Switching meat diet and choosing a vegetarian or vegan diet is more and more visible in Poland. Many Poles declare that they limit or intend to limit meat consumption.

Vegan Warsaw

In 2017, Warsaw was on the podium in the ranking of the most vegan cities in the world published by the vegan Happy Cow website. Every year, the website publishes a list of the 10 most pro-vegan cities in the world. Happy Cow has been operating continuously since 1999 and its goal is to show tourists traveling around the world where they can safely and healthily eat vegan meals and do ethical shopping. Website users from all over the world contribute to the collection of reliable data by sending their observations, photos, and supplementing the website’s database with more completely plant-based restaurants, bars and even confectioneries.

What criteria does Happy Cow focus on?

  • the amount of vegan restaurants, shops, businesses in the city
  • how does this amount compare to the population size of a given place
  • general impression of residents’ friendliness towards vegans, vegan eateries and initiatives.

According to the latest listing from 2019, Warsaw came six in general scoring.

Unique hotels offering meals for vegans and vegetarians.

Vegan and vegetarian dishes can be found in the menu of Polish hotels and in the SPA offer. The chefs of many luxurious, boutique hotels consciously decide to enrich the menu with sophisticated meals based on “green” produce.

Below we present some of the most interesting proposals presented on the VegLab blog run by Katarzyna Gubala, editor-in-chief of the luxury magazine “Ecostyle”. The author is an authorized auditor of the V-label brand – the Swiss quality mark for vegan and vegetarian restaurants.

  • Art Hotel – Wroclaw; the menu includes: artichoke cappuccino, cauliflower steak or “kashotto” with pear and parsley.
  • AC Hotel by Marriott Wroclaw; vegan and vegetarian dishes on the menu.
  • Topacz Castle Resort and Art SPA – vegan dishes, including green risotto, vegan desserts.
  • 7 Ponds Uroczysko Luxury Hotel & SPA – Dzierzoniow; Lower Silesia. – the first meat restaurant in Poland that received a vegan certificate from the Swiss brand V-Label for a breakfast buffet and a vegan menu. In addition, a consistent philosophy for veg and eco options in brilliant technological solutions such as: rainwater used in toilets, rainwater used to water the hotel greengrocer, seasonal plants used in full in the restaurant menu.
  • Cottonina Hotel & Mineral Spa Resort Swieradow Zdroj – in addition to vegan and vegetarian options on the menu, the hotel SPA offers vegan treatments
  • “Hotel Dębowy” Biowellness & SPA Bileawa, Lower Silesia– menu includes: warming vegetable broth created in accordance with the principles of five changes cuisine, refined vegan dumplings, gluten-free plant variations and vegan desserts, moreover Apiforium, vegan sauna rituals, bath (regardless of the weather!) in bio pool.
  • Fregata Lake Club on Lake Bystrzyckie – vegan menu suggestions
  • “Folwark Łękuk Mazury “– the menu includes vege tartare and celery, as well as a vegan breakfast option. The hotel also implements the zero waste principle. ·  Hanza Palace Wellness & SPA offers options for vegans both in the menu and in the SPA ·  Manor House SPA – in addition to vegan menu in the offer, the SPA offers real health gems: chakra harmonization therapy, bio revital therapy, and hotel rooms are equipped with many amenities: buckwheat pillows, head and hand massagers, salt lamps, therapeutic hearing from the speakers solfeggio music.

Companies that have a positive impact on changing Poland

There are more and more companies in Poland, where the priority is not only profit, but also the impact on the surrounding reality. Noteworthy:

  • Wege Siostry – a family business that produces vegan cashew and sunflower cheese. The production is based on zero waste.
  • BioMaterials -fabric production, alternatives to natural and synthetic leather, completely natural and biodegradable
  • EcoBean – a company that produces green energy in the form of coffee briquettes
  • Meatless meat – the first in Poland vegan producer of bacon, roast and sausage jałowcowa
  • Pontiki – producer of vegan clothes for children
  • Woskowijka – producer of natural, reusable food packaging
  • Sourdough plant – a company producing all kinds of silage
  • Goplant – producer of vegan meat substitute

(source: My Company No. 11 2020).