C.K. Browar

A little bit hidden but when you go down the stairs place is huge very good beer and food overall was good,but there seems to a be a problem at times in Poland with service which was indifferent. Think next time well just go for the beer which was good. A lot of fruit infused beers.

 

Was unable to get into Swiat Piva on Sunday, but a block away was this place. Not a bad substitute.

CK Browar has a small, street level food and drink bar (if you just want to grab a beer and a plate of pierogis), but the real.show is downstairs. The brewery has a good size beer hall, in an informal setting. It really seemed like a great place to hang out and have a few beers and a bite.

Service was OK. Our waiter was friendly and attentive, and food and beer came relatively quickly.

The beer selection was a bit confusing initially. There's a beer card on the table that lists the current beers being made, but the actual taplist was on the wall. Today they had around 8 or 9 beers on tap, running the gamut from wheat beers, dark and light lagers, to a DDH hazy ipa. I ordered a dark lager and hazy ipa, just to see what the brewer was capable of. The dark lager was quite good, while the ipa sucked. Should have stuck with the lagers.

As for food, it was pretty good. My wife got the potato pancakes while I got the pierogis trio. The pancakes weren't bad, while the pierogis were quite good.

I think the total cost for everything was just under $30. In other words, pretty reasonable.

This is a pretty decent place that I wouldn't mind visiting again.

My wife & I stopped by for dinner and few beers.

We went on a Friday and as we walked down the stairs, we were met with the happy conversations of students who were done for the week. They give you a discount with your student ID and I was glad to see so many taking advantage of it to drink better beer. The main bar room has a cool vibe due to it with lots of wood, large beer decorations, etc.

They also have a nice street side patio and that is where we chose to eat. Food was decent and as in most places in Krakow, very reasonable. Make sure and get the creamy cabbage & pork, it is super tasty!

I thought the beers were fine. There were at least 4 house beers and everyone we tried was to style and the taste ranged from good to very good. Our service was friendly but a bit slow. They were crowded and the weather was perfect so no issues for us.

 

this place has a nice feel of cellar made into a bar. and they had a selection of about 4 or 5 beers on tap at one time. they are expanding there horizon and were trying there hands on pre prohibition style unfiltered lagers, hefs, dunkelweises, and munich dunkel. and usually one spiced beer. service is overly plesant. and the beer is actually quite inexpensive. probably best to go in durring the day as they ususally have deals like two for twelve zloty. the beers were pretty middle of the road but i can tell after about 5 more years with all the microbrews popping up this is going to be a pretty solid place for beer.

Showed up here twice on a weekend. Once in beergeek mood to sample all the brews, and again with some backpackers from the hostel to make them understand what all my craftbrew babble is about. Now they understand.

C.K.Browar is a fine example of the historic, cavernous basement bars/clubs that are frequent in Krakow. It sits on busy Podwale, next to the university drag (oh, the Polish coeds!) There's a large, rowdy pub for the party folks and a smaller, glassed-in room for the classy dinner set. On the first night I only found room in the fine dining area. Service was slow as my friend and I were still dressed in dirty ski bum gear from an earlier trip to Zakopane.

I had samples of their three German-style offerings: a "light" beer, a dunkel and a hefewiezen. Despite years of shitty German occupation, the Poles never got their brewing skills. The brews were better than Poland's usual maltbombs, but nothing spectacular. Stick with the standard light beer. My non-beer drinking friend settled on the sweeter dunkel. Avoid the bland hefewiezen.

(I know its Europe, but damn the pay toilets).

Night two was much better. I rolled in with a group of 8 grimy backpackers. All of the high tables were taken in the main pub, so we sat at a rickety slat table in a corner. Would it hold the massive 5 Liter towers we'd been gawking at?

We finished off two light towers - plus various pints. Our lovely waitress was pleasant, attentive and spoke enough English to keep us amused. The price was satisfactory for the poor travelers, and now they've found something better than cans of Zywiec. Success for the non-craft drinkers. Shame I had bounce out early for the night train.

The atmosphere of C.K. is incredible. Situated in the basement in an area that can date many of its buildings back serveral hundred years it is the perfect place for a brewpub. Seating on the drinking only section is two long rows of high tables with stools and low benches with row seating going the length of the drinking area against one wall.

Four or five beers were offered when I was there last night--A dunkel, a Pilsner, an attempt at a weizen that went terribly wrong, and two other styles that I did not have the privilege to try.

The waitresses are all extremely friendly and speak english well enough that communication is not a problem. Service is systematic and orderly. As in most eating and drinking establishments in Europe there is little pressure put on customers to pay and get out. I sat there and talked to several Polish ladies for nearly an hour after I had stopped drinking and was never once asked if I would like my tab.

My evening there was very enjoyable and would suggest C.K. to anybody visting the Krackow area.

Its very visible and easy to find. Just look the a red sign with white letters that says PUB. Its across the strip from 'university drag' in Krackow, roughly a five minute walk from the town square.