I'm studying in Prague next semester and I was wondering if anyone had been there, and if so, if you had any tips for someone who is going there. I'll have access to a kitchen, so I can cook for myself, but any tips on navigating the city or eating out gluten-free would be great! Thanks!

I'm looking for info too. I'll be traveling there next summer.

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I'm going there next week... so I'll let you know how it goes! I'm a little worried though... I really cannot find that much information. Also, wheat starch is allowed in their gluten free foods... so I am a little confused... but I'll update you on my experience!

I will be travelling to Prague as well and contacted the Czech Celiac Society. They forwarded me to this website which is pretty good: http://coeliac.cz/en It has a good vocabulary section as well as a restaurant card. I too am very confused about their assertion that wheat starch is gluten free. What does that mean for us? Nina12488, please keep us posted of your experiences once you return. Happy travels!

So far this article contains the best information I can find. I guess there's a pretty good place called Country Life.

I just emailed Orgran to see if any of their products are available in the CR. I'll let you all know what they say.

I just got back Tuesday night! Prague is absolutely beautiful!!!! The buildings are gorgeous and everything is just so ornate and pretty! If you drive from the airport to Prague.. some areas aren't so nice, but believe me once you hit the city you will be amazed.

As for the food however, I had a tough time and did end up getting sick after a few meals. The travel card is key! I found for the most part people speak, "tourist English" they can tell you how much things are, say hello and goodbye but if you ask about wheat.. they look at you like you have three heads haha. But even with the travel card I did end up getting sick. Many restaurants confused gluten with dairy...others I have no idea, cross contamination probably.

I had a horrible experience at Resturant Reykjavík (near Old Town Square), I had ordered a steak with no sauce... I had given the waiter my restaurant card, and he nodded and wrote allergy down etc. They brought me out a steak with soy sauce on it.. and when I explained I could not eat that they took it away and brought me out another "brand new steak" in two minutes, the restaurant was empty, so there was no way a brand new steak could be cooked that fast and I could still see sauce residue. They were very rude about the whole thing.

I did have a wonderful experience though at Dinitz Cafe ( http://www.dinitzcafe.com/ ), we ate there on my last night of the trip and I had almost given up and wasn't going to eat anything... but I handed the waiter the travel card and he brought it back to the cook and came back to me and was like okay here is what we can do, and proceeded to keep coming back to the table asking about every ingredient. So I highly recommend that place! Especially at night its a lot of fun they have live music!

I did eat at Country Life for lunch... it is a buffet style restaurant, and they did have a gluten free dressing labeled (it did contain soy though). But the vegetables there were all very fresh and good. I went into there health food store and they had a few gluten free things but not many, its labeled by color code. I bought some chips and waffle cookie type things. But as I said before, they do allow a special wheat starch in their products so you have to read everything, to make sure it is not included.

http://www.expats.cz/prague/article/czech-...etarian-prague/

I printed that article out and compared ingredients that way.

I did not go to any other health food stores so I'm not really sure what you can find there, I would bring a supply of food with you. At every restaurant salads are offered and all are very good. But again be careful, sometimes they will put bread in your salad even if it didn't say so on the menu.

I hope that helped! If you have any other questions let me know, the city itself I loved! But food wise.. I'm glad to be back home haha.

Hey thanks for the info! It's nice to hear that you were able to find fresh vegetables. Did you go into any of the regular grocery stores?

I'm wondering what kind of alcohol options there are besides beer. (any? LOL).

I'll be there for a really long time and I think I'm crazy, because I can't do dairy, gluten or soy and I don't really eat meat. I'm excited though!

hmm yes I have been struggling too with soy.. and have been trying to cut it out, I was only there for a week though. And I had brought a lot of my own snacks just for that reason.

I did go into two grocery stores, AlbertHejn (spelling might be off) I was siked to see that one because its also in Amsterdam and they label there stuff gluten free by having a wheat stalk with a cross through it... but its not the case in Prague, at least I couldn't find it. I also went into another local supermarket. I couldn't find any speciality products, but they have Lay's chips. The huge problem is the language difference, so I just was frustrated, I'm sure if you took the time and read everything you would find some things. But on a lot of food products there are multiple languages... so it gets confusing.

As for alcohol, hot wine is offered everywhere. But keep in mind Czech is known for their beer not wine haha, some hot wine was delicious others not so much. Bacardi rum is also big over there, and I do remember seeing Smirnoff.

goodluck! and yes be excited its beautiful!!

Hi all,

I was in Prague for a month in a study abroad program (summer 2005). This was before I was gluten-free, but I just wanted to add in some ideas. The food is bread-heavy as was mentioned here already. The markets have basic staples (such as cheese and Nutella ), but restaurants tend to serve heavy, gravy (flour-thickened)-laden food. There are more and more trendy cafes with lighter fare popping up downtown, but in general, the food is high on gluten.

You should be able to find fruit and veggies in the market as someone already said.

In terms of drinks: absinthe. Hahaha, for sipping though, I guess I'd go with the wine. The wine I had there was horrendous, to be perfectly honest, and I'm not really a wine snob. They do have mulled wines and ciders, and those tend to be slightly better. Maybe just ask the servers what they have other than beer. Everyone has vodka, rum, the basics, though, so you should be fine. You can't eat, but you can drink. Story of our lives!

It's a gorgeous city and I plan to go back some day. In short, pack food with you and enjoy the lovely place. If you want to be glared at for being American, go to Paneria near the Metrostanska stop on the metro. It's good fun.
~Sally

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you may need to break down and eat meat. Otherwise you're not going to get any of the nutrients you need because gluten-free options are few and far between. Then again, much of the meat is breaded. You may be able to say "no flour" on a lot of it. Again, though, many places are trying to be more youth/trendy-friendly and are doing things like stuffed mushrooms (with cheese....and often breadcrumbs), but with some language understanding you should be okay. Eat peanuts, drink, wander the streets and you'll forget about food altogether!

One more thing (sorry!):

DRINK BECHEROVKA! (pronounced Beck-er-ov-ka)

The stuff's fantastic. It's sort of like pumpkin pie in a shot glass. It's an herbal liquor that used to be used to soothe upset tummies and is now served in every bar in the country. It's also naturally gluten-free. My mom emailed them when she heard that they sold it in a couple of my local markets and they confirmed this.

How convenient! The Land of Bread serves a tasty alcoholic drink that aids digestion! I will definitely try that when I get there!

I know, I think I will have to be a bit more adventurous when it comes to meat. Well, I'll have a kitchen, so hopefully that will help (? )

That should make quite a big difference. I'm sure you can find potatoes, and possibly rice. Maybe corn meal to make grits/polenta?

Or drink so much Becherovka that you'll be too drunk to remember that you're hungry...or eat spoonfuls of Nutella for dinner.

Enjoy your time there!

hey --- I was in Prague this past summer. SO beautiful there!

It was a bit tricky -- but I found food. One strange suggestion - Chinese restaurants - they are SUPER cheap (I'm talking $4 for a meal) and I would get white rice & steamed veggies. Breakfast was the hardest part to be honest. I would try to get a piece of fruit, and I did have some gluten-free crackers, and I would get a coffee or tea. Def. bring non-dairy creamer as I didn't see any.

For dinners i stuck with meat (if you can try it out) and potatoes. LOTS of potatoes.

Oh, and if you travel - say, to Italy, for example - stock up on gluten-free items there -- they have tons of gluten-free breads, crackers, pastas etc.... I was in Italy in between prague - which is where i got the aforementioned gluten-free crackers -- and ate them with Nutella - YUM.

have a wonderful time!

Yay, more Prague info! I guess I'll just have to take lots of trips to other cities (the need to stock up on my gluten-free food is a great excuse! )

I was the one who originally started this topic...

Being gluten free in Prague can be a bit challenging, but if you're going for study abroad you'll be fine if you have a kitchen. A lot of drugstores (the DM chain in particular) sell Schar products. This is a great gluten-free brand, and I actually wound up bringing a lot of their pasta home in my suitcase. If you look on the Schar website, they'll tell you which stores in Prague sell the brand. I had very little luck with restaurants, so I didn't eat out a whole lot, but there's an Indian place called Bea's behind the Tyn Church in Old Town that has gluten-free dosas! I spent quite a bit of time there.

I'm sure I'll think of more tips as time goes on, but my biggest suggestion would be that if you're going to prague, try to find some sort of living situation where you can have access to a kitchen. You'll be much better off that way.

Thanks for starting this thread and for the tips! If you think of any more let me know!

Ok, all you gluten-free visitors or residents of Prague: I'm bringing my family to that beautiful city this summer and need to make some decisions about hotels and food. It sounds like the best option is to find a place with a kitchen where we can make our own gluten-free and vegetarian meals (nope, meat is not an option...)

Any suggestions for places to stay and locations of any of the stores carrying gluten-free products? I'm really interested in the Dosa place...!

Many thanks!

Make sure you check out the link to the article I posted. It has lots of info. on eating vegetarian in Prague.