Kotlet schabowy is Poland's breaded pork cutlet, the Sunday-lunch backbone: pork loin pounded thin, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs, pan-fried in lard, served with mashed potato and sauerkraut. The Polish wiener schnitzel.
Where to eat it: 8 restaurants across 2 cities.
Kotlet schabowy entered Polish home cooking in the late 19th century, adapted from Austro-Hungarian wiener schnitzel during the Galician partition of 1772-1918 when Kraków sat in Habsburg territory. The dish became the Sunday lunch standard across all of Poland by the 1920s, codified in Maria Ochorowicz-Monatowa's 1910 cookbook. Polish kotlet uses pork loin (schab) rather than the Austrian veal; the lard-fry rather than butter-fry is the Polish stamp. Every bar mleczny and family canteen in Kraków serves it. Bar Mleczny Pod Temidą's version with mashed potato and sauerkraut is the city's editorial cheap-and-canonical pick.
Common allergens: Gluten in breadcrumbs, Egg, Dairy in mashed potato finish
Tip from the editors. Pound the pork no thicker than 5 mm; thick cutlets need longer in the pan and the breading burns before the pork cooks through.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Bar Mleczny Pod Temidą on Kraków's Grodzka is the city's most editorial surviving milk bar: full meal, soup-main-kompot, all in under 25 zl since the 1960s.
Try: Full Polish meal under 25 zl
Tip: Bring cash; the card terminal is unreliable. Tables share with strangers.
Smakołyki on Kraków's Straszewskiego is the cheap-and-honest student-canteen Polish room: schabowy, pierogi, potato pancakes, a full plate under 28 zl.
Try: Schabowy and pierogi student plate
Tip: Cash only. Closes 22:00 weekdays, 17:00 Sunday. No bookings.
Polakowski in Kraków's Kazimierz is the all-day Polish canteen for the Old Synagogue end: pierogi, bigos, schabowy, gołąbki, served counter-style 10:00 to 22:00.
Try: Polish canteen plate under 30 zl
Tip: Two locations: Miodowa in Kazimierz and Sukiennice on the Rynek. Kazimierz branch quieter.
Pod Aniołami in Kraków sits in a 13th-century cellar on Grodzka with a beech-wood grill at the centre of the room. Traditional Polish grilling, table service nightly.
Signature: Beech-smoked highlander lamb, Grilled trout
Order: The beech-smoked lamb shank, and oscypek with cranberry jam to start.
Tip: Ask for the vaulted-cellar room over the courtyard. Open daily from 13:00.
Bar Prasowy in Warsaw is the milk bar that fed central Marszalkowska since 1954. Pierogi for under 15 zl, zurek for 8, kotlet schabowy with sides for 20. The cheapest proper hot lunch in the centre.
Try: Pierogi ruskie, kotlet schabowy, zurek
Bar Familijny on Warsaw's Nowy Swiat is the cheapest hot meal on the Royal Route. Nalesniki, kotlet mielony, plate of pierogi, all under 25 zl, in a People's Republic-era room that has never been refurbished.
Try: Nalesniki, mielony, zurek
Bar Mleczny Pod Barbakanem sits just past the Old Town Barbican in Warsaw with vintage decor, lunch-canteen prices and the kotlet schabowy plate for less than 25 zl. The Old Town's only proper milk bar.
Try: Zurek, bigos, kotlet schabowy
Stary Dom in Warsaw is the white-tablecloth Polish steak room of leafy Mokotow. A 19th-century villa with a basement cellar list and a butcher's window dry-ageing beef in plain view.
More cities are in research. Want kotlet schabowy covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.