Food specialties to try out in Prague

When we hear Czech food specialties, we often think about the goulash with potato dumplings. There’s that indeed, but so much more !

Here are the top places to eat in Prague and the best food to try out !

Christmas markets are the best place in Winter to enjoy the Prague food specialties !

There are tons of smoked ham or Pražská Šunka, roasting over an open wood fire

You will also find sausages everywhere, especially Pražská klobása, which are red sausages with added spices. If you are still not decided, the smell will convince you !

Also an important part of the culinary experience at the Prague Christmas Market scene, are the potato pancakes, or Bramboráky.

There’s a lot of Langos stands, which is a Hungarian specialty. It consists of a deep-fried dough slathered with cream, cheese and bacon. Although there are many of them, I’d rather recommend trying this dish in Budapest for example. You can have a larger variety of toppings, so it can be a bit more tasty.

For a sweet note, you cannot skip on the Trdelník, or chimney cake. Although it is not originally Czech, you will find them everywhere and there are really good ! It is a sweet dough wrapped around a rotating stick over an open flame. The classic ones have a coat of sugar and cinnamon, but you can any flavour you want. The price is around 100 CZK (4€).

For traditional Czech cuisine, we went twice to Mlejnice Restaurace, located 100 meters from the Old Town square.

It has all the authentic Prague dishes and the setting is very typical. It’s a great address so there are quite busy. Don’t expect the warmest welcome, but you will be served quickly and it is not expensive at all !

We went there twice to try all the traditional food : cold pickled sausage, fried schnitzel with potatoes, red sausages, potato gnocchi with sour cabbage… We tested everything !

Personally, I’d recommend the schnitzel or the sausages. On the menu you will also find lots of different kind of meat, many potato options and a few traditional desserts. We paid around 440 CZK (19€) each time for two dishes.

I also heard that the Lokal restaurants are a great address for traditional Czech food. We didn’t try it as it was closed when we wanted to go.

Another place I would ABSOLUTELY recommend is Knedlín. It is a local place revisiting in a very modern way the famous knedlík. It is a Czech dumpling which can be savoury or sweet, and a essential part of the Czech gastronomy.

They created 25 flavours from chicken curry to goulash for the salty ones and from pistachio to pure mango for the sweet ones. The price for one is 69 CZK (a bit less than 3€).

It is also a good place to eat on the go in Prague and there’s also a booth in the Christmas market on Old Town square.

For the salty ones (second photo), we tried the hot and spicy sausage, the wild garlic and brined cheese (a bit too garlicky) and the souvlaki chicken.

To satisfy our sweet tooth (last picture), we got the caramel and hazelnuts, the pistachio and the kinder chocolate (a true delight, we came back for this one !).

Maybe not so typical restaurants but really good addresses when you are in Prague.

As we tasted a wide range of Czech specialties, we wanted to return to more “classic” meals.

A really good Italian restaurant located at 150 meters from the Old Town square is Pasta Fresca.

They make really tasty fresh pasta and the setting is lovely. For our 2 plates of pasta, we paid 600 CZK, which is around 25€.

Another place I recommend is Paprika, an israeli restaurant offering dishes such as falafel, hummus and shawarma. It’s really good, not expensive (445 CZK or 18€ for this sharing menu) and a very quick service.

Lastly, I recommend trying different addresses for Trdelník. We found our favorite at TRDLO (the pistachio and kinder chocolate one – third image below).

We found that the ones from Staropražské Tradiční Trdlo had too much filling (we got vanilla) and in the end it was a bit sickening.

That’s it for my food recs in Prague, make sure to check my other articles : Prague itinerary, Prague by night, Know before you go : Prague Edition, and also The best museums to visit.