If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll be very aware on that my recent holiday to Europe, I basically just ate the entire time.
We had an amazing time away and were lucky enough to be able to eat lots of delicious food! So I thought it would be nice to start a little Travel section on the blog, with lots of tips for great food and pastry spots.
Prague was, surprisingly, probably the hottest food spot on our trip. There were so many delicious bakeries, restaurants, butcher-come-cafes, street food stalls and ice cream shops that we literally did not have enough time, or space in our ever-full bellies, to visit all the ones that were on my list.
But try we did, and in no particular order, here’s a little look at the food we loved and recommend that you visit if you go to Prague!
Breakfast is one of my favourite meals, and it was particularly well done at Cafe Savoy. They have options of cooked breakfasts as well as more continental style breakfasts, which is what we went for. I love a boiled egg and bread basket, as it is something pretty much no one has on their menus in Melbourne!
They also have a pastry kitchen downstairs at Cafe Savoy, where you can watch the chefs hard at work through a glass wall. They are said to make the the best vetrinik (caramel choux pastry, on the left) in Prague, but we loved the plain vanilla choux venecek even more! Classics are always the best.
Mr Man’s favourite food in Prague was hands down the sausages! They were cooked on grills, served with bread, and went perfectly with a cold Czech beer. They sell them in stalls in the old town square, and also in the huge beer garden up in Letna Park. We loved the stunning view of Prague from up there too!
Another of his lunch favourites were the little sandwiches, or chlebíčky that we had at Sisters Chlebíčky. They are open sandwiches with a variety of fun toppings. The one with ham, potato salad, boiled egg and cornichons was our favourite! We’ve been making little chlebíčky like these a lot since we got back home. Yum!
A pastry shop that we returned to each day of our stay was the aptly named Bakeshop. They had a huge selection of cakes, cookies and pastries, but what had us coming back each day was the amazing fruit galette. I had a plum and apple and a cherry and apple one during my stay, and both were delicious (also pictured is a walnut calvados tart and a couple of cookies for Mr Man).
The galette pastry was perfectly buttery and flaky and crumbly, all at the same time. Perfection! I’ve been working on recreating a recipe for this at home, so hopefully I’ll share one with you soon!
Our favourite meal was at Maso a Kobliha. There is an emergence in Prague of butcher’s shops that double as lunch spots. They have a refrigerated cabinet of well-sourced meats for you to buy and takeaway, but they also offer those same meats on a lunch menu. Your choice of one of their steaks, perfectly grilled, for example, or their own sausages, cooked and served with mashed potato.
One such butcher/cafe is Maso a Kobliha, where Mr Man had this ox tongue sandwich on brioche served with house made chips.
My favourite was their scotch egg. I don’t eat much red meat but the mince was so flavourful, well seasoned and soft, the exterior of the scotch egg was amazingly crispy, the egg was perfectly cooked with that gorgeous runny yolk, and the dots of jammy chutney were a great touch. It was a party in my mouth.
Maso a Kobliha also serve desserts made by Maskrtnica. Her donuts, filled to the brim with smooth vanilla custard, are said to be the best in Prague.
And her burnt caramel tart was a revelation! Thick, sticky, salted, burnt caramel in a super crispy pastry case. When I first saw that thick layer of caramel I was a little scared that it would be too sickly for us to finish but the addition of a dollop of sour cream really rounds the whole thing out. Delicious! I really need to try and make this one at home!
Staying on the theme of dessert, we had beer ice cream in Prague. Yes, beer ice cream! It was surprisingly delicious. Made with a dark ale, the caramel notes of the beer hit you first and then the alcohol creeps in afterwards. Here, at Cestr, it was served with a roasted plum, caramel foam and malted cookie crumbs.
Lastly, this Czech speciality was sold in street stalls everywhere in Prague! The trdelník is a dough that gets wrapped around a wooden rod and cooked over hot coals, then is served warm. My favourite version was the one below, which was rolled in sugar and hazelnuts and coated with chocolate inside. So yum!
Have you had some delicious food in Prague? What do you think of a travel section? Would you like to see roundups of pastries in more cities? I’d love to hear your thoughts! X
P.S. A big shout out to the gorgeous Prague-based blog, Taste of Prague, as their beautiful site, gorgeous photos and detailed recommendations were the reason we went to so many amazing places in Prague to eat! We loved all of their suggestions, so thank you!