Lehká Hlava ("Clear Head") features a stylish interior (photo: www.lehkahlava.cz)

As you may know, Czech cuisine belongs to he meat-and-potatoes family of cuisines. Czechs themselves often refer to Czech traditional cooking somewhat disparagingly as knedlo-vepřo-zelo(dumplings-pork-cabbage). Traditional Czech restaurants usually do not offer many vegetarian options next to their beef goulashes, svíčkovas, ham hocks, and klobasas. In fact, don’t be surprised if the “meat-free” section of the menu (“bezmasá jídla) includes such veggie favorites as fried cheese with ham or lentil soup with sausages.

The most common “vegetarian” option in a typical Czech restaurant is smažený sýr, a breaded and deep-fried square slab of cheese, usually served with French fries and tartar sauce. Many first-time visitors to the country rave about this seemingly unique Czech invention, but most long-term expat residents grow tired of it pretty quickly.

Another veggie stand-by drowned in frying grease is smažený květák – fried cauliflower. Sometimes restaurants also offer various omelettes (make sure it doesn’t contain any hidden meat) or fried dumplings with egg (knedlíky s vejcem – the typical poor student’s meal).

If, on the other hand, you’re looking for a vegetarian dish that has some, well, vegetables in it, you’re best off eating at a non-Czech restaurant. A cheap and quick meal can be had at Prague’s hare-krishna restaurant, Govinda (Soukenická 27, Prague 1). Near Old Town Square is Country Life (Melantrichova 15), which offers delicious buffet-style vegetarian meals, sandwiches, and more. The attached grocery store sells all kinds of vegetarian goods as well.

Near Náměstí Míru is a favorite hangout for young expats, Radost Fx (Bělehradská 120) – not specifically vegetarian, but with many good vegetarian options such as burritos or cous-cous. And a recent addition to the veggie scene is the upscale Lehká Hlava (Na Boršově, near Betlémské náměstí).