Restaurants

It is official – there are less than 10 pure vegan restaurants in Prague. I started the article with such sentence for a reason, so everyone knows what are we talking about. Most of the restaurants get their inspiration from Asia and you would get almost the same types of meals in each of them. Country Life is different and that is also why I am always keen of the choice.

Country Life is not only a restaurant, but also organic food producer and importer. I would also open a restaurant having such good goods in my cellar! The restaurant is arranged as a buffet staring hot selection with at least three main meals per day and cold section divided into more than 20 choices. Hot meals are always accompanied by soup, pulses and cereals. Even macrobiotics would be satisfied!

During the day the price is the same for hot and cold meals –  29,50 CZK per 100 g, 33 CZK for soup. Join the Happy hours from Monday to Thursday from 3 pm with common price for a large plate 139 CZK and 90 CZK for a small plate. Sweets and drinks are extra. Fountain water for free all the time. Enjoy the garden in the courtyard in summer!

There are average beers, huge amount of highly valued micro-brewery beers, but there is only one Pilsner Urquell. And the Pilsner Urquell served in the pub ‘U Veverky’ is in the best shape it can be. Non-pasteurized, kept in tanks, draught by skilled barmen, is a real pleasure for any beer lover. Usually, you can just nod and the next beer will land on your table with no asking. Try using the phrase ‘Dobry den, Plzen’ meaning ‘Hi, I want a Pilsner’, and you might survive the whole evening with this sentence!

The food offered is generally expressed as treats your stomach will like before the beer lands. The chef composes with his hands and heart the very best symphony of Czech cuisine. I recommend ‘Svickova’ with 6 dumplings, which is the cult Czech meal. Inside is smoking and non-smoking area and in the summer an outside garden and a ‘yard’ for few stand-up beers under a shelter. Beer drinkers look a bit funny being held in a sort of pen, but they are standing there definitely with their consent.

‘U Veverky’ means ‘By a squirrel’ and the bartenders are really so quick with the beer like they have a squirrel gene. Pure Czech pub, I love every single piece of it!

A relatively new Thai restaurant opened in the very heart of Prague – Perlová street. Very minimalistic in design, but very ‘maximalistic’ on portions, so ask about the size first before you place your final order. Their soups can be hard to finish – a large portion is 1 litre of soup, noodles, veggies and meat, and that is a lot. Even a very skilled gobbler would have to be very hungry to eat it all.

My favourite dish is Udon soup (I have to confess my growing preference for slim Udon noodles), and their Pad Thai is still not be missed. But do not search for overly spicy food here – here they conform to the more Western type of Thai, which is convenient for most people here, not used to hot Thai meals.

It’s a good place for early lunch, afternoon snack or late dining, and a great place for a business lunch as wi-fi is now a matter of course in Prague’s cafés and restaurants.

This is a pub with a perfect location. I suppose every visitor of Prague intends, sooner or later, to visit the Prague castle. Well, this spot is only a 10 minute walk from there.

The area of the Castle is quite big and it takes some time to see. A quick refreshment afterwards seems to be very convenient then Cerný vul (Black bull) is an old-fashioned Prague pub, but don’t expect any touristic fancy stuff – you will only find one room with narrow wooden benches to sit and heavy wooden tables to put your beer down. However it is said to serve the best dark beer in Prague and its atmosphere is unique.

Around lunchtime you will find here at least several people with suits and ties – most probably employees of the near Ministry of Foreign Affairs coming to have their meal. In the evening it usually gets a bit crowded (by locals mostly) and it may occur that there won’t be any more places to sit. You can still have one “nastojáka” (= on the feet).

As for quality of the service, the beer is simply great here. The staff consists of two usually kind of grumpy guys, but they simply fit there. The variety of meals isn’t very wide but they have all you need to eat with a beer (sausages, pickled Camembert, toasts…). I know this is not a healthy diet but it is delicious and hungry you won’t be!

Café Imperial, that really stands for its name, is famous for many reasons. Firstly, its tiles. Walls and pylons covered with ceramic, handmade tiles almost a century old, have been recently restored – and with them the whole interior including furnishing.

Here you can experience the golden time of European grand cafés, while enjoying one of the many delicious dishes made by Zdeněk Pohlreich, one of the best Czech chefs. A second good reason to have a lunch here. But – this trendy chef has got his own prices…

The third reason? Let’s take a little detour first. Before reconstruction, there was an odd thing on the menu: a plate of donuts for CZK 2000 (approx. EUR 70.00). That gave you the right to …

Well, a famous Czech novel, Saturnin (which was translated to English too) gives some idea of what might be in store:

„Let’s take a man without fantasy – in a half-full café who looks on a plate of donuts untill lunch – without the slightest idea of what to do with them. Then there are people, who after seeing this plate of donuts will imagine how delightful it would be to start throwing them at others … and, then there is the third kind, who are carried away by such fantasy, that they get up and do it!”