The Best Cocktail Bars in Prague

Prague's most celebrated cocktail bar and the one that set the standard for everything that followed. The drinks programme is rooted in pre-Prohibition classics, executed with an obsessive precision that most bars can only aspire to. The Hemingway Daiquiri is the reason to come: frozen, blended to order, and better than anything you have had before. Book weeks in advance for weekend evenings. Jacket required; they mean it.

Order: The Hemingway Daiquiri — there is no better version of this drink in Europe

A medieval cellar beneath the Hotel U Prince that takes its Gothic setting seriously without making it kitschy. The cocktail list covers 200 recipes from the 1920s and 1930s, sourced from period bartending manuals and adapted for modern palates. The absinthe preparation ritual alone — a silver spoon, a sugar cube, ice-cold water — is worth the cover charge. One of the most interesting cocktail programmes in central Europe.

Order: The traditional absinthe service, then whatever the bartender recommends from the 1920s section

A Vinohrady institution that manages to be a serious cocktail bar, a wine bar, a bookshop, and a neighbourhood living room simultaneously. The cocktail menu changes with the seasons and draws on Czech and Central European ingredients — Becherovka, slivovitz, Czech vermouth — in ways that feel considered rather than gimmicky. The terrace in summer is the best outdoor drinking in the district.

Order: The slivovitz Sour with elderflower and lemon thyme

Named for Bugsy Siegel and designed to feel like a 1940s Manhattan speakeasy, Bugsy's has been the benchmark for classic cocktail bars in Prague since 1992. The bar manual runs to 400 pages and the bartenders are expected to know all of it. The Martini service — stirred tableside, with your choice of gin and vermouth — is the best in the city. Expensive but worth every crown.

Order: The Martini service — specify your preferred gin and vermouth ratio

A deliberately casual cocktail bar in Malá Strana that charges half the prices of its Old Town competitors and delivers 80% of the quality. The menu is short and changes weekly, based on what the bar team is interested in rather than what tourists expect. The house Negroni variation — made with Czech bitter liqueur instead of Campari — is one of the most interesting drinks we have had in Prague.

Order: The Czech bitter Negroni — ask for it with the house-made vermouth

A Smíchov neighbourhood bar that operates as a café until 5pm and transforms into a serious cocktail destination in the evenings. The bar team focuses on low-ABV and zero-proof cocktails alongside its main menu — the non-alcoholic section is genuinely innovative, not an afterthought. The house-fermented shrub syrups and tepache give the non-alcohol options as much complexity as the spirits-based drinks.

Order: The tepache Spritz — non-alcoholic but as interesting as anything with spirits

Primarily a craft beer bar with 30 taps, but Zlý Časy has quietly built one of the better cocktail menus in the city — a short list of five drinks that rotate monthly, always built around Czech spirits and seasonal produce. The neighbourhood is residential and unglamorous; the bar is packed every night of the week. The best value cocktails in Prague by a significant margin.

Order: The seasonal Czech spirit cocktail — it changes monthly, it is always worth ordering

The most technically ambitious cocktail bar in Prague, run by a bar team that uses vacuum distillation, centrifuges, and ultrasonic homogenisers to make their ingredients. The results are not always drinkable, but when they work — the clarified tomato water Martini, the smoked oak Old Fashioned — they are genuinely exceptional. Go with an open mind and a willingness to try whatever they are most excited about that week.

Order: The clarified tomato water Martini — one of the more interesting things we have tasted in Prague

A rambling underground space with multiple rooms, a resident DJ from Thursday to Sunday, and a cocktail list that prioritises affordability over refinement without embarrassing itself. This is where you end a Prague night rather than start it. The bar runs until 6am on weekends and the crowd shifts from cocktail-focused to dance-focused around midnight. Not a destination for serious cocktail tourism, but the right place at the right hour.

Order: The house Gin Fizz or a Becherovka shot — keep it simple after midnight