With the Michelin guide skipping a year (there’s a lot of discussion now in our social bubble about the fact that the guide now cooperates with local tourist boards to „promote“ the given destination’s food scene… for a fee) and eater.com’s Kat Odell not having refreshed their awesome heatmap (guess who gave Kat a few tips for the one!) for quite some time, it is obviously up to us to write a piece about the latest coolest and best Prague restaurants and other food stops.
We have decided to do this quarterly from now on, and with Q1 2023 behind us, it is high time we start. So here we go:
New Prague restaurants and food stops
Šodó bistro
We have to start with the obvious: we have opened a bistro in the residential district of Dejvice. It is tiny but it has a big heart… with a bit of a cholesterol problem because we stuff browned butter into everything like there’s no tomorrow. We have teamed up with the one and only Gabi and Petr, aka PG Foodies, who run the successful Etapa bistro in the Karlin district, to open a place we would enjoy ourselves - the design is Scandinavian, but the seating and layout definitely Parisian.
We serve breakfasts, light lunches and whole lotta sweet baking, all tied together with specialty coffee, a condensed but meaningful menu of mostly natural and local wines (basically the best samples gathered and collected from our Moravian wine tours) and a few low-ABV drinks for the day-drinking we so much enjoy. We have a great team: our chef Ondra is the former executive chef at Eska, our main barista Honza used to work at Berlin’s infamous The Barn nad was trained at Doubleshot, Prague’s OGs of specialty coffee, and our main baker Eva is the person behind the kolache at Letec Espresso Bar we adored for the longest time.
So come over! We promise it’s worth it. The place is popular during the weekends - with some wait time possibly involved - while things are more relaxed Mondays through Thursdays. And we’ll tell you where to go from us - Dejvice and Bubeneč are great residential districts worth exploring.
Bjukitchen
We’re not the only bistro that opened in February - our good friend Bára Karpíšková, aka Bjukitchen, opened her eponymous bistro just a few weeks after us. (We knew of each other and like each other to the point of almost consulting menus so that we don’t serve the same things because we knew we liked the same things.)
Her bistro is like from another, friendlier planet with better design - her almost all-female staff focuses on porridges of different savoury and sweet styles, and on granola, Bára’s forte. (We love our granola, but Bára’s granola is da bomb.) The place is very kid-friendly, with a generous kid’s corner at the back of the place, and an ice-cream machine ready to generate happy faces when the season hits. It is located at Jungmannova street in New Town, so it’s easily accessible when you’re roaming the city centre. This is like getting invited to the cool table by the cool people who are smiling at you and waving you to come in. We love it.
Alcron / Almanach X
After a lengthy remodelling, the iconic Alcron hotel, arguably the first boutique hotel in the world, has been slowly reopening to the public under the Almanach X brand that includes other properties in Austria and elsewhere. The restaurant is slowly reopening, too, but a bit different: the fittings are more modern than in the old-fashioned La Rotonde days, and the menu is more modern, too. Headed by chef Eliška Hromková, the kitchen turns out plant-forward dishes that can be high on technique but still focus on taste and balance. The wine list is an intelligent mix of local favourites and cool boutique Champagnes.
Hotel restaurants are always a tough sell for the locals who hesitate to walk past a front desk to eat. But it would be a mistake to miss Alcron - it is a very competent restaurant that mixes fine dining touches with casual and friendly service, and immediately ranks among the best in town. Right now it’s lunches and breakfasts; while brunches were popular at La Rotonde, Alcron still tries to figure out how to serve them.
Chi Xiao Mian
If there is one thing we complain about in Prague, it’s the sore lack of cool Chinese restaurants in town. (Jan has enquired about a Din Tai Fung license in Prague. The silence was deathening. Oh, and if anyone tells you that Sia is a great Chinese restaurant, never trust that person with anything.)
So when spicy Chinese hand-pulled noodles appear in town, we’ll take it. Chi Xiao Mian occupies a space in the hip JzP (Jiriho z Podebrad) area of the Vinohrady district and it’s a weird animal - the menu is fun and would fit in a cool Chinese street food joint (and the hilarious Google translate mishaps in the menu give it a sense of authenticity), but the place itself shows hints of higher ambitions: there’s veneer everywhere, and wine fridges and some fancy touches.
We’ve tested only a few dishes so far and liked most of them, and we went in the opening week, so we’re confident things only got better from there. If you have an itch only Chinese noodles will scratch, give these guys a try.
Laforme in Nusle
The Nusle district has long lived in the shade of the more lustrous districts on its norther side - Vinohrady and Vršovice. There are no major sights there, or any major train stations, or churches. Culinary-wise, it has been long known for U Bansethů and their iconic duck-sauerkraut-dumpling-Pilsner combo, and recently for the Italian double punch of Frankie’s Pizza and Mozarellart, lovingly named „Nuslita“.
But with new developments, things have been changing for the better in Nusle, a neighbourhood now attracting younger residents. The newest addition to the local food scene is a brand new branch of Laforme, artisanal bakery and specialty coffee shop combination. The Nusle branch is a brand new fit-out of a brand new development, but all the staples that made the two existing locations of Laforme in Bubeneč and Vinohrady popular are there - carefully prepared coffee, and great croissants and sweet baked creations. The new location seems to be ready for younger crowds and can feel a bit like a co-working hub.
Terasa u Zlaté studně
This may not be a new opening, but it feels like one. Terasa u Zlaté studně used to be the quintessential „Prague restaurant with a view“ that served fine dining dishes and fine dining prices mostly to affluent tourists from abroad. With all due respect - it always flew below our radar: it did not feel like a place locals would find great value.
That all has changed with the arrival of Chef Hlaváček, one of the most promising Czech chefs today with experience from London’s legendary The Ledbury and Napa Valley’s Meadowood. Lukáš is a fine dining chef and his dishes will always be high on technique, but he has worked with the best and our podcast episode with him showed he is an intelligent, forward-looking young chef who knows where it’s at. And then the view, obviously. The value proposition of the Golden Terrace has immediately shot up with this great hire.
Zrno zrnko in Dejvice
Artisanal bread made at a scale? Hey, if San Francisco’s Tartine can do it, why not Zrno Zrnko? (Fun fact: Tartine uses Czech ovens made in Moravia and designed by Mr Kočařík, one of our favourite winemakers and a regular spot of our Moravian wine tour.) The newest branch is in the residential district of Dejvice, and it’s a nice one - they have a fancy coffee machine and serve specialty coffee, which goes well with the sweet baking done on the premises.
Is the bread as good as some of our favourites, like Praktika, Kro Bakery or U Kalendů? Not yet, but it’s still great bread. And this is one chain we can get behind. (We’re not so hot on Antonínovo pekařství, the cheaper baking chain in Prague that is otherwise very popular.)
San Carlo in Letná
For many the best pizzeria Napoletana in Prague, San Carlo, has opened a new location in the cool district of Letná, taking over the place from its arch-rival, Da Antonio. (Antonio allegedly used to work for San Carlo, only to leave with the know-how and so on.)
This is not your cool hipster pizza where the pizzaiolo is a a guy with a moustache and „Aqua + Farina“ tattooed on his forearm. The pizzaiolo in San Carlo will probably be a slightly tired middle-aged Italian guy rocking a dad bod. So don’t expect attitude and cool tables, but rather well made Neapolitan pies and some classic Italian dishes.
And that’s it for Q1 2023 we’re afraid. See you back in three months! There’s some exciting openings coming up.