-
Alcohol Bar
A booklike drinks menu more than 80 pages long, a selection of 400 cocktails, a glinting display of rum, tequila and whisky and a cigar humidor - this New York-style bar wheels in a reasonably sophisticated mix of international and local guests.
-
Aloha Wave Lounge
The cocktail menu at this popular Hawaiian surf-themed bar is heavy on drinks involving rum, coconut, pineapple and banana, while the décor tends towards palm fronds and 1950s surf-dude posters. Head for the candlelit downstairs lounge, with its leather sofas and laid-back sounds (Latin Monday and Tuesday, beach hits Wednesday, live bands Thursday and dance parties Friday and Saturday).
-
Bar & Books
The walls are indeed lined with books at this branch of the famous Manhattan cocktail bar, but the well-heeled clients are more likely to be reading the labels on the vast range of single malts, bourbons, brandies and vintage ports on offer, along with Cuban and Dominican cigars. The black-waistcoated staff are unerringly polite and efficient, and mix a mean martini, margarita or champagne cocktail.
-
Blatouch
Nobody will think you're anti-social if you turn up with a book for company and curl up in a corner for the night. Serving tea, coffee and snacks, Blatouch is a pleasantly relaxed literary hang-out, with a long, narrow bar lined with antique bookcases and Edward Hopper prints, and a tiny garden courtyard out the back.
-
Blind Eye
The owners keep the lighting very low in this scurrilous little speakeasy-style bar, because they reckon we all look better that way. Here a mix of expats and Žižkov locals lounge around, play table football or quaff the legendary 'Adios m*therf*cker' cocktails. Thursday's electroclash DJ evenings sees the place particularly mobbed.
-
Blue Light
The Blue Light is an appropriately dark and atmospheric jazz cavern, as popular with locals as with tourists, where you can enjoy a relaxed cocktail as you cast an eye over the vintage posters, records and grafitti that deck the walls. The background jazz is recorded rather than live, but on a quality sound system that never overpowers your conversation.
-
Café Bambus
Bambus is a dimly lit and often smoky café-bar sporting potted bamboo plants, a pleasantly laid-back atmosphere, and a good cocktail menu. It pulls in a mixed crowd of young locals plus occasional backpackers who have found their way from nearby hostels.
-
Café Gaspar Kasper
Gaspar Kasper is a convivial, nonsmoking café-bar in an L-shaped nook overlooking the courtyard at the Celetná Theatre, hidden away from the tourist crowds. Its arty credentials include lots of theatrical literature lying around for your perusal, and a naked scarlet lady with green nipples perched above the bar. The inexpensive snack menu includes sandwiches, potato pancakes and cheeseburgers.
-
Café Louvre
Others are more famous, but French-style Louvre is arguably Prague's most amenable grand café. The atmosphere is wonderfully olde-worlde, yet there's a proper nonsmoking section among its warren of rooms and it serves good coffee (a Prague rarity) as well as food. Pop in for a great breakfast before , play a little billiards, and check out the associated art gallery downstairs when leaving.
-
Café Savoy
Established in 1893 and restored in 2004, the Savoy fairly glows with belle-époque splendour, its colourful, ornately decorated ceiling decked with crystal chandeliers (grab a table on the mezzanine for a closer view) and its waiting staff dressed in matching red waistcoats and ties. Great coffee and hot chocolate, and a decent wine list too.
-
Advertisement
-
Caffé Kaaba
Kaaba is a stylish little architect-designed café-bar with retro furniture and pastel-coloured décor straight out of the 1959 Ideal Homes Exhibition. It serves excellent coffee (made with freshly ground imported beans), offers an extensive list of Czech and imported wines (house wine only 30Kč a glass), and also has an in-house news and tobacco counter.
-
Casa Blu
This Latin American bar feels a little secretive, and if the windows on Kozí are covered over, just turn the corner onto Bílkova to be let in. Inside, street signs in Spanish, Aztec blankets and lots of tequila create a cosy atmosphere. Get here before to catch happy hour.
-
Club Stella
Club Stella is an intimate, candlelit café-bar that seems to be the first place everyone recommends when you ask about gay and lesbian bars in Prague. There's a long narrow bar where you can just squeeze onto a bar stool, an armchair-filled lounge that looks like somebody's living room, and a welcoming crowd of locals. Ring the doorbell to get in.
-
Dobrá Čajovna
This tearoom, tucked up a passage off Wenceslas Square, is a little haven of warm orange walls, oriental rugs and cushions hidden away from the heaving crowds on the nearby street. They take their tea seriously here, and you can choose from a wide range of Chinese, Indian, Sri Lankan, Japanese and Turkish leaves. There are also cakes and vegetarian snacks, such as hummus and pitta bread.
-
Duplex
Located in a glass cube perched on the 6th and 7th floors above Wenceslas Sq, this opulently decorated club has great views over the city and a penchant for trancey house music. Hosting a range of so-called MTV parties, Dirty Dancing and Bohemian eves, its central location attracts numerous stag parties.
-
Face-To-Face
Cheap drinks, plus 'all-inclusive' parties where your entry fee covers wine, beer and soft drinks, pull in a very young mix of locals and foreigners on a budget. Otherwise, mainstream dance music, DJs and emcees fuel the uncomplicated party atmosphere in this former exhibition hall.
-
Friends
Friends is a welcoming gay music-and-video bar serving excellent coffee, cocktails and wine. It's a good spot to sit back with a drink and check out the crowd, or join in the party spirit on assorted theme nights, which range from Czech pop music and movies to cowboy parties. DJs add their own spin from on Friday and Saturdays.
-
Grand Café Orient
Prague's only Cubist café, the Orient was designed by Josef Gočár and is Cubist down to the smallest detail, including the lampshades and coat-hooks. It was restored and reopened in 2005, having lain closed since 1920. Decent coffee and inexpensive cocktails.
-
Hapu
Visiting Hapu is like popping around for a drink in a popular friend's living room. This shabby-chic, shallow basement is jam-packed even on weeknights with a familiar, frequently English-speaking crew who feel comfortable enough to bring the dog along if they please. The whole point, though, is that the place mixes a mean cocktail - arguably the best in town - with freshly squeezed fruit juices.
-
Hostinec U Kocoura
'The Tomcat' is a long-established traditional pub, still enjoying its reputation as a former favourite of ex-president Havel, and still managing to pull in a mostly Czech crowd despite being in the heart of tourist-ville (maybe it's the ever-present pall of cigarette smoke). It has relatively inexpensive beer for this part of town - 26Kč for 0.5L of draught Budvar or Pilsner Urquell.
-
Advertisement
-
Infinity
Smart-casual clubbing gear is the order of the day in this midsized cellar, where the clientele seems a tad sleeker than usual. Alternating between upbeat happy house and nostalgic '60s to '90s nights, it's much more enjoyable than its reputation as the second biggest pick-up joint in Prague might suggest. (We're not telling you the first!). Follow the crowds from nearby Flora metro station and down through the middle of the ground-floor restaurant.
-
Institut Français
Prague's French cultural institute has a nice little café at the back (go in the main entrance and bear right), frequented by French expats but open to all, where you can read the latest issues of Le Monde and Le Figaro over café au lait and a croissant or pain au chocolat .
-
Jágr's Sport Bar
Owned by NHL ice-hockey superstar Jaromír Jágr - mainstay of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the '90s, and winner of Olympic gold with the Czech national team in '98 - this cavernous sports bar offers fans four large projection screens and no fewer than 40 TVs, so you needn't miss a moment of that important match. Better priced than other sports bars, but get in early - it fills up quickly before big events.
-
Jáma
The Hollow, southeast off Vodičkova, is a popular American expat bar and restaurant, with a leafy little beer garden out back shaded by lime and walnut trees. The clientele is a mix of expats, tourists and young Praguers, and there's Pilsner Urquell, Gambrinus and Velkopopvický Kozel on draught. The food menu includes good burgers, steaks, ribs and chicken wings.
-
Kavárna Evropa
The Grand Hotel Evropa sports the most atmospheric café on Wenceslas Square, a fading museum of over-the-top Art Nouveau. Sadly, it has long since become a tourist trap, with second-rate cakes and coffee and rip-off prices, but it's still well worth a look inside.
