Glimpses of Prague

There are so many bars and pubs to visit in Prague, and some of them are worth taking a look at. In this post I will share a couple of places I recommend.

Not far from the Jiřího z Poděbrad metro station you can find Hrom do Police. This cellar restaurant is special as it sells beer from the Policka brewery. Right now the dark Eliška beer is available. This is a wonderful seasonal beer that it is worth checking out.

I usually spend some time at U Sadu while in Prague. This excellent hospoda offers several good draught beers. Tanková Pilsner Urquell is a treat that usually can be found here. This is an unpasteurized version of the excellent golden lager from Plzen. At my last visit U Sadu offered the unfiltered version that is even better. That beer was only available as a Pilsner Urquell marketing campaign for a short period of time.

Also in Žižkov, at Tachovské náměstí, you will find U Slovanské Lípy. This great hospoda sells the magnificent beers from the Kout na Šumavě brewery.

These beers are not available in bottles, so my tip is to bring along a water bottle so they can fill it up for you with draught beer. The 10° and 12° lagers are worth drinking in your hotel room as well. Or any Kout na Šumavě beer, for that matter!

My friend Pivní Filosof released his great book on pub crawls in Prague earlier this year. If you go to Prague, it is a must! One of the pubs not mentioned in the book is called U Vodoucha. It opened after the book was published. The pub in Jagellonská street is in walking distance from U Slovanské Lípy. The beer philosopher brought me to the pub, and it was a treat. Here there was great beers and fine Czech food. I was lucky to find beers from the Berounský Medvěd brewery, and I fell in love with the fabulous 11° Zlatý Kůn beer. This golden lager had a fantastic taste of fresh hops, and I really blame myself for not visiting this pub again during my stay in Prague. I should have bought some PET bottles to take home from the pub.

A few minutes from U Vodoucha you will find Vinohradská street. There you can jump on tram number 11 going towards Spořilov. In Čestmírova street near the Náměstí Bratří Synků tram stop the fantastic Zlý Časy pub can be found. With 24 draught beers available, there is always an interesting beer to find.

Take the trip to Zlý Časy and enjoy some of the beers available. You will not regret it.

By the way: Since my visit to Prague this Spring, the herna bar at the Dejvická metro has been closed down. That is a pity, as I liked having a half litre of Rychtář golden lager on my way to or from Prague airport. The pub was a dive, but the beers were good.

Party time at U Slovanské Lípy

The first times I visited U Slovanské Lípy in Prague, it was an ordinary and somewhat boring pub with extraordinary beers. The Kout na Šumavě beers are excellent, and it is easy sitting down enjoying them for a long time. On my last visit to U Slovanské Lípy the pub was more or less a party place. Loud music and young guests in party mood felt typical of U Slovanské Lípy this time around instead of ordinary Czechs enjoying their beer in a more quiet environment.

The current drinks menu at U Slovanské Lípy.

No problem for me. The beers from Kout na Šumavě are so good that I believe I can drink them with as good as any noise around me. This time I concentrated on the unfiltered 12° Kout na Šumavě lager. It has a cloudy look, but it is pure beer enjoyment with yeast and fruit notes combined with a touch of grains. Lovely, lovely, lovely!

The party continued as I went up the hill to the Seifertova street and ended up at Poja hoping to get a Budweiser Burgerbräu as a nightcap. No such thing this time around, as the restaurant has changed owners and beer suppliers. Poja now sells Ježek and Merlin draught beers. I had a half litre of 11° Ježek pale lager. It was a good beer, but compared to the Kout na Šumavě beers this was boring. But I feel the Ježek is a better beer than Budweiser Burgerbräu so it was no loss.

Beer Street, Prague

From U Slovanské Lípy on Tachovské náměstí to Hotel Victor on Husitská street you only need to walk about 200 metres. For a visitor to Prague, this is an area worth checking out. Three great pubs with exciting beers can be found in this area. Bus number 133 from the Staroměstská bus stop (near Prague's Old Town Square) takes you easily to the Tachovské náměstí bus stop. On the way it is easy to stop at Florenc for a visit to the nearby Pivovarský klub.

U Slovanské Lípy is a no frills Czech beerhall with excellent beers from the Kout na Šumavě brewery. Here you can drink the 12° golden lager that was named the best of its kind in the Czech Republic last year. Also available right now are the 10° golden lager with a tastiness that should make a lot of other lager brewers envious and a 14° dark lager that is nothing but fabulous. An 18° porter is not to be forgotten. This tasty dark beer is just pure beer nectar.

Further down the road in Husitská street you can find Merenda. Merenda is one of the pubs specialising in rotating taps. Therefore you ought to check out the pub's web page before a visit to be sure of what to expect.

Normally you will find eight different draught beers. Four will be available in the cellar bar and the last four on the ground floor, where you can also find food.

This time at I tried the golden lager from Chotěboř brewery. It was served in a beer glass from the Klášter brewery, by the way. In the glass this was a beer with nearly no carbonation and a large, solid head. In the nose I felt malts, while the beer itself did not taste that much. There was more malt and some yeast before a nice, bitter and hoppy finish. I liked it, and it would be a fine thirst quencher in Summer.

Next to Merenda another recommended beer site is situated. Hotel Victor has a restaurant that sells beers from Pivovarský Dvůr Chýně. The Chýně brewery is outside Prague, and Hotel Victor is one of the few places outside the farm brewery where you can buy these beers.

I have tried some of them earlier, but at this visit I went for the amber coloured beer, polotmavé. The Chýně polotmavé had a small head and no carbonation. I liked it a lot with a nice caramel taste and some yeast. It was nothing but lovely, and it comes from a line-up of fine craft beers.

If you have one day in Prague, my recommendation is to find a hotel near Tachovské náměstí and spend the evening in these three beer temples. It will be a short beer crawl, but the beer selection will make it more than worthwhile.

Return to U Slovanské Lípy

The beers from the Kout na Šumavě brewery are good. Extremely good. In fact, they are so good that every time I go to Prague, I visit U Slovanské Lípy on Tachovské námesti. The pub was closed for some time earlier this year, but nowadays it is back in business with new owners. The easiest way to get to U Slovanské Lípy is by taking the 133 bus from Staroměstská.

This year Kout na Šumavě won a Czech beer award. The 12° golden lager has been declared the best in the whole Czech republic. It is a fabulous beer, and it is also available at U Slovanské Lípy as a kvasnicove. I recommend buying them both and drinking them head to head to note the differences.


This time there will be no beer tasting notes. I enjoyed myself at U Slovanské Lípy and drank myself through the beers available from Kout na Šumavě. You would probably have a great time doing the same.

No more U Slovanské Lípy

Earlier this month I had another visit to one of my favourite pubs in Prague. U Slovanské Lípy was different, as it had excellent beers from the Kout na Šumavě brewery. It was the first pub in Prague to offer these beers on a regular basis, and I also enjoyed being there as the service was very good. According to Pivní Filosof, who introduced me to U Slovanské Lípy, the pub has closed down for good. That is a shame, as I liked both the pub and especially the beers.

As a tourist to Prague, there are still possibilities to find beer from Kout na Šumavě. The restaurant in the Dancing House sells Kout na Šumavě's golden lager, but at a much higher price than U Slovanské Lípy.

I will miss U Slovanské Lípy when I go to Prague, but I hope that I will still be able to drink beers from the Kout na Šumavě brewery the next time I visit the Czech capital.

Back to U Slovanské Lípy

I have been to Prague again, and as always for me a visit to the U Slovanské Lípy pub is a must. This time I went to the Žížkov hospoda around noon. My plan was to sit down and drink myself through all the various beers offered from the Kout na Šumave brewery.


Readers of this blog knows that I am a big fan of Kout na Šumave's beers, and I even made the 12° golden lager my favourite pale lager of 2009. I knew I was in for a treat as I sat down in the taproom. It was therefore a big disappointment to find only one available beer, the 10° golden lager. There were no dark lagers and also no unfiltered versions of the beers. At my earlier visits they have always had at least three different beers.

The taproom was almost empty. In addition to me there were three guests sharing one table. The waitresses that have been at U Slovanské Lípy earlier were gone, and this time a man was serving the table. He gave me a half litre glass of the available beer, and once again I could enjoy an extremely tasty golden lager.

From the Kout na Šumave 10° golden lager I felt grains and some fruit in the nose. As usual it was served with a medium sized head and nearly no carbonation. The beer is really refreshing with a hint of apples, and it is well worth for a Prague traveller going to Žížkov to try this excellent lager.

I will of course return to U Slovanské Lípy, and next time I hope there are more Kout na Šumave beers available.

Changes at U Slovanské Lípi

I have several times written about the hospoda U Slovanské Lípi in Prague on this blog. The taproom in Žížkov is one of the few places in Prague where you can find the excellent beers from the Kout na Šumavě brewery.

I visited U Slovanské Lípi in both December and January, and during my visits they sold four different beers from Kout na Šumavě. This has changed. The strongest beer, an 18° dark beer, is no longer on the menu. Instead, U Slovanské Lípi now offers the 10° and 12° golden lager beers in both filtered and unfiltered versions. In addition to this, they also sell a 14° dark lager and cuts of dark and golden lagers.

From the current drinks menu at U Slovanské Lípi.

All the lager beers from Kout na Šumavě are excellent, and I had several visits to U Slovanské Lípi during my stay in Prague earlier this month to taste the different beers. The unfiltered versions were the best ones, but that does not make the filtered ones bad beers. Absolutely not! The Kout na Šumavě brewery makes delicious beers, and I really recommend people to try them out.

Unfiltered 12° lager

I had a plan to do tasting notes for every Kout na Šumavě beer sold at U Slovanské Lípi, but that plan fell through. I lost some notes, and I must confess that I also had some beers while not making notes at all. But not all is lost. For some reason I still have the notes for the filtered 10° golden lager beer.

Filtered 10° lager

The filtered 10° Kout na Šumavě lager beer is a golden lager with very little carbonation. It is served with a large and lasting head. It has a fruity nose, and a very balanced taste with hints of apples. The Kout na Šumavě lager is a very refreshing beer, and I would really like to find it on tap also here in Norway. It is so much better than the lagers the Norwegian breweries make!

In the footsteps of Pivni Filosof

I became a avid reader of Pivni Filosof's blog last Autumn. Pivni Filosof is based in Prague, and he has interesting reflections over beers and food. In addition to reviewing various brews, Pivni Filosof also writes about restaurants, pubs and bars in Prague. From his posts I have found many interesting places to visit, and here are some of them. I have linked to Pivni Filosof's posts, so you can also read his texts about these five taprooms.

If you take tram number 11 to the last stop in Sporilov, you get to the Prvni Pivni Tramway hospoda.

Prvni Pivni Tramway is placed in a recedential area with a lot of highrises around. The inn itself is very special. It has a tram theme, and inside you will find old benches from trams. There is also a tram bell at the bar, which the barkeeper rings when people leave the hospoda.

Prvni Pivni Tramway has many good beers. Pilsner Urquell and Primator Weizen are two of the draughted beers at this hospoda. There is also a rotating tap, and the day I visited they served a beer from Bakalar. I tasted it, but I was not impressed by it.

The last beer on tap is Pardal. Pardal is brewed by Budvar and is supposed to be Budvar's answer to Gambrinus on the Czech market. According to Evan Rail this is supposed to smell like bear urine. I have never smelt bear urine, and if this is how ursus odors are, I wouldn't mind having a bear in the neighbour's garden. It was a completely drinkable lager, but Budvar's vycepni is a much better product.

On the other side of town is the Brevnov monastery. Near the monastery you can find the U Kláštera restaurant. I went in there to try a portion of their pork knuckle, koleno.

At home I usually use bits of salted and smoked pork knuckle in soups, but I had not tried the Czech version before i visited U Kláštera. It was a very nice experience. The skin had a crispy feel to it, and the meat was tasty and fell easily off the bone.

To drink I tried draughted Klášter golden lager. I found it very refreshing and enjoyed it very much. They also sell Klášter's dark lager and Pilsner Urquell, but I did not try those ones this time around.

There are several nice hospodas in Zizkov. My favourite restaurant is U Sadu, which is near the TV tower. This was a place I found by myself on one of my visits to Prague, and I always visit it when I am in the city. Inside there is much to look at, and old tools are hanging from the ceiling. There is always a nice ambience at U Sadu, and the opening times are extraordinary. Usually this place opens at 8 AM and does not close until 4 AM.

U Sadu is a tankova restaurant. This means that you get the unpasteurized version of Pilsner Urquell, which is better than the ordinary pasteurized one. You can also get Gambrinus from tap here together with the two Master beers.

There is also Primator Weizen to be found at U Sadu together with various bottled beers. The wheat beer from Primator is very nice, and I can recommend it.

At U Sadu they also sell Svijany Maz. This is an 11° lager beer that is quite enjoyable. It is not among the best Svijany beers, but it is a good alternative to Pilsner Urquell when you visit this hospoda.

A few blocks away from U Sadu you can find Kralovstvi. Kralovstvi is a nice cellar restaurant which specializes in beers from Černá Hora. The Černá Hora beers I have tried have been nice, and I recommend visiting this restaurant to check them out.

My favourite among the Černá Hora beers is Kvasar. This is a lager beer brewed with honey. It is excellent, and I really like it.

I am also fond of Moravský Sklepní Nefiltrované, which is an unfiltered and unpasteurized 10° lager beer. So far none of the Černá Hora beers have disappointed me, and I am looking forward to trying more of them. I have among others heard rumours of a wheat beer coming up from the Moravian brewery.

At last I will present the place where I have tasted my favourite lager. Down the hill from Kralovstvi, you can find U Slovanske Lipy. This is a taproom with great beers from the little Kout na Šumavě brewery.

I have tasted many lager beers, but the two golden lagers from Kout na Šumavě are just fabulous. It was Pivni Filosof who presented these beers to me for the first time, and I will always be thankful for him doing that.

Myself, I prefer the 12° golden lager. It is a stellar lager beer, and I recommend everybody to visit U Slovanske Lipy to try it out.

U Slovanske Lipy also sells the dark lagers from Kout na Šumavě. My favourite is the 16° dark lager. This is an enjoyable beer. It is strong, but extremely tasty.

Last but not least, I will thank Pivni Filosof for his great blog, and I hope you will continue writing about beers and Prague for a long time!