The Cafes of Prague

After my plethora of Viennese cafe posts (which you can find here and here and here), you would have thought I was done with talking about cafes. On the contrary, I became a little obsessed after my visit to Vienna so I decided to scoop out the best ones in Prague. The best in my opinion, is Cafe Savoy. We came here twice for breakfast and once for an afternoon coffee and pastry. Almost everything was good minus a few slight misses. Cafe Savoy, now owned by the successful Ambiente Restaurant Group, is a Prague institution. It was considered a nouveau and decadent establishment in its day with its neo-renaissance ceiling (you can view some pics here). Now, its a somewhat tourist trap but still serves the best breakfast in the city.

+ the famous Cafe Savoy vanilla milk shake (very liquidy and different from your typical diner milkshake, good but probably wouldn't order it again)
+ the French breakfast which included french toast with maple syrup, sausages, french fries, a boiled egg, blue cheese (which I did not touch) and orange juice

I was very excited to see the french toast offering on the menu but alas it was not the usual Taphouse/Sabrina's type of french toast made with challah bread and covered in sugary/buttery goodness. However, it satisfied by severe brunch craving. The french fries were more like string fries and seasoned really well, and they even came with ketchup! (not something that happens too often in Europe). Not sure why this was dubbed a French breakfast as the only thing that was kind of French was the croissant but we were happy with the big selection of food :)

+Caffe au lait
+ Croissant (a part of the French breakfast)
+ Cheese omelet
+ Housemade bread with butter
+ A very exciting selection of mustards which came with the Prague sausages (not shown).

We also ordered the frankfurter Savoy, one of the cafe's specialties, but they really just reminded us of cafeteria hot dogs. They were also boiled like cafeteria hot dogs. What did make them different was the very interesting selection of mustards and fresh horseradish that came with the dish.  V was really not a fan although I thought they were fine. Put them on a hot dog roll with a bit of the grainy mustard and it would have been a rather classy hot dog.

+ Components of the Savoy breakfast including toast, Prague ham, Emmental cheese, lightly boiled egg, housemade bread, housemade jam, hot chocolate and nut marble cake
+ Fried egg with truffle 

My favorite from the Savoy breakfast was probably the lightly boiled egg which still had a runny center (yums) and the nut marble cake. The cake is a Czech specialty and is incredibly dense and sweet. Its filled with dried cranberries and nuts and went perfectly with a strong coffee. We were inspired to order the truffled egg dish after our Haus Haus brunch in Vienna (which you can read about here) but didn't realize that the eggs would come fried as opposed to scrambled. I was still a fan although V was not. Somebody is a rather picky eater. Anyways, the general sentiment of Cafe Savoy is that its a pretty solid choice for when you're craving the cafe atmosphere and the basic housemade bread with butter is pretty darn good. 

Cafe Louvre is also another Prague institution. Most notably known due to the patronage of Kafka among other literary figures. One level below the cafe is a photo gallery which displays various exhibitions throughout the year.

+ blueberry tort
+ history of the cafe
+ louvre photo gallery

They also serve some really delicious looking (and tasting) sundaes. We came here once for lunch and the food was your standard Czech fare, which at this point, I think I have had enough of :)

+ mulled cider
+ ice cream sunday with hot fudge, eggnog liquor and whipped cream 

Coming up will be a post on my favorite restaurants of Prague thus far. Stay tuneeddd =)