Lunching in Prague

On my way up the hill to see Prague castle I pass the entrance and continued to walk up the little street to see what kind of life was going on there. Obviously given the big attraction up the street you'd expect a fair amount of tourist places, but tucked in between the souvenir crap and the usual hamburger, pizza and goulash joints were some real gems...I walked by an very traditional tea house that I almost went in but was looking for hardier fare and ended up in the rustic and lovely U Zavesenyho Kafe 

I sat at a big old wooden communal table and had a lunch special of roast duck, two kinds of dumplings and to kinds of cabbage (cook down it seemed one white with caraway one red with maybe apples? Both delicious and wonderful foils for the roast duck) to wash down lunch I had a Pilsner Urquell the beer of choice in Prague.

My only small complaint would be the placement of the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream fridge.

Right around the corner from my hotel (Hotel Josef - watch for a hotel post discussing the pros and cons of the places I stayed in) was the famous cubist building House of the Black Madonna which is now a museum with a cute cafe on the second floor called the Grand Cafe Orient

The cafe is very charming and recently renovated.  It was filled with Czech people when I stopped in but was very much geared towards tourists with the "buy a t shirt and some cups and saucers" marketing that comes with the menu.

 The reason to go is the room.

The food is basically Eastern European Ladies who lunch fare.  I think you'd be best to have a coffee and a sweet.  My Wurst plate was OK but a little slim - more a snack then lunch.  Really the focus here is dessert. It's a quiet place to sit and watch the goings on down below and admire the vistas of Prague.

This piece of pumpkin pie was on display - not sure what the orange stuff is, but mmmmm not so appealing.