Awiw

We were looking for a good pierogi place for our last night in the city. We found this place on TripAdvisor and decided to check it out. We really enjoyed our meal, even though they weren’t the best pierogi we had throughout our trip. The service was good and we liked the ambiance. We’d go back if we lived in Kraków!

We had a different experience from the other English-​language reviewer. Not 5-​star, but not bad, either.
We checked out every restaurant in the Kazimierez Square, and settled on this one, because it wasn’t about to close, as so many others were. (This area is known as the Jewish Quarter, but none of the restaurants, even Rubenstein’s, is Jewish. I think this name is only for tourism purposes). There was also a Klezmer band performing, but we were told upfront that they were about to finish up. Still, we were pleased to hear a couple of numbers, and the band was excellent, especially the woman violinist.
We were expecting to find Eastern European cuisine, especially since the restaurant had a Hebrew name, though spelled in Polish transliteration. But those dishes were very limited. I chose the plain breast of chicken, which came with a bit of salad & over-​salted boiled potato. The chicken was dry. My husband ordered «gefilte fish,» which turned out to be unlike any both of us have ever seen or tasted, and that wasn’t necessarily positive. He wasn’t blown away by it. Both dishes passable, but that’s all. This wasn’t anywhere near the best dining experience of our trip. We had an excellent waiter whose friendliness was genuine, but if I had to sum it up in one sentence, I’d say «Come for the music, not the food.»

Schöné Einrichtung und schöné Speisekarte. Uns wurde sofort der letzte freie Tisch im Kellergewölbe hergerichtet. Nutzte uns leider nichts, da wir 25 min nicht bedient wurden obwohl wir darauf hingewiesen wurden, dass keine Selbstbedienung notwendig ist und 2x nach einem Kellner fragten. Vielleicht wars auch nur ein schlechter Tag. Wir wechselten dann 100 m weiter ins Hamsa, in welchem israelisches Essen serviert wird und waren sehr zufrieden.

Im jüdischen Viertel Krakaus Kazimiercz gelegenes Restaurant. Vor allen Lokalen am markt stehen mitunter recht nervige Koberer. Der Besuch des Café Ariel eigentlich unser Ziel haben wir unterlassen, nachdem dort ein Herr recht nervtötend mit einem Stock herumklopfte und recht aufdringlich wirkte, im Awiw war es noch am dezentesten, wir schauten auf die Speisekarte und wurden erst dann sehr zurückhaltend angesprochen.
Im Sommer auch mit Außengastronomie. Zuvorkomende, höfliche englischssprachige Bedienung. Die Speisekarte ist ein guter Mix aus jüdischem (ich aß Leber mit Zwiebeln, dazu Salat mit Lachs). Qualität+Portionsgröße sind in gut, Preis auch.
Die Inneneinrichtung ist gemütlich, allerdings ist nur ein WC für alle vorhanden.

Without doubt, one of the worst restaurants I’ve ever had the bad luck of visiting. In short: a typical tourist trap — situated in a clearly attractive ‘old Jewish quarter’ location, but serving McDonald’s-style food at shamelessly inflated prices. We ended up there by chance after stopping by the nearby Ariel (I remembered having a decent dinner there back in the mid-​1990s, when Krakow, and definitely Kazimierz, was still a culinary desert comparing to what it is today), but after realizing we were the only guests and having skimmed through the unreasonably priced menu, we quickly decided to relocate. Awiw was next door and seemed less deserted — and it lured us with a promise of live Klezmer music. (Turned out to be a sad sad band of three uncomfortable guys awkwardly playing what were supposed to be Jewish tunes in a nearly empty room). The food really does not deserve the effort of writing. The only good thing was the service and even that only made things worse — our waiter’s friendly and polite manner seemed so weirdly out of place that it only exacerbated the overall awkwardness. Don’t waste your time and money — and rather save your stomach lining.

tolles restaurant, sehr leckerer salat und noch bessere piroggen, für wenig geld sehr viel essen. und das beste: die kellner können gutes englisch, sonst ja eher untypisch für polengleich am markt von kazimierz gelegen, also nicht zu verfehlen.