Czech cuisine might not be too inventive but it is by all means tasty and above all substantial. A typical Czech menu would consist of various types of dumplings, meat, pickled cabbage and cracklings, calling to be washed down by a few pints of light Czech beer.
International restaurants at Vaclav Square and in Prague Old Town also offer Mediterranean dishes, pizzas and even Asian food, but the prices at these latest additions to Prague restaurant scene tend to be at international levels as well. Thus, if you do not hate dumplings for some reason, it is best to stick to local restaurants and breweries in Prague. The most famous brewery is probably Švejk restaurant.
Not long ago no visit of Prague would be complete without eating and drinking at Švejk restaurant. However, you can skip it nowadays without any regrets. Popularity of Švejk restaurant among tourist has taken its toll. The staff at Švejk restaurant is unfriendly. They do not like it if you only pop in for a beer. Nowadays you have to eat at Švejk restaurant, but when we checked it, most of the tourist were feasting on pizzas instead of traditional Czech fare.
'No panic of any kind,' would have said the good soldier Švejk. There are others, much better traditional restaurants in Prague. Kolkovna is one of them, just a few steps from Švejk.
Kolkovna
Kolkovna restaurant in the Jewish quarter of Prague is a good place for a cheap but tasty lunch between sightseeing in Old Prague. The restaurant is located only about 5 minutes walk from Old Town Square.
We ordered roasted lamb with rosemary, garlic and English ham accompanied by spinach and Czech dumplings.
The lamb seemed to be more cooked than roasted, we could barely detect any English ham and rosemary was used rather sparsely.
However, despite the dish that came on our plate did not look as we expected based on its description in the menu, it was surprisingly delicious. The meat was fresh and tender, the spinach seasoned very well and the dumplings just firm enough.
Based on our visit, we certainly recommend Kolkovna restaurant for a simple, cheap Czech meal.
The service was friendly and swift. Non-smoking section is in a rather dark basement while smokers can enjoy the view of the street from the ground floor.
The bill for the abovementioned dish and half a litre of Pilsner Urquell came to 230 CZK (9,60 €).
Location: V Kolkovne 8, Prague 1. Transport: metro A (station Staromestanska).
Pivovarsky dum
Pivovarsky dum is a popular Czech restaurant and micro brewery. The owners of Pivovarsky dum like to experiment with beer taste. Their beer list among others features coffee, banana, sour cherry and blueberry flavoured beer. We tried the latter and it tasted amazingly good. We could not imagine that a combination of bitter beer and sweet blueberries works so well.
When it comes to food, Pivovarsky dum is offering a number of traditional Czech dishes and a few international favourites. Despite the mid-summer temperatures of around 30 degrees Celsius we went for Czech classics: potato dumplings, stuffed with smoked pork, and pickled cabbage. The dumplings were excellent, the pork crunchy and tasty, whereas the cabbage was a tad too sweet for our taste.
The bill for the abovementioned dishes and an espresso came to 200 CZK (7,90 €).
Location: Lipova 15 (at the intersection with Ječna), Prague 2. Transport: metro C (station I.P. Pavlova), metro B (station Karlovo namesti), trams 4, 6, 10, 16, 22, 23 (station Štepanska). Web: www.gastroinfo.cz/pivodum