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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 .
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Kavárna Kaaba
Stylish Kaaba flaunts retro furniture and pastel-coloured décor that could have come straight from the award-winning Czech pavilion at the 1958 Brussels Expo. Gourmet imported coffee (including Jamaican Blue Mountain), snacks and an extensive list of Czech and imported wines are served, while the in-house trafik (news and tobacco counter) is neatly ordered to the nearest millimetre.
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Kavárna Lucerna
A pre-cinema crowd joins card players, chain-smokers and barflies in this wonderfully atmospheric café, which nestles in an Art Nouveau shopping arcade where light filtered through the yellow cupola and dirty-coloured fake marble create an aura of bittersweet nostalgia. Chocolate cake or mednovík (honey cake) are pretty well the only non-liquid choices as you peer through the arched windows at David Černý's fibreglass Horse .
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Kino Světozor
Světozor is the only central Prague cinema for European arthouse movies, cult documentaries and mainstream and nonmainstream hits. Tucked away in yet another shopping arcade, it regularly shows Czech classics subtitled into English and participates in film festivals. The box office and film poster and DVD store (open to ) are opposite the bar and two screening rooms.
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Klub 007 Strahov
Klub 007 is a grungy student club in the basements of one of the big dormitory blocks in Strahov, near the rundown Strahov Stadium. The legendary 007 has been around since 1987, when it was a focus for underground music, and is now famed for its devotion to hardcore, punk and ska.
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Klub Újezd
Klub Újezd is one of Prague's many 'alternative' bars, spread over three floors (DJs in the cellar, and a café upstairs) and filled with a fascinating collection of hand-made furniture and fittings, original art and weird wrought-iron sculptures. Clamber onto a two-tonne bar stool in the agreeably grungy street-level bar, and sip on a beer while you watch a thick rope of herbal-scented smoke uncoil across the ceiling beside the scaly, fire-breathing sea-monster that dangles over your head. Trippy.
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Konvikt Pub
If you're looking for a reasonably traditional, down-earth pub in Prague's historic centre, you could do a lot worse than the Konvikt. Set on a street filled with police offices, it serves good Pilsner Urquell and solid Bohemian fare.
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Kuŕe V Hodinkách
'The Chicken in the Watch' is relatively posh for Žižkov, attracting slightly better-heeled locals, particularly to its downstairs music bar. With a name harking back to a 1970s Czech album, it's kitted out with eye-catching rock paraphernalia. Yet its selection of beer brands (an unusual occurrence in Prague), malt whiskies (including some connoisseurs' favourites like Lagavulin) and unexpectedly tasty food are the real reasons for visiting.
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Laterna Magika
A type of nonverbal performance combining dance, music, film and light, Laterna Magika is a much-touted part of the national heritage developed in the late 1950s. Frankly, though, the past is where its kitschy black-light performances like Casanova and Legend of the Argonauts probably belong. They're best appreciated with an extremely camp sense of humour. The theatre is an interesting Socialist relic at least.
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Le Clan
Not really happening until and often running to noon the next day, this is Prague's leading after-party venue. Buzz yourself in and take a seat in the sofa-bedecked basement or join the bods dancing. Want to see what the place runs on? Just pop into the toilets and check out the strategically mounted horizontal mirrors.
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Le Tram
There are several good neighbourhood bars on this side street, but Le Tram stands out. Looking like it's been furnished from a Prague public transport closing-down sale - it's filled with plastic seats, benches and other accoutrements salvaged from decommissioned trams, as well as other 1970s objets trouvés - this pleasantly scruffy French-owned bar pulls in a truly international crowd with cheap beer, lively converstation and cool tunes.
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Letná Beer Garden
Spread along a shaded but dusty escarpment at the eastern end of Letná Gardens, this slew of rickety benches enjoys one of the city's best views, looking across the river to the spires of Stare Město, and southwest to Malá Strana. You can rely on its being open June to September, but you'll often find it serving up Gambrinus on sunny winter days, too.
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Letná Gardens
A slew of rickety benches and tables spread along a dusty scarp beneath the trees at the eastern end of Letná Gardens enjoys one of the city's most stunning views, looking across the river to the spires of Staré Město, and southwest to Malá Strana. Gambrinus on tap.
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Letní bar
Basically a shack serving Budvar in plastic cups, this is the place to pick up a beer before hitting the little beach at the northern end of the island.
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Lucerna Music Bar
Wey-hey! At a Friday or Saturday night's 1980s/'90s video party here, you might almost think you were in northern England, as weekending easyJet-setters who knew these tunes the first time around rub shoulders with fresh-faced Erasmus students, who didn't. It's a bit of mindless fun in an unpretentious school-disco-type atmosphere. On other nights, this old theatre hosts frequent live gigs.
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M1 Lounge
A long, narrow tunnel of exposed concrete, where exposed air-con ducts and ultraviolet lighting meet candlelight and plush sofas, M1 attracts English-speaking expats and well-heeled locals (no stag parties). Its flagship evening is Wednesday's mix of indie rock, Britpop and electro, although it's moving into after-party territory with Saturday night's funky 'Liquid Time.' (Pity about the single ladies' toilet, though. Did we miss something?)
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Marquis de Sade
Housed in a former First Republic bordello, this red-lined dive bar has a deliciously low-life feel. The ceiling is patched with a sheet, the floor is creaky and from the 'comfort' of the threadbare sofas, the upper gallery looks precarious. But first-timers, regular expats and local barflies all mingle over a beer, wine, absinth, Becherovka or Fernet shot in this determinedly cocktail-free zone.
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Mecca
A slice of Ibiza in the Prague suburbs, Mecca is a premier name on the city's clubbing scene. Its black-walled interior is sultry and sexy, with the relatively small, DJ-dominated dance floor reached via a restaurant area popular with models, film stars and fashionistas; there's a chill-out lounge with curvy couches downstairs. On weekends some more pretentious punters fumble around in sunglasses. The midweek '80s/'90s night is more relaxed.
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Mill Kavarna
This artists' café-bar in Kampa Park has existed in various guises since the communist era, but you might still hear it called Tato Kejkej, its most recent previous incarnation. One or two tourists are starting to find their way over the wooden footbridge beside the wooden mill wheel, but mainly it's local alternative types who fill the smoky, dimly lit interior, arriving for coffee, beer and the occasional live gig.
