Editorial
Warsaw's bar scene caught up with Western Europe somewhere around 2018, lapped its expectations by 2022, and is now arguably the most underrated cocktail capital between Berlin and Tokyo. Cheaper than Vienna, more technically interesting than Prague, and with a Polish-spirit programme that finally takes wódka and nalewka seriously. Below: 10 rooms.
Polish drinking culture had to invent itself twice in 35 years — first after 1989, then again after 2010 when the global cocktail wave reached Central Europe. Warsaw caught both. The city now hosts one World's 50 Best entry (Backroom Speakeasy), the best wódka programme on the continent, and a Praga district that has become Central Europe's most-watched neighbourhood transition.
Śródmieście (downtown) has the cocktail rooms — Backroom, El Koktel, Hash, Drugie Dno. The polished, tourist-accessible side of Warsaw drinking.
Praga (across the river) has the soul. Wódka Café, Setka, Klubokawiarnia, plus a dozen other rooms that didn't make this list. Cheaper, less polished, more interesting.
Powiśle splits the difference. Riverside walk, mixed crowd, the bridge neighbourhood between the two.
Wódka comes in two categories: clear (Wyborowa, Belvedere) and flavoured/aged (żubrówka with bison grass, krupnik with honey, śliwowica with plum). Setka and Wódka Café walk you through both.
Nalewka is the homemade fruit-and-herb infusion category — every grandmother makes one. Backroom's nalewka cocktail programme is the easiest international entry.
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