Żurek is the soured-rye-fermented soup Kraków eats from a bread bowl: cloudy, garlic-shot, with white sausage, hard-boiled egg, a swirl of sour cream. The Easter Sunday soup, eaten year-round.

Żurek descends from a 14th-century Polish-peasant tradition of fermenting rye flour in water for 4 to 5 days to produce a sour starter (zakwas), then making a broth from the strained liquid. The dish was particularly the food of Lent and Easter Sunday breakfast across Poland. The Kraków version adds smoked sausage (biała kiełbasa), garlic and marjoram, and the bread-bowl service style became Kraków-canonical from the 1990s onward. Bar Mleczny Pod Temidą on Grodzka and Wesele on Rynek Główny serve the editorial Kraków versions; the bread-bowl format is the Kraków signature.

4 editor picks for Żurek in Kraków, ranked by editorial score. All Kraków signature dishes · Żurek across every city.