After years of offering little more than smoke-filled pubs serving pork, cabbage and dumplings, the Mother of Cities has experienced a culinary revolution. Led by foreign chefs who first catered to tourists and expatriate businessmen, the food revival has now swept up Czech chefs, making good eating more common and affordable. Dozens of new restaurants have opened in the past two years, most in the New Town and Old Town quarters between tawdry Wenceslas Square and the banks of the Vltava River. Cafes, too, are sprouting on sidewalks and in airy interiors, offering comfortable spots to sip a cappuccino, pick up a book and people-watch. THE BUZZ Mobile mania has gripped Prague, and despite three years of recession, the city is enjoying an Internet boom.
Internet cafes are on every corner in the city center.
The explosion of organized crime is also on everyone's lips, and adds a thrill to people-watching for some. The new restaurant neighborhood is Vojticha, behind the National Theater and surrounding the Church of St. Vojtech, with cobbled streets and narrow sidewalks. The quarter's two top eateries are Angel and the affordable Gargoyle's. At the latter, the Californian Tom Ponder turns out casual haute cuisine. Around the corner is the sparely decorated Angel, for sandwiches, salads and exquisite dishes of the day, served with Prague's best home-baked bread.