Dynia Resto Bar

About halfway along Krupnicza Street in Krakow, surrounded by hospitals and students, is Dynia Resto Bar. Given the nature of the surroundings, it's somewhat surprising to discover a modern, minimalist-styled café bar, smoke-free and offering great food at reasonable prices. Frankly, Dynia has the chic, modern bistro look one associates with the trendier quarters of London, Paris or New York, with the added bonus of a huge and attractive garden space that itself has space for 80 people.

Inside, the open-plan layout features discreetly lit exposed brickwork and modern leather and wood furniture, and its four rooms have space for a hundred or so guests. Down-tempo and chill-out tunes fill the space unobtrusively, and service is unforced and friendly.

Essentially a daytime and early evening place (it closes at 10 pm), Dynia's offerings embrace a wide range of tasty choices: a generous breakfast menu, soups, salads, pasta, hot lunches and a selection of low-calorie 'fitness' meals. Vegetarians/vegans are well catered for, and it's worth repeating that you'll pay a lot less than you'd expect for food of this quality in this kind of environment. Drinks range from coffee and smoothies to beers and cocktails, with their 'Pumpkin-mint Collins' a house speciality (Dynia is Polish for pumpkin).

The clientele is varied: anything from business breakfast/lunches to students enjoying a romantic dinner, or just a quick coffee break. Dynia shows that it is possible to have a smart-looking space that delivers the goods food-wise without costing the earth, and its continued popularity more than bears that out.