Kotlet schabowy is the Polish breaded pork loin cutlet, pounded thin, dredged in flour-egg-breadcrumb and fried in lard to a deep golden crust. Polish Sunday lunch.
Kotlet schabowy entered Polish kitchens in the 19th century as a direct adaptation of the Austrian Wiener Schnitzel, which itself traces to 15th-century Milanese cotoletta. The Polish version uses pork loin (schab) instead of veal and bigger portions. The post-1945 socialist period made it the canonical Sunday family lunch dish across Warsaw, served with mashed potatoes and mizeria cucumber salad. Every milk bar and pierogarnia in the city still plates it today, and home cooks debate the right thickness (5mm, ideally) and oil temperature (170C).
4 editor picks for Kotlet schabowy in Warsaw, ranked by editorial score. All Warsaw signature dishes · Kotlet schabowy across every city.
Bar Mleczny Prasowy ★ 4.5
srodmiescie · ul. Marszalkowska 10, 00-590 Warszawa
Bar Mleczny Prasowy in Warsaw has fed the centre since 1954 from a socialist-realist building on Marszalkowska. White tiles, checked tablecloths, and the milk-bar canon at milk-bar prices.
Bar Mleczny Familijny ★ 4.3
srodmiescie · ul. Nowy Swiat 39, 00-029 Warszawa
Bar Familijny on Warsaw's Nowy Swiat has run continuously since the People's Republic. A central-route milk bar where you queue, point, pay and eat under harsh light for under 30 zl.
Bar Mleczny Pod Barbakanem ★ 4.3
stare-miasto · ul. Mostowa 27, 00-260 Warszawa
Bar Mleczny Pod Barbakanem in Warsaw sits just past the Barbican between Old and New Town. Vintage decor, ladies in white coats at the till, and a kotlet schabowy plate for the price of a coffee elsewhere.
Stary Dom ★ 4.3
mokotow · ul. Pulawska 104, 02-620 Warszawa
Stary Dom in Warsaw is the steak and Polish-classics anchor of leafy Mokotow, an old-house dining room with linen tablecloths and a deep cellar list under the wood beams.