I know I have been struggling to write for the past few weeks. It is not because of lack of inspiration but rather due to lack of time. As my time in IIMB is coming to an end by the end of this month, I have been very busy with too many assignments and exams. Also, being a struggling entrepreneur means that I am basically getting no time to write.
However, I know that I cannot keep my blog unattended for so long. So, I thought I will renew the ‘Vegetarian Foodie across Europe’ series. This week I wanted to take you to a gorgeous city called Prague and the different types of food I had there.
Vegetarian Food in Prague:
One thing you would have to love as a foodie in Prague is how food is comparatively cheaper compared to the other cities I visited in Europe. I have heard that Budapest is cheaper but I have not been to Budapest yet. Prague is slowly catering to vegan travel in Europe as well.
Prague was my last but one stop during my trip across Europe. I was staying in a charming boutique hotel ‘Miss Sophie’s’. The day I got there, there were some renovations going on and hence my room was not ready yet. So, I decided to head out for lunch. I was really hungry and decided to check with Google Mami (or Baba) for inspiration. I was pleasantly surprised when it showed that a highly rated vegetarian restaurant, Etnosvet was only few minutes away from my hotel.
Find out my recommendations for Prague Food tour
Before we go any further, find out my recommendations for the best food tour in Prague
Prague Food Tour
Do this private food tour in Prague with vegetarian alternatives.
Etnosvet
Even though it was close to my hotel, me being directionally challenged (especially when I am hungry), I ended up taking some time to find the place. Totally my mistake since it was just a minute from the I P Pavlova train/metro station.
When I got to the restaurant, the hostess told me that only the weekend degustation menu was available. It was almost 2:30 – 3:00 by then and their vegan bistro was also closed. They told me the price for the degustation buffet was around 600 CZK (Czeck Koruna which is equivalent to 22 Euros or Rs 1500).
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| Etnosvet, Appetisers |
By then, I was really tired and hungry. Even though I thought it was a little too pricey, I was too exhausted to go in search of another restaurant at this late hour on a Saturday. I still did not know the prices in Prague since I had only been there for less than an hour. Best decision ever. Many people who have been to Prague may argue that I paid a lot for lunch but this vegetarian meal was the tastiest meal I had during my trip to Europe. Hence I rest my case.
It was 16 courses of delicious vegetarian food. Since it was a degustation menu, it meant that you were given sampling portions of the restaurant’s signature dishes. It was 7 courses of appetizers followed by 7 main course dishes. This was followed by a dessert course where you are free to choose your desserts from a dessert table. You can also ask for second helpings if you liked any particular course. Even though they persisted a lot, I did not have any space for a 2nd helping for any dish.
I was told that the weekend menu is not fixed and it changes every week. The day I went, some of the dishes I ate were the Tofu salami, Penne in cheese sauce, Mushroom pate with Melba toast, Singaporean noodles, 3 rice salad, Spanish rice etc.
The ones I loved were the Soya meat in Tahini sauce and the Seitan Aubergine curry. Special mention needs to be given to the Tofu salami as well. I loved their selection of desserts and it was difficult choosing only two.
Find recommendations for recipes for some of the dishes mentioned in this post
Another thing I have to mention here is the service. All the waiters and waitresses are so hospitable and I spent quite a while chatting with them. One of the guys was dead gorgeous and it was difficult concentrating on my meal with him around (those gorgeous European guys. Sigh).
Overall the cuisine is based on European, Continental and Asian cuisines. Etnosvet serves only vegetarian dishes and I would definitely recommend this place if you are in Prague and in the area. They do serve Alacarte menu on other days. But if you get to sample their degustation menu, then don’t miss the chance when you visit Etnosvet.
Looking for some food or brewery tours in Prague? I list some of the favorites below:
- Prague Wine Folklore Dinner Party
- Mozart Dinner in a Ballroom
- 3 Hour Luxury Dinner Cruise in Prague
- 3 Hour Microbrewery Tour in Prague
- Beer Walking Tour in Prague
Since I had such a heavy lunch, I decided to skip dinner that day. Breakfast at the hotel was quite good and cheap and I ended up having from there on most days even though it was not included in the bill. The good thing about Miss Sophie’s is that they have a hotel and a hostel right opposite to each other. So you get the best of both worlds when you are staying there. For people, who love to drink beer, there are many beer tours that start from the hostel. Alcohol is dirt cheap in Prague and many of the friends I made at Miss Sophie’s were busy getting drunk on 1.5 Euro vodka drinks.
At some point, I realized that I was going to go broke once I paid my hotel charges. Because of this, I ended up eating a lot of street food in Prague. Street food is really cheap and you do get many vegetarian options. On almost every corner in Prague, you can find vendors selling Potato chips on sticks, Falafels and Trdelniks. Trdelniks are like doughnuts and you can find them almost everywhere in Prague.
Compared to the other cities in Europe, Prague is relatively cheaper when it comes to food. A falafel costs around 3 Euros here whereas I paid around 6-7 Euros in Amsterdam. Also, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of vegetarian options I found in Prague. I loved my time as a vegetarian foodie in Prague.
Read other posts from my Vegetarian series:
- Vegetarian Food in Portugal
- Vegetarian Food in Spain
- Vegetarian Food in Mexico
- Vegetarian in Israel
- Vegetarian Food in France
- Vegetarian Food in Amsterdam
- Best vegan restaurants in Mexico City
- Vegetarian Food in Belgium
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Traveling to Europe and need more guidance on which books to read? These are our recommendations for you to read before you go.
Recommended: Why Prague is a favorite?
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Prague is fantastic and surprisingly cheap for food. I didn’t have any expectations that the food would be good and was pleasantly surprised at how delicious and affordable it was!
I was pleasantly surprised too. 🙂
Prague is amazing, both for food, beer and also the amazing architecture and things to see. Budapest is probably slightly cheaper but not by much. Glad you had a nice time there and managed to find plenty of veggie places. 🙂
I need to go to Budapest to judge it for myself. But Prague was an adorable city. 🙂
Prague definitely intrigues me now as a destination after reading your post. The food looks incredible!
You definitely should visit Prague. So much history.
Great post. I’d love to visit Prague. Great to know there are so many great vegetarian options out there. Every time I tried to develop a vegetarian life style I gained weight. Maybe you could give me some tips! Thanks.
At home it is not that difficult to maintain a vegetarian style. But when you are traveling, it is much more difficult. Initially when I turned vegetarian, I used to face issues but after 12 years it is not that difficult anymore.
Thanks for the follow up! I need to really focus and make it happen!
I love Prague and how relatively inexpensive it is. You have to forgive my ignorance though because this was the first time I’ve heard of a degustation menu…looks like quite the feast and sampling. Next time I travel I’ve definitely going to search restaurants with this kind of offering!
I have had the degustation menu just once before. So I loved this in Prague. 🙂
When traveling the world as a vegan or vegetarian, don’t depend on eating in restaurants for every meal. Shopping for food in grocery stores is not only cheaper (in general) but it also gives you more control over what you eat (since you can often see a full ingredient list) and it’s often an interesting local experience that’ll show you a bit more about the place you’re visiting!
Kim
This has made me want to go to Prague even more now! Its great to know there are good veggie places in Europe. I was recently in France and Spain and it was so hard!
You should check out my vegetarian posts in France and Spain. It was actually not that hard.
Wow, Prague sounds amazing! Food is one of the most exciting parts of travel to me, so this sounds perfect. My grandmother also loves to travel and is a vegetarian, so I’ll have to let her know that Prague is very veggie friendly. Great post!
Yes food forms a major part of my travels. Glad that you thought this would be helpful for your grandmother.
Happy to hear about vegetarian food in Prague! Have to bookmark this page for future reference.
I never expected Prague to be vegetarian friendly, Mridula. Hope you will find this useful.
The food looks yummy from the pictures. Was it a vegan restaurant? Both liquor and food seems to be cheap in Prague. Surprised that you could find so many vegetarian options in Europe. 🙂
Europe is actually much better than many continents when it comes to vegetarian food. Yes they serve vegan food too.
Street food is not only cheap they also give an authentic flavor of local cuisine.
Good you could indulge in them whatever be the reasons.
The problem with street food is that it caters to mostly non-vegetarians in Western countries. That is why Prague was both a budget and vegetarian friendly option.
Everything looks so good! Good to know that Prague offers so many options for everyone. Good note about the food trucks too.
Prague is definitely good with many options.
Prague is a one of my favourite European destinations, and the food does certainly play a part in that. The cuisine in a select few places has been good enough to make me thing I could live as a vegetarian (thinking India here!) – guess I’ll have to return to Prague and go veggie to see if the same applies there 🙂
It is easier to be a vegetarian in India.
How was your overall experience in Prague? I’m sure finding great vegetarian options can be challenging at times, especially while traveling.
I loved Prague. I wish I could have spent more time here.
I’ve been vegan for over 8 years now and food guides like this are super helpful! Sometimes the hardest thing about going to a new city is finding somewhere to eat when you have no idea where to go!
Thankfully there are apps and Google to find the best places now. Compared to 5 years ago, it is much easier to find vegetarian food.
Oh wow! You pulled off a vegetarian experience in Prague? Respect! Everything looks so delicious!
Europe is much easier than most places when it comes to finding vegetarian food. 🙂
Good to see such a list… I am sure t s a major issue for a lot of ndian travellers.
I used to thnk that it must be very difficult for veggie visitors in Europe…
Europe is actually much easier.
It is always a challenge to choose what to eat when in a foreign land especially when language is a barrier. These kind of posts are a big deal. We could not try much during our trip to Prague but we did try many flavors of Chimney cakes. It was just yumm. Did you try those too?
Yes I did. They are also called as Trdelniks.
What a great looking 16 course meal. It sounds like it was worth it for the price. Sometimes you can get away with just eating one big meal a day and maybe a little snack later on.
As a vegetarian in Europe, that is what I did most days. Heavy Breakfast and Heavy dinner. Snacks in between. I could not eat three meals a day because of the richness of the food.
This is exactly what I need right now. Being a veggie and headed to Europe in couple of months 🙂 Thanks for sharing it
Hope you get to taste all kinds of vegetarian food in Europe.
This is amazing, I love the photos — and they make me so hungry!
I’ve been, for a while, wanting to experiment with the vegetarian food and lifestyle. It’s a bit challenging, because where I live there aren’t many options. So thank you for sharing this!
I spent a bit of time in a Buddhist temple in Taiwan, and loved their philosophy on eating, their tastes. I miss tofu — a lot! And it’s a wonderful thing when someone can cook it nicely.
Tofu is good if someone cooks it nicely. Else it can be a disaster.
Interesting to see that they have more than just meat in Praha. I have always considered Czech (as well as Slovak) food to be centered around meat. It even looks quite delicious. 🙂
That is what I thought too. But there are many options if you look hard enough.
A wonderful overview of good veggie food in Prague! I haven’t been there yet, but will surely use this as a guide as I also a vegetarian. It surprised me so much in the beginning how easy it was to find good vegeterian food in Europe…
Thank you and hope you find it helpful. 🙂
I have never been there and I just starving looking at all your pictures! 😀 Yep they look so yummy and this city deserves a visit, not just to eat local and cheap food! thanks for sharing it 😀
Prague is a gorgeous little city and much cheaper than many places in Europe.
I continue to hear nothing but great things about Prague. Your food list sounds delightful. We love trying new things when we visited different cultures and would love to try some of these dishes when we visit one day. Great read 🙂
Thank you Christina.
It is wonderful that you found a vegan restaurant in Prague. For me a vegan serving has to include the necessary dal-chawal. Do you get these in Prague as well? I looked at your bio and it would be great if you kept out posts on vegan food in different parts of the world. Pretty helpful to souls in distress like mine.;))
I am someone who stays away from Indian food while traveling abroad since I prefer to eat local dishes. But that said Dal chawal is available in Prague. Swayam, you should check out my Vegetarian foodie series. It has posts from all over the world.
The food in Prague is absolutely glorious! I was there in 2011 and it was a great one day. I need to go there again.
I pinned the article – thanks for sharing, Soumya!
Great post!
We visited Prague last year and it was such an amazing place- great food, amazing architecture and the loveliest people 🙂
It was also the last destination on our Europe trip and honestly, we had the BEST Indian food there! So glad you found such yummy vegetarian delights 🙂
Love,
Ankita
that’s nice article.. very helpful