10 VEGETARIAN RESTAURANTS IN PRAGUE

Years ago, about the only thing that Prague had to offer in terms of vegetarian cuisine was fried cheese. Certainly, fried cheese can be a true culinary delight after leaving a bar at 3:00 in the morning. However, it’s not necessarily something you want to have as a dietary staple. The non-meat-eaters among us will be happy to know that fried cheese no longer dominates the vegetarian food on offer in this fair city. In fact, over the past decade there are quite a number of vegetarian restaurants that have sprung up here and about, and these days finding a meatless meal is no longer the futile quest that it could have been a decade ago. Following is a list of good vegetarian restaurants which are all near to places that you’re probably going to be anyway while visiting Prague. Enjoy your meal, and dobrou chut’!

Hungry?

Hungry?

1. Dhaba Beas serves food based on recipes from northern India, buffet-style and sold by weight. They have eight different locations in Prague. Two branches in the center can be found on Na Poříčí and at  Týnská 19.

2. Bhojan is totally fast-in-and-out style, but the food is excellent, prepared fresh daily. Choose from large and small menu with soups and traditional Indian sweets and drinks. Located here on the left side of the Vltava near Letna park.

3. Maitrea is more of a place to linger over your dinner and enjoy the atmosphere. The interior is quite nice, all like sea-shell lamp shades and Buddha statues. They have a small standard seasonal menu that changes seasonally with the veggies, and a daily menu that changes daily, as one would expect it would. Located here near Old Town Square and next to Týn Church.

4. Rawcha is a raw food vegan restaurant hidden in a courtyard and a bit hard to find, but well worth looking for, especially on those days when you feel so good that you just can’t be bothered to wait for your food to be cooked. Find them here.

5. Lehká Hlava, a.k.a. Clear Head, has great food and a really well-thought-out and artful interior, complete with magic mushroom lamps. Located here, not far from the river and close to the National Theater.

6. Country Life is right next door to Old Town Square, here on Melantrichova street just a few meters away from the Sex Machines Museum. It’s buffet-style and pay by weight, and also has its own bio grocery store attached.

7. Loving Hut is a chain with six locations right in central Prague, serving all Asian-style cuisine which varies with the branch you visit. All vegan, all the time.

Dining with a view at Podolka.

Dining with a view at Podolka.

8. Restaurace Podolka is a little south of the center right on the river. They have a dining area with nice water views, and you can get there easily from the center by taking tram 17 from the National Theater to tram stop Podolská Vodárna.

9. MyRaw, another location for those too laid-back or too impatient to have their food cooked. Located here close to most of the major in-town hostels and hotels.

10. Estrella is a little harder to locate than many of the restaurants on this list, but be brave, follow the map, and go for it. You won’t regret the choice. It’s still in the center, you just have to navigate a simple maze of back streets and you’re there.

The interior of MyRaw.

The interior of MyRaw.

Jeff Fritz

I first came to the Czech Republic in 2004, and came to Prague to live in 2005. Since then, I've traveled all over the country and have spent almost as much time in the city as out of it, hiking the woods and mountains and attending open-air festivals. I spent 4.5 years working as a tour guide doing historical walks, brewery tours, ghost tours after dark, and acting as the beer master for a Czech beer tasting. Following that, I worked for 3 years as general manager of a large live-music venue in the Old Town, and 1.5 years as manager for a tea house and specialty beer bar in Letná. I have also worked as an actor, designer, and technical director for most of the English-language theatre companies in Prague. And my wife and I have been operating an independent theatre company here called Akanda since 2008. History, especially of Central and Eastern Europe, has been a passion of mine since university.

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