Łódź eats like the workers' city it was: cheap zurek in milk bars, prasowanka pork from the market, and Jewish-Polish baking that survived the mills. Add the food halls in old weaving sheds and you get Poland's most underrated dining town.
Łódź's biggest open-air market, trading since 1925 on plac Barlickiego. Sunrise to about 15:00, closed Sundays. Stalls sell smoked oscypek-style cheese, jars of soured cucumbers, forest mushrooms in autumn and Polish apples at 3-5 zl/kg.
A surviving milk bar on ul. Piotrkowska serving state-era canteen food at state-era prices: zurek in a bowl 9-12 zl, pierogi ruskie by the plate 14-18 zl, kotlet schabowy with potatoes and mizeria around 22 zl. Order at the hatch, carry your own tray.
The market at the heart of Bałuty, the district that was the Litzmannstadt Ghetto. Bakery stalls sell chalka braided loaves and bagel-shaped obwarzanki; delis carry twarog curd cheese by weight and smoked mackerel straight from the crate.
A Łódź confectionery institution baking szarlotka apple cake, cream-filled karpatka and wuzetka chocolate slices. Slices run 9-14 zl with coffee at 12-16 zl, served in a tiled room with marble-top tables just off the main pedestrian run.
The old Franciszek Ramisch cotton mill at Piotrkowska 138/140 now houses roasters and cafés in its brick courtyard. Filter coffee 14-18 zl, flat white around 16 zl, plus sourdough toast and syrniki-style cheesecakes for breakfast.
Anatewka on ul. 6 Sierpnia 2/4 cooks Jewish-Polish Łódź cuisine: goose-fat chopped liver, gefilte fish, cholent and duck with kasza. Mains 55-90 zl. Klezmer violin most evenings, walls stacked with pre-war Łódź photographs and candlesticks.
Zielony Rynek off plac Barlickiego is where to try prasowanka — pressed, jellied pork brawn sliced onto rye with horseradish, a Łódź workers' staple. Vendors sell it by the 100g at 6-9 zl alongside smalec lard spread and pickled herring.
Inside Izrael Poznanski's 1870s weaving mill, the restaurant strip along Manufaktura's rynek runs from Polish grill kitchens to Georgian khinkali. Cast-iron columns and jacquard-loom beams overhead; two courses with a beer land around 90-120 zl.
A working neighbourhood bakery turning out chleb zytni rye loaves, poppy-seed makowiec and drozdzowka yeast buns from 06:00. Loaves 6-11 zl, pastries 4-8 zl. The queue of Bałuty pensioners at opening is the quality signal.
Zapiekanka — an open baguette baked with mushrooms, cheese and ketchup — is Poland's late-night bread and sells all day on Piotrkowska for 12-20 zl. The side passages off the street also do kielbasa z grilla from mobile carts for around 15 zl.
Łódź's craft-beer anchor with 20+ taps of Polish breweries — Pinta, Artezan, Trzech Kumpli — plus grodziskie, the smoked-wheat style revived from Wielkopolska. Halves 10-15 zl, pints 16-24 zl. Bar snacks run to pickled herring and lard toast.
The Ramisch mill courtyard fills after 18:00: vodka bars pouring zubrowka with apple juice, ramen and taco kitchens in shipping-container units, and a rotating weekend street-food market under strings of bulbs between the brick wings.