Prague Guide

It is possible to find almost everything you could possibly want in the supermarkets of Prague, ranging from Japanese to Indian food, and from Arabic through to local produce. You’ll also be able to find the most popular European products, such as Heinz beans, Italian cured ham and Spanish chorizo sausage.

As with every single country in the world, the Czech Republic has a large range of traditional food, all of which should be sampled by every tourist to give them a real feel for the country. Food from this part of the world is usually hearty and fill...

Hunting for mushrooms is generally deemed to be the pastime of the nation in the Czech Rep, with 70% of its' citizens engaging in this activity. Once mushrooms sprout in forests, people venture out with a wicker basket to collect them—and these mushrooms are not just normal mushrooms.

Overall, perhaps the greatest venue to really sample proper Czech food is to get an invitation to dine in someone's house.  Nonetheless, this is still not straight forward, as many people these days often just cook simple, more cosmopolitan recipes. Czech food made the traditional way is usually kept for a Sunday or a holiday or cooked by an old grandmother when visited by her children.  This isn't always the case, but it does happen often.

Czech people are emotionally connected to their meadows and forests. Local people vanish from Prague's streets during weekends in the summer months, when they leave for the cottages they own in the country-side. Lengthy forest walks amongst the trees, with frequent breaks for picking wild blueberries, mushrooms and strawberries are a traditional routine.

Traditional meals in the Czech Republic are wholesome and designed to feed people up well after a tough day's work of manual labour. They are quite high in fat content and usually very substantial  which is perfect during the winter months. Recently, there has been a trend of eating lighter meals containing a greater quantity of vegetables. The standard fatty and heavy Czech foods are often not consumed everyday now and many people omit these meals completely. Nonetheless, there's no food that compliments fantastic Czech beer as well as good quality, traditional Czech food like duck, goose and knedlíky (i.e. dumplings), sauerkraut and pork.

Czech menus can be problematic. Even if you have a reasonable knowledge of culinary terms in Czech, you'll almost definitely require the assistance of the waiter. If you ask a Czech to name the most typical Czech dish, the chances are he or she will answer "Knedlo-vepřo-zelo". This dish is synonymous with traditional Czech cuisine.

Our tips - Best for Czech food: U Sádlů; La Degustation; U Maltézských Rytířů. Budvarka - This is not far from the Dejvická metro station but worlds apart from most pubs when it comes to food service. Café Savoy - Just off Legions' Bridge, this is a picture-perfect Victorian-era café. Even if the food were marginal, it would be recommended for the setting, décor and ornate ceiling.

The pubs in Prague, which are omniscient, smoke-filled and down-to-earth, have straightened up a little recently but are still packed with locals and are affordable. The Golden Tiger is quite an old drinking hall with cool beer prices, just 36 CZK for 0.5l for the frothy Pilsner Urquell lager. When Bill Clinton visited the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel showed him this pub - to see a real Czech pub.