Hotel Gem

As enviable locations go, this is certainly up there. The smart brasserie is located inside the impressively domed Centennial Hall and overlooks the Wrocław Multimedia Fountain, where stunning illumination displays take place in the summer. The well-priced menu offers dishes that balance flavours and textures wonderfully, showcasing the technical strength and understanding of the kitchen. Intense mushroom soup with rabbit sausage and smoked sour cream is a prime example. Work up an appetite with a stroll around the nearby park or Japanese gardens.

Located to the rear of the Między Mostami restaurant in a riverside property, Most is the team’s smaller, more formal offering specialising in superbly crafted tasting menus. One-word menu descriptions give very little away, with the true creativity and excitement of each course only revealed as it arrives. Well-conceived combinations of top-drawer ingredients result in dishes such as slow-cooked leek with an exceptional sauce of kaffir lime, coconut milk and lemongrass. To complete the experience, go for the passionately curated wine pairing, which features some delicious rarities.

Operated by the well-known Chef Beata Śniechowska, this modern bistro is one of those spots where you just know you’re going to have a good time. Closely set tables add to the intimacy and buzz of the atmosphere, while bright and friendly service quickly puts you at ease. The cooking offers reinterpreted versions of classic Polish dishes with brilliant results: the signature 'Our Pierogi' and the well-balanced 'Duck Breast with 5 Polish Flavours' are prime examples. Make sure you enhance the experience by asking the engaging, thoughtful sommelier to match a range of Polish wines to your dishes

Situated on the edge of the Old Town, inside the Hotel Jazz, there’s a stylish, faux-industrial quality to this friendly restaurant. Exposed brickwork and concrete flooring combine with pared-back décor and varnished wooden tables for a classic bistro feel. The cooking has a similar ethos of unfussiness, with a welcome lack of over-elaboration in dishes that combine quality ingredients with precise technique – such as the array of dumplings or scorched herring with baked potato. The wine list’s hidden highlights include local Polish riesling.

There is so much beauty to admire when you visit this restaurant in Ostrów Tumski, Wrocław’s oldest district and without doubt one of its most attractive. If you dine inside, marvel at the red-brick vaulted ceiling of the atmospheric medieval mansion; alternatively, sit on the pavement terrace in the shadow of the stunning St. John the Baptist Archcathedral. The kitchen does a good job of living up to the setting, with dishes such as precisely made venison pierogi.

Few restaurants can claim a location quite like Arche Klasztor, which sits within a large red-brick property that has had past lives as a monastery, hospital and school – in fact, one wing is still used as a monastery inhabited by the Franciscan Sisters. History seeps its way into the cooking too, which modernises traditional Polish recipes such as potato pancakes with sour cream. Some of the dishes are even said to be based on the nuns’ original recipes.

There’s a real comforting quality to the cooking at this smart modern brasserie in the heart of the city. Share a couple of small plates to start, before moving on to the main event: steaks. A variety of cuts of top-quality Argentinian beef are cooked over charcoal in the Josper oven, then served with traditional adornments like chips and béarnaise sauce. The desserts have a similarly classic approach, with satisfying options like chocolate fondant with Chantilly cream.