Cocktails, wine bars and dives: drinking in Prague for grown-ups.
Cocktail bars, wine bars, dive bars and gastropubs: drinking in Prague for grown-ups.
Hemingway Bar in the Old Town is Prague's serious cocktail destination, holding the city's largest absinthe collection and over 200 rums in a corner-room hideout near Charles Bridge.
Signature drink: Absinthe cocktail with rum reduction
Food: Snacks
Tip: Reserve ahead; the bartenders do classic cocktails better than anyone in the city.
Black Angel's Bar hides in the Gothic cellar of U Prince Hotel beneath Old Town Square, with a 1930s prohibition mood and an exhaustive list of pre-Prohibition cocktail classics.
Signature drink: Pre-Prohibition classics
Food: Bar snacks
Tip: Take the velvet booth at the back; bartenders work spec from the era's manuals.
AnonymouS Bar in the Old Town runs a V for Vendetta theme with a menu revealed under UV light. The cocktails behind the gimmick are some of the city's best-spec'd.
Signature drink: UV-revealed menu cocktail
Food: Bar snacks
Tip: Order the spec called Memory; the back room is quieter.
L'Fleur is AnonymouS Bar's small sister room, a tight cocktail bar with a Rorschach inkblot menu. Cocktails are designed around a single psychological theme each.
Signature drink: Rorschach-themed cocktail
Food: Bar snacks
Tip: Smaller and tighter than Anonymous; the bartender's choice is the smart order.
BeerGeek Bar in Vinohrady runs 32 changing taps of Czech and international craft beer. The owners brew Sibeeria themselves and curate a serious bottle and whisky list.
Signature drink: 32 changing taps of craft beer
Food: Snacks, sausages
Tip: The Sibeeria stout is the house pour; trip across to Slavikova for the shop.
Lokal Dlouhaaa pours Pilsner from tank in a 70-metre 1970s-style hall. The bar runs on the pace of a beer-tap-only Czech pub, with the same Pilsner you cannot find this fresh elsewhere.
Signature drink: Tank Pilsner Urquell
Food: Full Czech pub menu
Tip: Stand at the bar if no booth is available; the second tap pour is the smarter order.
Sad Man's Tongue is the Old Town's rockabilly bar-bistro, cash-only, taking no reservations, doing American-style burgers and beer in a 1950s-styled room near Karoliny Svetle.
Signature drink: Cash-only American beer pour
Food: American burgers
Tip: Cash only; the burger plate is the kitchen's main reason to exist.
U Fleku has poured beer since 1499 on the same Nove Mesto block. The dark 13-degree Flek lager and the eight beer halls inside the brewery make this Prague's beer cathedral.
Signature drink: Flek Dark Lager 13
Food: Czech pub menu
Tip: Wave off the Becherovka shots; pay for the beer only.
Vinohradsky Pivovar's house lager pours from tank in a glassed-in tap-room above the brewery. Outdoor beer garden in summer, classic Czech kitchen, neighbourhood book-ahead crowd.
Signature drink: House lager from tank
Food: Full Czech pub menu
Tip: The desitka is the smarter pour than the dvanactka with food.
Strahov Monastery has brewed beer since around 1400. The current brewery on the Castle hill pours its own Sv. Norbert beers next to a Czech pub kitchen and a quiet courtyard.
Signature drink: Sv. Norbert beer
Food: Czech pub menu
Tip: Skip the dark; the amber is the brewery's tightest pour.
U Medvidku in the Old Town brews X-Beer 33, the strongest beer in the Czech Republic, in a microbrewery above the 1466 beer hall. Cellars are big, queues are real, beer is heavy.
Signature drink: X-Beer 33
Food: Czech pub menu
Tip: X-Beer 33 is for one pour; the standard 12-degree is the keeper.
Automat Matuska in Dejvice is the Krivoklatsko brewery's Prague taproom, opened 2019. American BBQ from the kitchen, Matuska IPAs and lagers on rotating taps, no-frills tap-room style.
Signature drink: Matuska IPA
Food: American BBQ
Tip: Ask which Matuska pilsner is on; the IPA travels but the lager rotates.
Lokal U Bile Kuzelky pours tank Pilsner Urquell in an 1862-era cellar near Charles Bridge. The Mala Strana Lokal of the Ambiente chain, with the same kitchen as Dlouha.
Signature drink: Tank Pilsner Urquell
Food: Czech pub menu
Tip: Sit in the front room; the back fills with the tour-group crowd.
Lokal Hamburk in Karlin is the river-harbour-themed Ambiente Lokal, the most neighbourhood-feeling of the chain. Tank Pilsner, big windows, the office crowd settles in evenings.
Signature drink: Tank Pilsner Urquell
Food: Czech pub menu
Tip: The terrace seats in summer go fast; book ahead Friday onward.
Manifesto Market Smichov is the open-air food and drink yard near Andel. Twenty-plus food stalls, four bars including cocktails and natural wine, DJ sets in summer.
Signature drink: Craft cocktails and natural wine
Food: Twenty-plus food stalls
Tip: Cashless; queue is real on weekend evenings, come Tuesday or Wednesday.
Peak food season in Prague is year-round.
Local dining hours: lunch around 12:30, dinner from 19:30.
service is typically included; small extra is welcome but not expected.
Ask the next local you meet what they would order. Prague rewards trust.