Barbakan

This place is so good, we kept coming back for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The pirogues, stuffed cabbage, cakes, everything were outstanding, not to mention our host/​waitress Ana. Initially we thought she was the owner since she ran the restaurant when we were there. She’s super nice, gracious, and helpful with suggested local sites.
Definitely try the pirogues!!! Breakfast and lunch seems to be more on the quiet side and food comes out quicker but dinner is more packed with people and worth the wait.

Fabulous little café with great food. We arrived at 11.50am on a Wednesday and the place was empty, by 12.10 it was packed! Ordered the pierogi for the kids, I had the hunters stew and my husband the Hungarian pancake. Also ordered a side of chips. The chips were amazing — golden, crisp and thick. The pierogi were delicious (the only reason I’m not giving 5 stars is one was burnt) and my meal was super tasty. My husband wiped his plate with the warm homemade bread so I assume his was delicious too! The service was a bit slow but the waitress was lovely and very accommodating to our whims (we have three young kids and so need extra plates, cups and accidents are a certainty!). All in all a great little restaurant and will definitely go back.

There’s only 1 restaurant which I would travel back to the city just to eat at (in Florence). Until now — I’ve finally found a second restaurant which I would travel for (and thanks to Teresa C for recommending this place to me)
Barbakan is a family run Polish restaurant, and their homestyle food is just DIVINE!!! I would happily eat here every day if I could! I did come here twice, once for lunch, and dinner.
So their hours operate as this:
open at 9am for breakfast, however starting at 10am you can order their £7 lunch specials! So I came here at 10am, and ordered myself TWO lunch specials — I couldn’t decide on one, so I got the cabbage rolls and pirogies, and took half of it home. There were 4 cabbage rolls, baked in this rich tomato sauce, and it was so incredibly delicious. I didn’t leave a drop of sauce behind, as I mopped it up with the delicious toasted rye bread. There are 6 pirogies in an order, so the waitress kindly offered a sampling of their 3 pirogies: beef, cheese, and pumpkin curry. Hands down, my favs were the cheese, and pumpkin curry. It was nicely fried with a brown crust on the outside, with some fried with cubes of crispy bacon, and a side of sour cream. It was soooo good. Actually the waitress knew I only planned on eating half my dishes, so she kindly packed everything else up for me, along with extra bread!
Now, DINNER TIME:
There is a dinner special between 6−7pm, a starter and a main, for £13. Fantastic deal, since you get so full off the meal! A complimentary basket of rye bread was given to me, along with some sort of fantastic garlicky-​dill butter spread. I was told it was butter, but it tasted a bit like a whipped or cream cheese to me. Anyhow, whatever it was, it was delicious. I ate all the bread and spread, and even asked for a bit more :/​I started off with a mushroom roll, which was a mix of mushrooms, rolled up in a pancake and deep fried. It also came with beetroot borscht. And it was amazingly good! I’m not a picky eater, but I’m usually not a huge fan of borscht — but man, this purple soup was served in a mug, and I slurped up every last drop. I got the hunter stew for my main, which is a mixed meat stew with cabbage and carrot, served in a bread bowl. And It arrived piping hot! I was so full just looking at it, but it was one of the best things I’ve eaten on the trip. Its definitely a hearty and meaty dish, lots of meat and sausage. I only managed to finish ²⁄₃.
Unfortunately, I was too full to have dessert, because everything looked so good on display, all the cakes are baked fresh every day.
The rest of the menu had breakfast items, hot and cold sandwiches (which sounded amazing), big salad plates with salmon, and a really large selection of Polish dishes. Seriously, you CANNOT go wrong here. The workers are so nice and accommodating and friendly.
ANOTHER BONUS — KIDS GET BREAKFAST FOR FREE! It stated this on their menu, but I really don’t know how it works. I’m sure its probably something like free for every child accompanied by an adult (purchasing an item for themselves too, of course). Anyway, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED :)
** THEY ARE CLOSED MONDAYS FOR DINNER

This is now my go to sandwich shop and restaurant in York. The first time I went, I was being toured by a group of Canadian girls that used to live in York and apparently fed on the Barbakan’s pierogi for most of that time.
Now I find myself not leaving the house before 10am, so I can grab a sandwich (all about £3) just after they are open. They make everything fresh and sometimes you will have to wait for 10 minutes until the bread rolls are done, but is it so worth it.
I was thinking about calling them before and then picking up the food later, so I don’t have to wait, but the waiting is an experience for itself! There are little details all over the place that make it very homey and the people working there are super-​nice.
But apart from getting a sandwich for takeout there is a plethora of good food if you decide to stay inside. My friends don’t even ask me anymore where I want to grab something to eat after the pub. It is always the Barbakan. (I guess that can be a bit annoying for them, but I don’t care really…)
I have not yet tried the cake, as I didn’t have the time or the occasion to do so, but I will get back to you guys later.
Anayway, class A restaurant and please don’t make this place your little secret, since it totally deserves to be booked out for months!

So my second review, and second five star review at that… I promise this is only because I’m reviewing my favourite places first… as they deserve, the sub five star reviews will come in time.
This is almost one of those places you don’t want to tell people about., it’s my secret, dangit! But alas, good things deserve to be heard and found so yes… I concede, I adore this place.
Not only is the Barbakan extremely unique for York (despite the confusing name that has nothing to do with the near (ish) Barbican Centre, but I haven’t found a place with similar quality for this type of food in the UK as of yet… I’m sure they exist, I’m just waiting for more qualifies Unilocalers to point them out.
On to the food… either you’ll love it, immensely, or just like it… I couldn’t imagine anyone disliking it… and if you do, shame! It’s very hearty fare, «meat and potatoes» if you will, but done sooo well… I’m way into the «love it» camp, obviously, so when this is what I want I couldn’t imagine coming elsewhere.
The cuisine I believe is Polish, so think German meets British… don’t kill me, I call it like it is! The closest actual restaurant I’ve been to was in Luxembourg, so even that is a toss up for influence. Essentially look at the pictures on Unilocal,and if it looks like you’re type of food I can’t imagine you would be disappointed.
Oh, did I mention deserts? Oh, the glorious deserts… they are so good that we often get them to take away… something I rarely do… especially with deserts. They stand behind you tempting you constantly… I fell for it once and have tried various ones since, all worthy of a purchase.
Another theme you will notice throughout my eventual reviews is that good service impresses me… and these guys definitely score a few points in this realm… aside from being friendly and accommodating (aka «oops, I booked for four but two other friends heard we were coming so now there’s six of us»), I’ve seen on two occasions groups come in after closing and happily be accommodated… I would never expect this as the norm, if the sign says 11:00 for closing then 11:20 is too late, but it’s nice to know that they definitely give it a go… on one occasion they had even started cleaning the kitchen… which is fair because it was twenty minutes past their posted closing time that night… they still smiled, checked with the kitchen, and proceeded to take orders without the «you should know better» awkwardness that can come with such timing.
Personal favourites include the Golonka, seriously, just look at the photo… it alone will give you the meat sweats, Pierogi (get the half and half and figure out which one is for you), and the Oscypek… a smoky cheese that is simply wonderful (think smoke infused haloumi).
Honestly, if you’ve looked at the menu (or read a review) and think this is a place you would like to try then please do… either you’ll have a decent meal, or more likely a future staple you must return to. If you need fancier fare then perhaps this isn’t the place, but at their prices (which are awesome for what you get btw) you should probably give it a go all the same.
Enjoy, and thank me later. ;-)

I first came to this small but mighty establishment for a lunch sandwich– it was delicious but hey I make pretty decent sandwiches so I could not understand all the fuss.
That is until I came here for dinner–
WOW! Really good food at pretty decent prices (considering the portions!!). I ate my beloved pierogi but people on my table got a selection of mains which were all delicious (I recall a pork cooked in honey that was mouth watering and a hearty stew in a bread roll).
Service was very friendly as well, will certainly be back soon!

fab food and all made with care Fab and friendly service Well priced as well!

Fun polish café. Sells interesting polish dishes such as stuffed cabbage leaves, hunters stew and stuffed pancake. Very friendly staff.

Really nice small friendly atmosphere. Amazing food at a really good price!

My partner and I agree with every word above and our only reservation is that more and more people are going to get to know about the wonderful food, friendly service and remarkable value and we will not get a table. They are going to start opening in the evening soon. We are regular visitors to the City and this place was recently discovered by us. It wil be the first place we visit on return despite York being well provided with many excellent places to eat.

Having moved house a few weeks ago, I miss the Barbakan deli most of all the restaurants we tried in York. First of all, the owners make their own bread, in their own oven, with the dedication it takes to bake, very early in the morning, in all seasons (I know how dough reacts to temperature and so on). Then, the ingredients used to make sandwiches are invariably scrumptious and harmonious. We also miss the getting picnic makings here, especially the marinated tomatoes and red peppers. Along with the outstanding and reasonably priced sandwiches (how can anyone but a misguided tourist spend lunch money on the dry, tasteless, exorbitantly-​priced fare at pretentious tearooms in the centre when Walmgate is only a five minute walk from Parliament St.?)…
they also have awesome coffee – Illy espresso, cappuccino, latte and so on. The Polish and other international products in the shop are also very nice, from a wide range of cuisines, and as far as I knew, it’s the only place in York that sells kefir.
The only lunch choice in York even in the same league is Il Paradiso del Cibo, just a few doors up, doing pizza and pasta. The Barbakan, however, is my personal flavour gem, and can’t be replaced :(