What the city limits at night, how to get the three alcohol permits and what they cost, café gardens and noise, what the bill and the team cost, and when Warsaw fills.
Warsaw’s night runs on both banks of the Vistula. In Śródmieście, La Pose Varsovie, Enklawa and Bank Club stand a few doors apart on Mazowiecka Street, the Pavilions behind Nowy Świat have turned old shops into pubs and bars, and Powiśle mixes restaurants and clubs with institutions worth a visit. In summer the river boulevards open bars and clubs of their own. Across the water, Praga’s old tenements hold cult pubs, and a courtyard on 11 Listopada Street is home to Hydrozagadka and Chmury. The clubs run late: Level 27, high in the Atlas Tower, is open until 05:00 on Fridays and Saturdays. What the city does limit is the bottle sold to take away, and that rule covers the whole city.
Warsaw tried its night rule on two districts first, then gave it to the whole city. It stops the bottle sold to take away, not the drink poured at the bar. Alcohol permits are issued through the district offices of the City of Warsaw (urzędy dzielnic).
The bar and club lane runs through the night because the city’s night rule stops takeaway sales, not service on the premises: alcohol to take away may not be sold anywhere in Warsaw from 22:00 to 06:00, and the city says catering venues carry on as before. Ask your district office about any hours set for a café garden.
What happens outside still counts.
Read the ruleThe national alcohol act lets a council limit only night sales of alcohol to take away, between 22:00 and 06:00, for the whole city or for named areas.
A permit can be withdrawn when public order is disturbed at or near the venue at least twice in six months and you did not notify the authorities.1
Catering venues serving on the premises carry on as before, and so does the duty-free zone at Chopin Airport.
Read the ruleAlcohol to take away may not be sold anywhere in Warsaw from 22:00 to 06:00. That covers shops, kiosks, petrol stations and 24-hour shops, and takeaway sales from restaurants and bars. The ban followed a trial in Śródmieście and Praga-Północ.
Any bottle or drink sold to take away stops at 22:00.2
The fee is the area times a daily rate for the road category times the days.
Read the ruleA seasonal or year-round garden on a road the city roads authority (ZDM) manages needs its permit to occupy the road lane. File a site plan, a traffic plan on most streets, a case for why the garden is justified and a statement that it sits in front of your premises without covering the neighbouring shopfronts.
Filing does not let you set up: a garden without a permit costs ten times the fee. On the Royal Route, the mayor’s placement rules apply too.6
The night limit is measured over the noisiest hour of the night, the day limit over the noisiest eight hours in a row.
Read the ruleNational limits for noise from sources other than roads and rail, which covers a venue, are 55 dB by day and 45 dB at night in blocks of flats, mixed housing and service areas, and the inner-city zones of cities over 100,000. Near houses, children’s buildings, care homes and hospitals they are 50 and 40.7
A bar pouring beer, wine and spirits needs all three.
Read the ruleSelling alcohol needs a permit for each strength: up to 4.5% alcohol and beer; over 4.5% to 18%, except beer; and over 18%. Cocktails made with spirits over 18% need the over-18% permit.
Each permit is tied to the named business and the named premises.1
The distance is the shortest walking route from the nearest public entrance of the sales point to the nearest public entrance of the protected site, or to its gate if it is fenced.
Read the ruleA point selling alcohol for drinking on the premises, a free-standing fenced garden included, must be at least 50 metres from a special school-and-care centre for children and young people and from a military site with shared soldiers’ quarters. Takeaway points keep 50 metres from schools, youth centres, places of worship and more.5
Ask your district office for the current cap before you sign a lease.
Read the ruleThe city council caps the number of alcohol permits in Warsaw. The city’s commission on alcohol problems checks each application against the cap and the location rules, and a permit is issued only if it agrees.3
Declare last year’s sales and pay by 31 January, or pay in three instalments by 31 January, 31 May and 30 September.
Read the ruleA first permit for a location costs 525 PLN a year for each of the two lower strengths and 2,100 PLN for spirits over 18%, pro rata in the first year. Continuing sellers pay a share of the previous year’s sales instead: 1.4% for each lower strength above 37,500 PLN, and 2.7% for spirits above 77,000 PLN.
Late, you get 30 more days with a 30% surcharge; after that the permit lapses and you wait six months to apply again.3
Sales may start on the date the permit names, once you have collected it.
Read the ruleA permit for drinking on the premises is issued for a fixed term of at least four years. The city aims to decide within a month, or two months for a complicated case.3
Breaking the conditions of sale in the alcohol act leads to the permit being withdrawn.
Read the ruleThe city treats selling alcohol online with delivery as selling outside the place the permit names, and so as a breach of the law.4
After a withdrawal you cannot apply again for three years.
Read the ruleA permit is withdrawn for selling to minors or drunk guests, selling on credit, alcohol from an illegal source, or repeated disturbance of public order at or near the venue that you did not report.1
When in doubt, staff may ask for a document that shows the guest’s age.
Read the ruleAlcohol may not be sold or served to anyone under 18, to anyone showing signs of drunkenness, or on credit or against a pledge.1
Ask the police or a licensed security firm whether your door team’s tasks need the list entry.
Read the ruleArmed guarding, escorting valuables and the direct protection of people need staff entered on the police list of qualified physical protection workers. Entry needs proof of education, full legal capacity and no conviction for an intentional offence. Security firms need a concession from the interior minister.8
Ask the city whether your bar staff can join the seller training.
Read the ruleAlongside the night ban, the city runs the Warsaw Safe Night Programme: more police and city guard patrols, a watch on sales points that disturb public order, and training for alcohol sellers on refusing drunk guests and minors.2
A bar or club needs a permit for each strength of alcohol it sells. In Warsaw you apply to the district office where the premises are, and the city’s commission on alcohol problems must agree before the permit is issued.
The form; legal title to the premises, and to any garden where alcohol will be served; the written consent of the owner or manager if the premises are in a residential block; and the sanitary inspector’s decision approving the premises.3
In person by appointment, online through Moja Warszawa or e-Doręczenia, or by post. Fill any gaps you are asked about, or the application is left unexamined.3
A district official inspects the premises and the planned sales point and writes a record. You may attend.3
Pay the fee, then collect the permit by appointment. Sales may start on the date it names, and it runs for at least four years.3
Issued by the district offices of the City of Warsaw (urzędy dzielnic)
General information, not legal advice. Laws and licence conditions change and vary by venue. Confirm with your district office or the City of Warsaw before acting on it.
Few Warsaw clubs print a table price. Bank Club on Mazowiecka Street does, service charge and all, so its terms set out the bill below.
| Minimum spend | zł 1,000.00 |
|---|---|
| Service charge 10%, added by the venue | zł 100.00 |
| VAT on alcohol 23%, included in the prices | zł 205.69 |
| Guest pays | zł 1,100.00 |
| Tip the guest chooses to add | No tax |
Bank Club on Mazowiecka Street asks a minimum order of 1,000 PLN for a table of 12 to 16 and adds a 10% service charge to the bill: the figures used here.24
The example treats the minimum order as including VAT. The standard rate is 23% and the main reduced rate 8%, which applies to some catering.10
Catering takes 8%, but drinks served with it take 23%: a binding ruling from the tax information service names vodka, whisky, rum, gin and beer, and coffee, tea, water and fizzy drinks. So alcohol and mixers at the table are 23%, and food made in the venue 8%, with a few dishes excepted.11
Ask a tax adviser how VAT treats a club’s entry charge and a mandatory service charge. The example taxes the service charge at the drinks rate.9
Rough estimates for tickets and bottle-service tables, from public listings and venues’ own pages.
zł 30 to zł 100
Typically about zł 50
Entry prices for Friday and Saturday club nights on eight Warsaw clubs’ own pages run from 30 PLN to 100 PLN after midnight on a guest DJ’s night at Smolna. 50 PLN is the middle, and the standard weekend price at Level 27 and Enklawa. Several let guests in free before 23:00 or 23:30, some only from their guest list.
zł 400 to zł 3,500
A typical table, about zł 1,100
This rests on one room, Bank Club, which prints its table prices in full on its own pages: 400 PLN is its minimum order for two to six people, 1,100 PLN its smallest VIP package, for six with a bottle of champagne and one of vodka, and 3,500 PLN its largest, for 12 to 20. Its 10% service charge comes on top.
Figures are estimates from the sources and samples listed. They change often and may be wrong. Check with the venue or the relevant authority before relying on them. Venues and events named here aren’t affiliated with VenueStack and haven’t endorsed this guide. Price sources: Level 27, Enklawa, Jasna 1 night, Smolna night, Niebo night, Dekada night, Hybrydy night, Hydrozagadka night, Bank Club tables, Bank Club VIP.
Across every occupation, the average wage in Warsaw runs above Poland’s. What the law fixes is the floor: a monthly minimum, and an hourly one for contract work.
Minimum wage zł 4,806 a month, since 1 January 202612
The minimum wage is 4,806 PLN a month from 1 January 2026, about €1,094. Contract work has a minimum hourly rate of 31.40 PLN, about €7.15.12
From 1 January 2027 the minimum rises to 4,950 PLN a month and 32.30 PLN an hour, about €1,126 and €7.35.13
The average gross monthly wage in Warsaw was 11,677.57 PLN in 2025, about €2,657, or 124.6% of the national average. It covers every occupation, in employers of ten or more people.14
Warsaw’s year turns on the river. The boulevard bars open in summer, when the big stadium concerts come too, and autumn brings Warsaw Autumn, the film festival and Jazz Jamboree.
Two public holidays in the first week of the year.
Official siteNo city-wide dates
The city’s half marathon in spring.
Official siteTwo public holidays in a row.
Official siteTwo public holidays two days apart.
Official siteMuseums open their doors into the night.
Official siteA public holiday that always falls on a Sunday.
Official siteA public holiday.
Official siteA two-day music festival at the Służewiec racecourse. Its month moves, so check the date each year.
Official siteThe Midsummer festival on the river.
Official siteThe bars and clubs on the river boulevards open for the summer.
Official siteSummer is when the big international acts play the city. Plan staff around the show nights.
Official siteAn international jazz festival.
Official siteOpen-air jazz in the Old Town through the summer.
Official siteA public holiday. When a holiday falls on a Saturday, staff are owed another day off.
Official siteAn evening race through Praga.
Official siteThe international festival of contemporary music.
Official siteThe city marathon weekend.
Official siteThe electronic and experimental music festival runs in Warsaw and Kraków.
Official siteThe city’s international film festival.
Official siteA beer festival in the city.
Official siteThe jazz festival at Klub Stodoła.
Official siteNot a holiday, but clubs such as Opera Club and Dekada run Halloween nights on the last weekend of October.
Official siteTwo public holidays ten days apart.
Official siteThe race traditionally starts at 11:11 on Independence Day.
Official siteAn evening light show that runs through the winter.
Official siteThe market stretches along the Old Town’s defensive walls.
Official siteChristmas Eve, Christmas Day and the second day of Christmas: three public holidays in a row.
Official siteNot a public holiday, but a night of its own: Bank Club, for one, drops free entry for table bookings.
Official site
Choose a bank before a street. Śródmieście holds Mazowiecka Street and the Pavilions, while across the Vistula, Praga’s old tenements keep a night of their own.
Two of the five places on the tourism office’s dance list, La Pose Varsovie and Enklawa, stand a few doors apart on this Śródmieście street.
Eateries with outdoor seating, and behind the street’s eastern gates the Pavilions: former shops turned into pubs and bars.
Restaurants, clubs and institutions worth a visit, with a club in the former ticket office of Powiśle station.
A cluster of bars and clubs by the river that open in the summer.
A square of restaurants and clubs that the tourism office calls the ideal place for a party, best seen at night.
Old tenements with cult pubs such as W Oparach Absurdu and Łysy Pingwin, and a courtyard of bars and clubs at 11 Listopada 22.
A craft brewery in the revitalised cellars of the old lagering plant, and the Night Market, Poland’s largest street food market, on disused railway platforms.
Praga’s Hydrozagadka leads, but three rooms on the list share one short stretch of Mazowiecka Street.
| Rank | Venue | Nights | Music | Published price | Monthly searches |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HydrozagadkaClubPraga Północ · 11 Listopada 22, 03-4363233 | Concerts, and parties on Fri and Sat | Not listed | Not listed | 2,000 |
| 2 | Level 27ClubOchota, Atlas Tower · Al. Jerozolimskie 123a, 27th floor3234 | Fri and Sat, 23:00 to 05:00 | Not listed | Weekend entry 50 PLN | 1,500 |
| 3 | La Pose VarsovieClubMazowiecka Street · Mazowiecka 6/8, 00-0483235 | Open Monday to Sunday | Not listed | Not listed | 1,400 |
| 4 | NieboClubNowy Świat · Nowy Świat 21c, entrance from Al. Jerozolimskie 323236 | Mon to Sat, 18:00 to 03:00; concerts and club parties | Not listed | Not listed | 1,000 |
| 5 | EnklawaClubMazowiecka Street · Mazowiecka 12, 00-0483237 | Wed to Sat from 22:00 | Not listed | Entry 30 PLN Wed and Thu, 50 PLN Fri and Sat | 1,000 |
| 6 | HybrydyClubŚródmieście, by Złote Tarasy · Złota 7/93238 | Parties on Fri and Sat | Not listed | Not listed | 600 |
| 7 | Opera ClubClubŚródmieście, under the Grand Theatre · Plac Teatralny 1, 00-0773239 | Every Fri and Sat | Not listed | Not listed | 300 |
| 8 | Bank ClubClubMazowiecka Street · Mazowiecka 14, 00-048324024 | Fri and Sat, 22:00 to 04:00 | Not listed | Tables from 400 PLN | 250 |
| 9 | ChmuryClubPraga Północ · 11 Listopada 22, 03-4363241 | Open seven days a week; concerts and parties | Not listed | Not listed | 200 |
| 10 | Jasna 1ClubŚródmieście · Jasna 1, 00-0133242 | Fri and Sat | Electronic | Not listed | 200 |
Ranked by monthly Google searches worldwide for each venue’s name with Warsaw or Warszawa, as Ahrefs estimates them. Few rooms publish a capacity, so this measures demand, not size. Only rooms that their own site shows open are listed. Venues named here aren’t affiliated with VenueStack and haven’t endorsed this guide. Details come from each venue’s own pages and can change; a venue can ask us to correct or remove its entry.
Behind the clubs is a capital of almost 1.9 million people, and its overnight visitors come from across Poland and abroad.
Sell tickets, take table bookings with deposits, run the guest list and check guests in at the door, in one place. Built for clubs, lounges and bars.
The alcohol act sets no closing hour for bars or clubs. What Warsaw does limit is alcohol to take away, which may not be sold from 22:00 to 06:00 anywhere in the city. Catering venues serving on the premises carry on as before.
Not to take away. Shops, kiosks, petrol stations and 24-hour shops, and bars and restaurants selling to take away, may not sell alcohol from 22:00 to 06:00 anywhere in Warsaw. Bars, restaurants and clubs can keep serving on the premises, and the duty-free zone at Chopin Airport is outside the ban.
Apply to the district office where the premises are, for a permit for each strength you sell, with the form, legal title to the premises and any garden, the owner’s or manager’s consent in a residential block and the sanitary inspector’s decision. A district official inspects the premises, the city’s commission on alcohol problems rules on the location and the cap, and you pay the fee and collect the permit.
A first permit costs 525 PLN a year for beer and drinks up to 4.5%, 525 PLN for drinks over 4.5% to 18%, and 2,100 PLN for spirits over 18%, pro rata in the first year. Continuing sellers pay 1.4% of the previous year’s sales above 37,500 PLN for each lower strength, or 2.7% for spirits above 77,000 PLN.
The city aims to decide within a month, or two months for a complicated case. A permit for drinking on the premises then runs for at least four years.
A point selling for drinking on the premises, a fenced garden included, must be at least 50 metres from a special school-and-care centre for children and young people and from a military site with shared soldiers’ quarters, measured along the shortest walking route. The council also caps the number of permits, so ask your district office for the current cap.
Yes. On a road the city roads authority (ZDM) manages, a garden needs its permit to occupy the road lane, and setting one up without it costs ten times the fee. Serving alcohol there also needs legal title to the garden, filed with the alcohol permit application.
18. Alcohol may not be sold or served to anyone under 18 or to anyone showing signs of drunkenness, and staff may ask for a document showing the guest’s age.
National limits for noise from a venue are 55 dB by day and 45 dB at night in blocks of flats, mixed housing and service areas and the inner-city zones of cities over 100,000, and 50 and 40 near houses, care homes and hospitals.
Armed guarding, escorting valuables and the direct protection of people need staff on the police list of qualified physical protection workers, and security firms need a concession from the interior minister. Ask the police or a licensed firm whether your door team’s tasks need the list entry.
The standard rate is 23% and the reduced rate 8%. Catering takes 8%, but drinks served with it, alcohol included, take 23%, so alcohol and mixers at the table are 23% and food made in the venue is 8%.
Entry prices on Warsaw clubs’ own pages run from about 30 to 100 PLN for a weekend night, with 50 PLN the usual price. Bank Club prints its table prices: 400 PLN for two to six people, VIP packages from 1,100 to 3,500 PLN, and a 10% service charge on top.
VenueStack publishes this guide for general information. We take care to keep it accurate and list our sources and review dates, but we can’t guarantee it is complete, current or correct, and we aren’t responsible for decisions made on it. Nothing here is legal, tax or financial advice. Prices, minimums and wages are estimates from the samples described and don’t represent any particular venue. Venues, events and organisations named here aren’t affiliated with VenueStack and haven’t endorsed this guide.
Data gathered in October 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
KrakówLesser Poland, Poland
The 22:00 to 06:00 takeaway ban, Kazimierz terrace hours, the three alcohol permits and their fees, VAT on drinks and the minimum wage.
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ViennaVienna, Austria
Closing hours by venue type, the trade licence and operating permit, Schanigärten, noise, VAT on drinks, collective agreement pay and the year’s big nights.
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PortoÁrea Metropolitana do Porto, Portugal
Closing hours by Movida zone, the 21:00 street drinks ban, terraces, sound limiters and lobbies, IVA on the bill, the minimum wage and São João.
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