I'd had a craving for some real (read: not fast food) burger for a while and decided to check out Hard Rock Café in Krakow hoping to find one there. Happily I did! The burgers tasted very authentic - we tried The Big Cheeseburger and Hickory Barbecue Bacon Cheeseburger and both were very good (definitely not the best burgers I've had but considering the fact that we were not in the US - I'd say they were very good indeed) and that goes for the meat, the bun as well as all the trimmings; the fries on the other hand were rather average.
The restaurant is in a very nice location - right on the historic Main Square - you can't get any more central than this... At the same time, inside, there's a distinct American neighborhood bar & grill feel, which adds to authenticity of the place.
The menu selection is, again, pretty typical for American neighborhood bar & grill (think Applebee's / Red Robin, etc.). When I'm back, I plan on trying other entrees which looked really good (e.g. fajitas).
Now that we're done with the good, let's look at the bad...
First of all, the service was typical Polish, which is quite different from what one may expect in a similar restaurant anywhere back in the US (I hoped that I'd get nicely surprised for a change but no dice...) That means they don't check on you to see if you need a drink refill (or anything else for that matter... such as check) and it's extremely difficult to get the wait staff's attention (as if they were making the point to walk around looking away from their tables).
Secondly - our dinner took FOREVER. There were just two of us and we went on Saturday night (around 9:15pm) not expecting big crowds. It took over 30 minutes to get a table (and not without some issues) even though it wasn't that crowded, then over 45 minutes to get our food and finally another 20+ minutes to get the waitress to come over and get us the check so that we could pay and leave. Altogether almost a 2-hour affair to have a burger...
Finally - a couple of other minor issues were relatively high prices and rather smelly bathrooms. Oh, and one more, the only food related complaint: extremely poor selection of milkshakes. They offer vanilla and chocolate only... where's strawberry??? I don't know of any restaurant of this type that doesn't offer at least those three flavors (and preferably more). I hope that maybe in the summer they have some seasonal fruit flavors...
Overall - if you're a homesick expat craving some real burgers or a local who wants to experience some taste of America in the middle of Krakow then I can certainly recommend the place. Just expect the typical Polish service and don't plan on being in & out quickly. read more