on smoked meat, served in a clay bowl with the name of the inn burnt into it. With that, grilled oscypek or trout. Book ahead, especially at weekends and in season, because the room is small and fills quickly.

When the children have had enough kwaśnica

After three days of regional cooking every child reaches a moment of rebellion. Then there are Pizza Mondo and Pizzeria Murzasichle, both on the spot, both with delivery or takeaway.

There is no shame in it. After a week of oscypek we reach for pizza ourselves.

What to order to eat properly like a highlander

A few dishes worth knowing if this is your first time in Podhale.

• Kwaśnica on smoked meat, a Podhale soup made from sauerkraut, a meal in itself
• Moskole, pancakes made from boiled potatoes, best with garlic butter
• Grilled oscypek with cranberry, a classic, but order it where the cheese is real
• Bundz and bryndza, sheep cheeses milder than oscypek, excellent at breakfast
• Trout from a local farm, a lighter alternative to the meat classics

How to spot a tourist trap

Three warning signs that work across Podhale. A menu in five languages with large photographs of the dishes. A tout at the entrance. A card twenty pages long, because no kitchen does sixty dishes well.

The reverse holds too: a short menu, the hum of locals at the tables and having to wait for a seat are usually good signs.

We will book a table

In season, at weekends and over the holidays the inns can be full. If you tell us a day ahead where and at what time you want to eat, we will call and book a table. It is one of those things that is easier to arrange from here than from the other end of the country.