Down-to-earth, homemade, solid: these are the words to describe traditional Szczecin cuisine. In Szczecin, respectively. Sczezcin, as the city is called in Polish, is home to the classic pierogi and other Szczecin specialties. I've been exploring the city on the Oder River and share my culinary highlights from Szczecin with you. Smacznego – bon appetit!
1. The best pierogi in Szczecin
When in Poland…eat Pierogi! One of my first must-dos as soon as I set foot on Polish soil is a visit to a pierogarnia, a restaurant specializing in stuffed dumplings. In Szczecin, I go in search of the best pierogi in the city, but it turns out to be quite a task. Saturday afternoon: every restaurant is packed. On Sunday again many pierogi restaurants are closed. With a little patience and a few hangry crises later it works out and my three fellow travelers and I can get a table in the Pierogarnia Kaszubska Centrum.
The first impression: a typical pierogarnia is somehow different – here everything is so modern. Instead of crocheted tablecloths and heavy oak tables: cheerful colors, functional furniture and the food is ordered at the counter. Just as unclassical as the interior is the menu. Of course, in the Pierogarnia Kaszubska you can also find the classics like the pirrogen filled with pork or cream and bacon, or the "Pierogi Ruskie" with a filling of potatoes, cottage cheese and fried onions. Very pleasant is also a large selection of vegetarian pierogi with sometimes unusual ingredients.
I try pierogi with a filling of lentil, buckwheat and barley – very delicious! Unfortunately, these are not an option for vegans, because for one thing, the pasta dough is usually made with egg, and the pierogi are generously garnished with onions fried in butter. A visit to a pierogarnia is usually cheap, too: for a portion of six pierogi you pay between three and four euros, depending on the filling.
Pierogarnia Kaszubska Centrum, plac Zgody 1, Wejście od ul, Edmunda Bałuki, 70-472 Szczecin
Other popular pierogi restaurants in Szczecin
Pierogarnia na Deptaku, aleja Wojska Polskiego 29, 70-246 Szczecin
Pierogarnia "Za rogiem", Jarowita 10, 70-001 Szczecin
Pierogarnia ze "Słonka", Milczanska 48, 70-107 Szczecin
2. Long, chocolaty, delicious: Polish meter cake
I love regional pastries, which is why we have a category here on the blog called "Bakes and the City"."That's why Szczecin is also a land of milk and honey, because here the art of cakes and pies is still really celebrated. As with the Polish Meterkuchen. The name says it all: the "Metrowiec" is actually a very long cake. To be called Metrowiec, it must be at least one meter long. You then have a piece as thick as your thumb cut off, this is weighed and you can already enjoy this Polish pastry speciality. What makes the Polish meterkuchen so delicious is its composition: an airy sponge cake with a custard filling and chocolate glaze.
In Szczecin you can get the best Metrowiec cake in the confectionery& Cafe Koch. There are several branches of this in Szczecin as in the whole of Poland, the coziest is located between the center and the New Town near the "Berlin Gate," Brama Portowa. The cafe is divided into a pastry shop and a restaurant – if the cafe doesn't have the meter cake in stock, you can just buy it in the pastry shop and eat it in the cafe room.
Cafe Koch, aleja Wojska Polskiego 4, 70-471 Szczecin
Other places for pies in Szczecin
Cup&Cake by Izybar: What the name says – here you can find cupcakes in every imaginable variation. Ksiecia Bogusława 44/2 , Szczecin 70-441
Stojaki: Hip third-wave cafe with changing pies like e.g. Lemoncurd Cheesecake. Rayskiego 19
70-442 Szczecin
3. Authentic& cheap home cooking in the milk bar
Hardly any tourists go to the Polish milk bars, which in my opinion is a big mistake – because here you get the traditional Polish cuisine at very reasonable prices. Once upon a time in Poland there were over 4.000 milk bars, only 140 exist today. In Warsaw, the concept is being successfully revived, but what nostalgics call a "fake milk bar". A real Bar Mlezny is the Bar Turysta in Szczecin.
I almost didn't dare to go inside, because some threshold fear and lack of Polish language skills prevented me from doing so. Once you set foot inside, however, everything is quite simple. Although I can't translate any of the dishes on the daily changing menu – pierogi are unfortunately not on it today – I can see the food behind a pane and just have to point to it. In addition, a nod from the waitress to my question "wegetarianski?"and I get a meatless dish in the form of a tomato soup and two dough rolls filled with cream cheese and potatoes called "Pasztet jajeczny" for less than two euros.
Bar Mleczny Turysta, Edmunda Bałuki 6A, 70-001 Szczecin
Other milk bars in Szczecin
Bar Mleczny Zacisze, Adama Asnyka 19, 71-527 Szczecin
MAK POLAND Bar mleczny, księdza Biskupa Władysława Bandurskiego 87, 71-685 Szczecin
4. Not only at Christmas: Szczecin Peperkoken
You are probably familiar with Nuremberg gingerbread, but have you ever heard of Szczecin gingerbread?? If not, then you should close this knowledge gap absolutely. The recipe for the Szczecin Peperkoken is based on the original preparation method from the 19th century. Century. At that time in the Pomeranian villages gingerbread was baked in the pan, in the oven and on stone. Historical sources have listed Szczecin Peperkoken since 1938, and since then there has also been a tradition of decorating Christmas trees with anchors, ships, seagulls and fish baked from gingerbread.
The Szczecin gingerbread is available all year round: the Filipinka bakery specializes in baking Peperkoken. Here the gingerbread is made according to the original recipe of master baker Jan Tablinscy, in softer, simple version and the harder, with sugar icing decorated motif variant. Thanks to him, Szczecin gingerbread has been included in the list of traditional products of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship.
To get to the Filipinka bakery, you have to go to some trouble, because it is located outside the city center, in an area that could be safely described as dreary. You can take bus 75 or 86 almost directly to the store door, a one-way ticket costs two Polish zloty.
Filipinka, Stanisława Ignacego Witkiewicza 1B, 71-121 Szczecin, Witkiewicza Szkoła bus stop
5. From Stettin to Eberswalde: Spritzkuchen
The sprinkling cake is such a thing. It was first mentioned at the beginning of the 18th century. It is thanks to him that spritzkuchen, as we know it, was mentioned in a standard Franconian work on baking at the end of the nineteenth century, but we actually assume today that it is native to Eberswalde in Brandenburg. How the Spritzkuchen came to Eberswalde, you can find out at GoOnTravel.de, because the bloggers Anne and Anja are both from the Spritzkuchen city.
End of the 18. At the end of the 19th century, about 30 years before the Berlin confectioner Gustav Louis Zietemann made Spritzkuchen famous in Eberswalde and beyond, there were baking instructions in a Stettin baking book for a choux pastry that reminds one very much of Spritzkuchen. Was the Spritzkuchen invented in Szczecin?? At least we can agree on this: the spritzkuchen has certainly been shipped back and forth between Berlin and Szczecin several times, because Eberswalde and Zietemann's bakery were conveniently located on the Berlin-Szczecin railroad line, as a statue in the station building still testifies today.
If you want to eat the famous Spritzkuchen in Szczecin today, you will be disappointed at first. In any case, the sprinkling cake does not seem to be a flagship of Szczecin's bakery art. And suddenly, when I am walking through Szczecin in the morning with Anja, the aforementioned blogger and connoisseur of gingerbread, we discover a pastry in a small shop that already looks very much like the Eberswalde pastry. "Gniazdko," meaning "nest," is the name of the sweet particle that looks more like a nest than a ring, but, in fact: it tastes exactly like an Eberswalde Spritzkuchen.
Here you can find the Stettin Spritzkuchen: Bakery container opposite the streetcar stop "Wyszynskiego", on DK10 Street, on the right hand side pretty much between the west bank of the Odra River and St. Jacob's Church.
6. Attention, hot and greasy: Stettiner patties
"It tastes better fried" is the motto of an ex-friend of mine, and he's not wrong at all. In Szczecin, this statement has been internalized with the Szczecin pastries. This typical Szczecin snack is a filled yeast dough roll, which is fried in fat. In 2019, "paszteciki szczecinski" will celebrate their 50th anniversary, as they were served for the first time in 1969. They are reminiscent of Russian pierogi, which have nothing to do with Polish pierogi. Attention, now it's getting complicated: what the Polish has his pierogi, the Russian has his pelmeni! Back to the patties: they are either meaty or vegetarian, e.g. filled with cottage cheese or cabbage and mushrooms and served with a dark red beetroot sauce.
To eat Szczecin pasztecs, you need to go to a typical Szczecin snack bar. A good address for this is the bar Pasztecik in the center not far from Aleja Fontann. But beware: like many pierogi restaurants, Szczecin's pastel snack bars are closed on Sundays.
Bar Pasztecik, aleja Wojska Polskiego 46, 70-001 Szczecin
7. Cocktail with a view over Szczecin: Cafe 22
A 360-degree panoramic view over Szczecin and a martini cocktail to go with it…sounds good to me? I think so too! The top address for a sundowner with a view is Cafe 22 in Szczecin. As the name suggests, the cafe-bar is located in the 22nd floor. The 22nd floor of the Pazim building, a complex whose center is a round tower of steel and glass and to which the Radisson Blu Hotel is also attached.
The cocktail menu doesn't hold any big surprises, but it does have the usual classics on offer. Besides a long drink or cocktail, you should also try the Starka vodka, which is distilled in Szczecin, in Cafe 22. The culinary offer doesn't make it on my must-eat list, there are pragmatic bar food like panini, burgers and sandwiches. The cakes in the showcase, on the other hand, look very promising and if you've ever wanted to try a Sacher cake outside of Vienna in the tallest building in Szczecin, you should do it at Cafe 22. By the way, according to the cafe, sweet dishes that you can eat in 22. If you eat chocolate on a stick, you don't eat it – sounds like a very plausible theory, don't you think??
Cafe 22, plac Rodła 8, 70-419 Szczecin
8. Chocolate rush, guaranteed calorie-free
When you are the 22.-If you don't believe in the low-fat, low-carb, low-everything thesis, I've got the ultimate low-fat, low-carb, low-everything tip for you. What's the greatest thing about chocolate?? Alright, this is the moment when the delicate temptation melts on your tongue. But the second best thing about chocolate, in my opinion, is definitely the scent. The smell of liquid chocolate is one of those things that fogs my brain and puts me in an intoxication-like state of bliss. That's exactly the endorphin kick you can experience in Szczecin, and without any mean side effects like waistline fat or hamster cheeks. How it works? You just have to walk along the Oder River, near the North East Marina and across from the famous Hook Terrace.
Nearby is a chocolate factory and you can smell it – enormously! When I stayed there with my blogger friend on a Monday morning before dawn to photograph the sunrise, we had no clue at first, until we both assured each other that we were not hallucinating. It made us both enormously happy. Extra tip, but now with calories: If the smell isn't enough for you and you want to eat chocolate now more than ever, then be sure to try the chocolates from the small store "Jarmark Jakubowy" opposite the Jakobi Church.
How to get to Szczecin
Especially from Berlin Szczecin is very easy to reach by regional train. The journey takes about two hours from Berlin Central Station, depending on the connection and the change of trains. The great thing is that the Berlin-Brandenburg ticket is also valid here, d.h. here you can buy on a ticket for 29 euros (resp. 22 euros in the evening from 6 pm with the Brandenburg-Berlin-Nacht-Ticket) up to five people ride. What you can experience in one day in Szczecin you can read at Synke-unterwegs in her article "A trip abroad for 20 Euro."