Omerta, Kraków 🇵🇱

Location: Kupa 3, 31-057 Kraków, Poland

Venue Type: Craft Beer Bar / Pub / Theme Pub

Year of Inscription: Founder Member

EBG Rating:8.3/10
Choice/
Quality of Drinks
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Décor
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Character
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Events
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Value For Money❤️❤️❤️
DescriptionIt’s funny sometimes the place a young crowd determines is ‘The Place To Be’. Often older people have a tendency to criticise younger folk for being vacuous and only interested in glitz and edifice, citing the unsocial and artificial feeling clubs and towny bars some people prefer to visit. Omerta is one of many examples proving that, while they may follow trends like moth to a flame, superficiality is not in any way intrinsic to that. Far more important and intrinsic to most people is the social element of drinking.

Omerta is about sitting down and enjoying a beer in lively social company. There’s a silly and completely unnecessary ‘Godfather’ theme to Omerta, which is so low-key as to be virtually ignorable, but after that it’s very minimalistic. Cream walls, simple chairs and tables. Gather round, sink a few beers and chat with your friends.

Chiefly, what caused Omerta’s explosive popularity was the choice of beer, as they were a pub early on the craft scene in Poland, a scene in which Krakow was a big player in the early days. It’s debatable whether Omerta would have ever been such a social hub if it served only Tyskie, Zywiec, etc. Whoever made the decision to stock craft beer was jumping on an upward curve at just the right time.

The main advantage of craft beer in Poland isn’t so much the beer itself. It’s great to have a range of choice brewed to a high standard, but with the exception of certain beers, they are generic and easy to find in the UK. What makes the high quality craft keg ale even better is paying little more than a few quid at any one time for a pint of the stuff. It remains superb value, even if it is a big jump in price for the locals, on the evidence of any night out in Poland, they are prepared to pay it, often as they pay £2 for a beer and a shot at the likes of Pijalnia Wodka I Pivo anyway.

Omerta offers a good range of craft beer from some breweries that are more or less local institutions already, and this is the place to come in Kazimierz for that. There are 2 bars, with an overall selection that is unlikely to leave you feeling short-changed.

As with a lot of Kazimierz places, you’ll find that the locals haven’t given up on it just because some tourists have started going. Indeed it’s so busy and full of locals in winter that I imagine a few travellers are probably left out in the cold.

Time your visit well because it can get rammed. Once you’re seated however, you’re going to want to hang around, for the raw and friendly pub atmosphere and array of nice beers to drink.