Prague is a charming city with tons of architectural marvels to consume, but if you know me by now, you know there’s no great sightseeing without pairing with some of the best eats in the city. Here I cover some of the highlights from my trip to Prague!
La Degustation (Dinner)
Starting off with the namesake for this post, we had dinner on our first night at this low-key, one Michelin star restaurant in the heart of Old Town (East side of the Vltava River) specializing in modern twists on traditional Czech cuisine. The ambiance was cozy and understated, and seemed to place emphasis on the kitchen and the diners. As typical of such restaurants, there was just one fixed course tasting menu available (with optional wine pairing), which naturally changes with the seasons. When we visited, the below was the menu offering:
The best way to describe the courses at La Degustation is excellent execution on simplicity. There’s no more than 2-3 ingredients listed per course, and yet the harmony of those pieces were unlike anything we’ve had before. Courses that were familiar to us (i.e., pork neck, duck) were delectable as expected, while even things we normally steer away from (i.e., beet root, cabbage) truly surprised us in the depth of flavors mined from such simplicity. Quantity was more than enough, and we walked away feeling highly satisfied with the overall experience.
Sansho (Dinner)
We opted for Asian cuisine on our second night, and visited Sansho – also located in Old Town near La Degustation. The restaurant prides itself on being a “whole animal” kitchen, which basically means all parts of an animal from the nose to the tail are somehow incorporated into the full meal. Despite my relatively adventurous palate, I was a bit hesitant on how some of the non-traditional parts of the animals would be prepared, but I was pleasantly surprised nothing was unfavorably exotic.
With that said, I have to be honest in that nothing else was overwhelmingly memorable. We certainly appreciated the Chef’s nod’s to an eclectic selection of Pan-Asian cuisines in his interpretation, but as was similar to our experience at Tim Raue in Berlin, the food offering was solid, but nothing to write home about. Notwithstanding, we loved breaking up the monotony of European dishes with some tried and true Asian dishes like a soft-shell crab bao.
Trdelník (Snack)
No trip to Prague would be complete without indulging in one of the local street food favorites – the Trdelnik. I mentioned this snack in my other post (Prague Guide), but this is a “spit cake” or “chimney cake”, which consists of fried dough in funnel form, coated in sugar and often filled with chocolate or ice cream. We gorged on this multiple times from cart vendors all around the city, and also from the Good Food Coffee and Bakery, which has several unique recipes and spins on this classic snack. No need to overindulge as I did, but do not miss it while you’re walking about!
VENUE (Breakfast / Brunch)
Going a bit out of order here, but this breakfast joint deserves a mention for it’s superb offering of traditional breakfast (bacon and eggs, omelettes, french toast), to the more modern, millennial-friendly dishes such as avocado toast! We opted for a mix of healthy and indulgent (banana oatmeal, avocado toast, mushroom + bacon + egg platter) and enjoyed every bite. Depending on when you go, there will likely be a queue, which took about ~35 minutes for us before we got a table – so might be worth calling ahead to reserve a table!
wayfaring nomad 