Tourist for a Weekend: We Found the Best Pancakes in Prague

When you live in one place for a long stretch of your life, you can easily catch yourself realising that your days all blur into one. That’s especially true if you live the life of a freelancer working from home. Routine is the road to ruin. We’re not big on hitting restaurants, cafés and bars — most of the time we cook our own food and drink our coffee and wine at home. But this weekend we went looking for the best pancakes in Prague and turned ourselves into tourists in our own city.

We do it out of convenience, for the sake of our wallets, and because it gives us more control over exactly what we eat. This weekend, though, we decided to do things differently. So here’s our guide on how to become a tourist in your own city for 48 hours.

We Spent 48 Hours as Tourists in Our Own City

We put on about 5 kilos. We went to the spots where tourists queue up for food and the staff greet you in English before Czech. We even ventured a little into the Orient and checked out the place that supposedly serves the “best Pho in Prague.” Our itinerary was absolutely packed with “the best of” everything. So let’s dive in!

Brunch at Coffee Room

We started with a morning that our grandparents would probably have called early afternoon. But on the weekend, surely we can all afford a little sleep-in luxury.

Luckily, Coffee Room serves breakfast on Saturdays until 2 p.m., so we didn’t even have to rush. This gorgeous little hipster café on Korunní is bursting at the seams and feels nothing like the calm vibe in the photos. And no wonder.

I’ll be dreaming about their avocado toast for a long time. We wouldn’t come back just for the coffee, though — it looked lovely, but for our taste it was a touch too citrusy. Or as Lukáš put it: “Ugh, that’s sour.” Then again, they may rotate beans, so don’t let that put you off. A hundred people, a hundred tastes 🙂

Krištof Kintera’s Nervous Trees

You’ve probably seen these washing machines from the Rudolfinum on social media at least, even if you haven’t visited Krištof Kintera’s Nervous Trees in person. The exhibition is free, and it seemed to fascinate even the youngest kids.

Something Between Lunch and Dinner, Middle Eastern Style

Hunger crept up on us during a walk through Prague, and our eyes landed on the travel-themed restaurant Hedvábná stezka (Silk Road) near the National Theatre. Lebanese cuisine generally isn’t about one big meal — instead you share several smaller dishes. So we did just that and ordered stuffed pita with cheese, falafel and stuffed parcels, along with some hummus. It was plenty for two, especially since we were planning to try the cinnamon cake and spiced halva.

Wine. Done Properly.

I’ve been passing by Vinograf for years. But we’d never actually been inside. They won me over the moment I saw their website and discovered they have a wine called Lucie. Who could resist? Vinograf surprised us with its intimate atmosphere, which was exactly what we needed after a day spent among the crowds. You’ll be hard pressed to find better service in Prague, and with such a wide (and I mean wide) wine selection, you’ll have no trouble picking something. And if you do, they’ll gladly advise.

The Cinema to the Rescue

Lucie was excellent, so it was lucky we had cinema tickets in an hour and a half — otherwise we might not have stopped at just one glass. And the next day we had to play tourist all over again.

We Had to Queue for Breakfast

The best pancakes in Prague. You’ll find very few bad words about the Den Noc bistro, and the ones you do are usually about how tiny the place is and how you have to wait. We didn’t escape that either — we waited about fifteen minutes for a table outside the bistro. The menu features several savoury and sweet varieties of these little pancakes.

This weekend we went all in on sweet. We both adore sweet things and we both deny ourselves them in our “normal life.” Lukáš went for Lindt chocolate, whipped cream and an extra scoop of ice cream, while I chose cinnamon, butter and banana.

The coffee, while more ordinary than at Coffee Room, didn’t have that sour aftertaste, though the milk was a touch over-steamed (we’re coffee nuts, you’ve probably worked that out by now). What we’d have loved most with the pancakes was filter coffee, American style, but sadly they don’t serve it.

A Cultural Sure Thing: Dox

When we were in Canada, the airship had just opened at Dox. I promised myself we’d go the moment we got back. But time slipped by and we never seemed to have a few free hours.

So we finally used our free weekend to go and see it, and in one go we managed to take in the exhibition BEFORE OUR EYES: Stories of Iraq too, which I’d been meaning to visit for a while.

Whenever someone asks me where to go for an exhibition in Prague, I always say Dox. 99% of what they put on is genuinely worth it.

Where the Best Pho Is (Isn’t)

“I could go for some Pho.” I hear this sentence from Lukáš about once every two days, so it came as no surprise when we scrapped our plans for yet another hipster bistro and wrapped up our weekend at Pho u Letné, which — like so many others — is said to serve the best Pho in Prague.

Like most Vietnamese restaurants, it has a plain interior and doesn’t look like anything special at first glance. And yet it’s packed. I’m not really a Pho person, so I ordered curry in a ceramic pot with rice.

For a starter we had spring rolls. They were a bit greasier than we’re used to, but they still vanished as fast as if we’d skipped breakfast. The Pho could have been a little more flavourful, but I can wholeheartedly recommend the curry.

If we’re ever hungry in the area, we’ll definitely come back, but it won’t be filed away as our favourite Vietnamese spot in Prague.

Where should we head next time? Got any tips for us? Drop them in the comments. 🙂