Where to eat pierogi in Krakow

Minced meat is the everyday filling — what most people mean when they simply say pierogi, and the fairest thing to judge a kitchen by before you try something rarer. The street runs along the Planty, the ring of park that replaced the medieval city walls, so it is an easy stop on a loop around the Old Town.

Spinach with cheese is not one of the classic Polish fillings — it is mild and creamy rather than sharp, and the sour cream it comes with leans the same way. The restaurant is a barge moored on the Vistula below Wawel Hill, a short walk from the Old Town along the river, so it is worth treating as an afternoon of its own rather than a stop on the way somewhere.

Ruskie are the filling to try first: potato and white curd cheese, usually topped with fried onion. Despite how the name sounds, they are not Russian — it points to Red Ruthenia, a historical region now split between south-eastern Poland and western Ukraine. Świętego Tomasza is one block off the Main Square, about as central as an address in this city gets.