One of our favorite things to do on winter weekends when the days are cold and dark, is to go for a nice, long lunch.   A great thing about Warsaw is that there is no shortage of child-friendly restaurants.

Our number one requirement for ‘child-friendly’ used to be that it must have a play area, but that has expanded over the last year.  Now that Miss H is almost five (yikes!), if the restaurant has an attraction for a child like maybe…the best hot chocolate in town…then it is on the list!

One thing that hasn’t changed for us though, is that the food and atmosphere must be good.

Here are our five favorites:

1.  Concept 13 – Our top choice for a nice, leisurely lunch is Concept 13 in the center.

It is located on the the fifth floor of the shopping center in the VITKAC Building at Bracka 9. One side of the restaurant is covered in floor-to-ceiling windows, good for those dark days of winter.

The food and wine list are both great, and there is a very nice play area equipped with a babysitter from 12-6 on both Saturdays and Sundays.  You can see it in the two pictures above.

2. Pub Lolek – Pub Lolek is quite different from Concept 13.  It is a pub after all!

The pub is full of wooden tables and benches, and there is a fire in the fireplace in the winter.  It is a great place to grab a beer and some grilled food with or without the kids.   Sorry no inside pictures but I promise it is cosy!

There is a play area here for the kids.  I don’t recall very many toys, but Miss H and her friends are entertained every time we go.   Although we haven’t been, Lolek advertises professional animators (babysitters) on Sundays from 2-4 pm.

Located in the fabulous Pole Mokotowskie in Mokotow, Lolek has other benefits in the warmer weather.   So I just had to include a picture of the wonderful playground and tables from last spring.

3. Nabo Cafe – We also really love the Danish food with super-fresh ingredients at Nabo in Sadyba.   The breakfast is good too! 

If you have children, the playroom at Nabo has a lot to keep your busy ones occupied.  It is separated from the main room, but with glass so you can see in if you choose a table nearby.

If you go on the weekend, be sure to book in advance.  It is a small place and gets full quickly!

4.  Podwale – We recently discovered Podwale when we went to the Old Town on Christmas Eve for the Christmas market, but due to the rain everything was closed.

Yes, it was sad.   But fortunately, I had Podwale in my back pocket.   We had some great soup, and Mr. F and Babi were thrilled to see the old truck filled with Czech beer.    The place has an old Bavarian/Czech theme with soups delivered in red enamel pots.

This will be our go-to restaurant in the Old Town now when we have Miss H along.  She was able to order her favorite — ‘spaghetti soup’.   The children’s play area wasn’t open the day we went, but the friendly waitress brought us a coloring page and crayons.   (Go to their website to see pictures of the play area.  It looks nice.)

We went to a restaurant with a similar name – Pod Wawelem – when we were in Krakow.

Don’t go there!

They have similar branding so I thought it was a chain.  They aren’t linked online so not sure the story there.  Anyway, the food was disappointing, the soup arrived cold and the service was terrible.

5. Wedel – Last but not least is Wedel.  It is the place to go for hot chocolate and has been around in some form another since the mid- 1800s.  There are many around Warsaw and across Poland.

We like the one near Wilanow Palace but mainly because it is close to home.   It is always nicely decorated (see picture of Santa below).

While there is no area for kids to get up and jump around, the hot chocolate is why we go.  There are two pages of options we stick to the classics – small milk chocolate for Miss H and dark chocolate for the adults.

The nalesniki (Polish pancakes) are good too.   I don’t really consider the apple nalesniki  (pictured) to be a meal, but the savory ones are good and there were options that would work for children.

Just make sure that once that rich, sweet hot chocolate is finished, you pay that bill and get outside quickly!  If you go to the one in Wilanow and the weather isn’t too bad, you can always bundle-up for a walk (or run) around the Palace or some playtime across the street at the Beach Playground.

There are certainly other restaurants that we like in Warsaw that are also family friendly but these are our current favorites.  The restaurants are always changing here.  If you have favorites that are not on this list, I’d love to hear about them!