Half twelve in the Rynek Starego Miasta .... thinking about history ... and talking about Polish food

Now it was just past midday and after a morning in Warsaw’s old town we were hungry.

In the square, 2026

And as you do, we wandered into the Market Square which was laid out at the beginning of the 14th century at the start of the city’s story.

Since then, it has experienced heaps of history. At one time it was the capital of a superstate which as the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

Helping the tourists, 2026

But those glory days were marred by Poland’s partition in the 18th century at the hands of Prussia, Russia and Austria, the moment of freedom while the brief period of independence after the Great War was ended by the dark days of the Nazi occupation, and Soviet dominance.  During that Nazi occupation the Market Square was pretty much destroyed in the Uprising.

Today the square is a bustling place full of locals and tourists and because everyone needs to eat a selection of restaurants occupy part the open space.

There wasn’t much to choose between any of them, so we joined the queue which looked to be the shortest and it turned out to be ok.  

Like its rivals the menu was heavily orientated to fish and meat, which came in enormous portions of which schnitzel seemed the most popular choice.

I feared as one of the veggies in the group I would be at a disadvantage but there was pierogi which is a traditional Polish dish of dumplings which were filled with cheese, and mushrooms and topped with sour cream. They came with a salad of shredded carrot, cabbage and beetroot.

 Schnitzel in the square 2026 

And were the choice of our neighbour who interestingly started their meal with a platter of cheess and fruit.

The conversation drifted from that starter to the different pierogi I had already encountered and settled on schnitzel which as everyone knows is a thin slice of meat which is breaded and then fried.  My Wikipedia tells me that “it is popular in many countries and is made by using veal, pork chicken, mutton, beef or turkey”.*

And here the discussion took a turn because a few years ago our Saul found some very large mushrooms in the forest and Julia never one to waste food transformed into a meatless Schnitzel.

Giant mushroom, 2025

Mushroom Schnitzel, 2025

Alas I was not there to share the cooking of the wild mushrooms, but I wish I had.  But there will always be another time.

Location; Rynek Starego Miasta, Warsaw

Lunctime in the Square, 2026

Pictures, of the Market Square, the restaurant and the customers, 2026, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and that mushroom and Schnitzel, 2025, Julia ICE Czajkowska

* Schnitzel, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schnitzel