A vegetarian food tour in Krakow, and eating vegan or gluten free

Yes, with planning. Polish home cooking leans on meat, and one provider says so plainly: its tour notes that Polish cuisine is based on pork, so many of its dishes will not suit vegetarians. The good news is that some tours adapt when you warn them, and Krakow has a wide choice of meat-free food once you know what to order.

The clearest offer comes from a traditional food and drinks tasting for groups of up to 10, which can organise a vegetarian tasting if you let the provider know in advance. A tour with 10 tastings through the Old Town and Jewish Quarter asks guests to send any dietary requirement ahead of time. The street food walk lets vegetarians join its 1.5-hour option, while its 2-hour option does not suit them.

On our tipsy walk the trouble spots are clear: bigos is stewed with meat, sledz is herring, and smalec is pork fat spread on bread. Pierogi, zapiekanka, a fermented pickle and bread are named too. Because the listing says nothing about diets, message the provider first and find out what you would eat instead.

Pierogi are the easiest place to start. Fillings, as Poland's tourism office lists them, run from potato and cheese to cabbage and mushroom, vegetables, sweet curd cheese or fruit.¹ The potato and cheese kind, known as pierogi ruskie, is vegetarian, and fruit pierogi make a dessert; just check whether the pierogi come topped with fried pork crackling.

Potato pancakes are another safe order: always crispy, served with various sides, and in some regions eaten with sweet cream and sugar.⁶ Soups are trickier. Tomato, cabbage and cucumber soups appear on Polish menus, and zurek, the sour rye soup, often comes with sausage and egg.^9,10 Ask for each soup by name, and ask whether the stock underneath is made from meat or from vegetables.

For dessert, Poland's tourism office suggests cheesecake, poppy seed cake or apple pie, and Krakow-style cheesecake is baked on shortbread.^13,11 The zapiekanka, half a baguette under mushrooms and melted cheese, is meat-free in its plain version, though ham, bacon or salami often get added.^7,8 Order it with chives instead, as locals recommend.⁸

Some of the cheapest vegetarian food in Krakow is the most traditional. Polish law defines the milk bar as a self-service canteen without alcohol whose all-day menu is dairy and vegetarian.²⁰ That makes these subsidised canteens an easy stop for pierogi, pancakes and soups without meat. Menus are short and written in Polish, so the words in the checklist on this page come in handy at the counter.

The markets are the other answer, with stalls at Stary Kleparz, Hala Targowa, Plac na Stawach or the Parsley Market in Podgorze, all recommended by the regional portal.²¹ Fruit, cheese, pickles and fresh bread make a picnic that suits vegetarians, and the market stalls let you see exactly what you are buying.

Pickles deserve a special word. Pickled cucumbers and sauerkraut are fermented foods, as the Polish national nutrition centre points out, and they bring sharpness to an otherwise rich, creamy plate.²² The tipsy walk names a fermented pickle among its tastings, one of its items that is meat-free by nature.