Prague's Food

Zug, Switzerland - This is our last post about Prague. It's been a week since we returned and my memory is getting hazy now. If you're interested, in other posts we also describe the Prague Castle, Prague's Astronomical Clock, and miscellaneous other adventures in Prague. But so far, I neglected to tell you about the food in Prague, which is perhaps the best part. Hannah and I were blown away. The food is great and cheap!

There are eight places I describe below, all meticulously researched and selected by H. What's remarkable is that five of these places were owned by the same restaurant group, Ambiente. This was not consciously planned. It seems that Ambiente's slick, modernist, and social media-focused marketing was tailor-made for the likes of H, who ate it up (pun intended). We very nearly spent the entire trip hopping between Ambiente franchises, blithely being sold new culinary experiences from the same corporate overlord none the wiser. We only suspected that these restaurants might be connected when we discovered that wi-fi passwords were remarkably similar for all ("ambiente"). At the end of the day, we didn't particularly mind, since Ambiente was making great food and offering it at low prices. (One thing to note is that since we were in the city during the holiday season, a handful of other spots H had bookmarked were closed. Do these places even know December is when you make the big bucks??)

Here are the places we visited and quite liked:

Nase Maso (Ambiente) - Do you like meat? Do you like meat and bread sometimes with mustard? Then this place is for you! A small, cramped butcher shop selling simple sandwiches and meat plates + a butcher shop featuring local/humanely raised cuts of...meat.
Café Savoy (Ambiente) - Aspires to be a grand, old style Viennese cafe (like this). Frankly, it's a pretty solid imitation. We had a great breakfast here. H fell in love with a poppy seed cake.
Cukrarna Mysak (Ambiente) - Pastry cafe. The waiter was a little snooty and brought us the wrong dish, twice. But we sort of forgave him because the food was good and the vibe from another era (in a good way).
Eska (Ambiente) - Modern style restaurant in a large, lofted warehouse with excellent in-house bakery.
Kro Kitchen - Leaving the Ambiente banner now. Kro is a small, cramped fast-causal-esk restaurant with a great rotisserie chicken.
The Eatery - Upscale modern restaurant with an exposed kitchen. H and I ate at the chefs counter and watched, mesmerized, as our meal was prepared.
Bokovka wine bar (Ambiente) - Back on the Ambiente bandwagon now as we consider the options for a nice drink. This is wine bar built into a space that formerly housed a small old brewery. The walls are of stone and ceiling is vaulted. Very cozy environment and a wonderful selection of wines.
Beer Geek - Great place to grab a beer (especially after dinner at Kro Kitchen, down the street). Up to 30 beers on tap, half of which are from the Czech Republic.