Švejk restaurant U Karla

I don’t really see the point of gluten free svickova since there’s almost no Czech people with gluten free diet but normal typical Czech food here is really good and the beer too.

If it would be possible to give them NO stars I would.
Okay, so I’m kind of pissed at this place, and their non-​existing customer service.
Being a celiac, I make a big deal of finding safe places to eat before I travel somewhere. Usually quite a bit beforehand. I found this restaurant on Unilocal and decided to make a reservation. My friends and I was going to visit Prague for a week around new years, and we all decided that this would be the perfect location for a gluten free czech meal to celebrate the new year. This was in late October, so I sent them a mail.
I got a mail back telling me that they don’t accept any reservations for new years eve. Oh well. Further on, they wrote that it would certainly be all right if we just came to the restaurant, and that there usually would be a table available. To be sure, I wrote back to ask wether it would be possible to show up around 7 pm, and I got an answer that it would be no problem at all.
I was so looking forward to this.
On new years eve, we decided to go by the restaurant when we were out walking, because obviously, there’s a lot of people (and tourists) in Prague over new years. We found the restaurant and walked in. The most bitter and sour man I’ve ever seen were standing behind the bar as we walked in. He didn’t even say hello, just waved his hand in the direction of the eating area, in a «yeah-​are-​you-​eating-​here-​or-​what??!#» kind of way. I asked for a table for the evening and got this thrown in my face — «it’s full booked all night». I replied «WHAT?», and he just said «sorry», like it didn’t matter to him at all.
We left disappointed and angry, and had to eat the new year dinner at Palladium (shopping mall) since there were literally NO AVAILABLE TABLES remaining anywhere that night. And of course that was the fucking reason we had tried to reserve a table here in the first place, right?!

slow unfriendly service, waiter with no smile — they are def not happy that you came by.

This place has delicious food. They also has a seperate glutenfree menue, but you have to ask for it.

I wanted to like this, I really did. I follow a gluten free diet, so knowing I had such an extensive list of options was exciting (and the reason I dragged my friends there). Lunchtime on a weekday was dead — only 4 other customers came in while we were there, and it seemed like not even all the lights were on. I ordered the goulash with gluten free dumplings. The goulash was fine, but nothing special. Had some greasy, unappealing sausage I didn’t eat. It was nice to have the gluten free dumplings, though. My friends ordered off the daily lunch menu, which is cheaper but only in Czech. My boyfriend ordered the (kilo of) ribs and said they were delicious, so maybe I just ordered the wrong thing. I was so excited about the gluten free apple strudel, but it was really disappointing. The dough/​filling ratio was off and most of the inner dough felt undercooked. Maybe my expectations were too high after reading the reviews, but I was disappointed. To be fair, if you want to try Czech dishes but can’t eat gluten, then this still might be your place (didn’t see gluten free dumplings anywhere else) — just seems like not every dish is a winner.

We were looking for a true Czech restaurant and that’s a true one!
But it was not an easy start and let’s put it that way, first impression was not a AHA one :-(
Why: we are two guys saying «good evening» and the waitress didn’t even look at us (so no welcome and no smile); then we wait 5 minutes and ask where to sit and answer was «where you want» (again, no smile on the face)
Menu came, we ask for beers and waiter brought 2 beers (still no smile) — that was tough
And the lady came again and asked what we want to eat and we answered: «what is your suggestion?»
Only then she started smiling and explaining her preferred options.
Food was excellent!
Conclusion: no smiles but good food (reason for the 3 stars only).

Service: Pretty attentive, not a lot of smiles though we were able to get a few out of our server during our meal. English menus and English speaking waiters.
Food: Our main reason for coming here was the gluten free options. There is a gluten free menu! but you have to ask for it. The original menu does label what allergens are in their food, but don’t get confused like we did, there is a separate menu. We got the gluten free schnitzel which my celiac partner loved! I got the goose which was very dry.
Overall my gluten free friend was very happy and even went back the next day but they had run out of gluten free bread crumbs. Now wherever we go she googles gluten free schnitzel. Thanks U Karla!

Welcome in one of the best gluten-​free restaurants in Prague. It´s placed in the centrum of Prague so it´s easy to get there. It´s the Švejk restaurant franchise but don´t worry. They cook well and their attitude is also better than in most of other Švejk restaurants.
As I said at the beginig, they are gluten free restaurant. But not only. They have a menu for people with no food disorders. The thing is that all meals are also modified for people with celiac disease. So it´s maybe not the only gluten-​free restaurant in Prague (at least google found more) but probably the one with biggest choice of gluten free meals.
Their cousine is basically based on the czech one. That means you can choose from all those known meals like sirloin sauce, goulash, roast pork with sauerkraut, ribbs, duck etc. Soups are also those traditional as goulash soup or beef broth. And I am gonna be so bold and say they you can´t really make a wrong choice (of course in a case you like this kind of cousine). They cooks seem like they love what they do and you can see it in the quality of meals. It´s not easy to find a restaurant in Prague with really perfect czech meals without paying too much. That´s why I consider this place as one of the best in Prague with ration quality/​price.
And you know what? There are really small or none differencies in flavours (they really play with it and bring it on higher level, especially those gluten-​free meals) so that´s why gluten-​free meals have a little flag in it so you know what you eat. They have also some meals for vegetarians with gluten-​free diet. Just one note for gluten-​free hamburger. It´s really good, I mean the meat and other ingredients, but the bun is thin so it crumbles. But that would be the only thing to improve what I found so far. Otherwise just perfect.
And of course many of these classical czech meals are the best with beer. You can order (among other normal beers mainly from Pilsen) two gluten-​free ones. Bernard and Celia. I prefer Celia but some of my friends likes Bernard more. So try both and decide what´s the best for you.
So I just wanna say this. No matter if you have a celiac disease or not, your taste cells will enjoy it here.

I can’t believe I am going to say this, but after our Unilocal event here I can’t honestly say I hate gluten free food anymore. What I have tried was also bland, gross and tasteless, could never be considered good food. This place really knows what they are doing with their gluten free menu, and I have to say their meat & sauces dishes with dumplings and/​or bread are great delicious options for gluten free eaters.
There were multiple dishes that I literally could not tell the difference which ones were gluten free and which ones weren’t. And I love good food, so to me that says something. That the quality of their food is so good that I cannot even tell the difference? And formally hating gluten free food?? Quite impressive if you ask me.
The owner was awesome, very kind, generous and personable. The staff also was very friendly. A place to check out for sure if you are gluten free, know someone who is, or honestly want to be amazed at actually liking gluten free food.
p. s. Their apple strudel is AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS. Must try.

Naja ganz ehrlich. direkt nebenan ist das U Fleku, was mir wesentlich besser gefallen hat.
Essen ist rustikal, schmeckte nicht besonders, war aber okay. Die Bedienung war eher schmierig und auch nicht sehr freundlich. An Bier gibt es mehrere Sorten, die man aber auch an jeder Ecke bekommt. Preislich war es okay für diesen Bereich der Stadt.
Wir haben unseren Nachtisch dann doch lieber woanders genommen.
Brauche ich auch nicht nochmal…

Jedna ze svejkovskych, «staroceskych» restauraci. Pivo tady maji z tanku (Plzen) a stoji za to. Prostredi je prijemne a obshula ochotna a prijemna. Ochutnal jsem take nakladany hermelin a maji ho povedeny.

Really appreciate the large GF menu with traditional Czech dishes. And the have Celia which is a decent GF beer. Fries were very oily… need to turn up the heat in the fryer. Staff not that confident in English so be patient. Totally worth dining here.

They were listed as the only gluten free restaurant I’m Prague serving traditional Czech dishes. As advertised. Excellent Czech food, large gluten free menu including apple strudel, very reasonable pricing.

I liked the actual setting of the restaurant. But, the staff was not particularly friendly although one of them warmed up to us by the end of the meal. I had the goulash and the meat was not meat, but almost entirely pieces of FAT which made it rather inedible. The potato dumplings were however good and the wine was as well, but the main part of the meal, sorry to say, was dreadful. I will try it again as the gluten free options here are limited. Perhaps another dish would be better, but don’t think I’d EVER try the goulash again. If my Czech was better I would have sent it back! (something I’ve done only once before in my 50 years) I would like to add, the apple strudel was good for dessert.

I went there with a group of eleven people. We didn’t sit at the same tables and had two different waiters. The waiter at my table was clueless on how to do his job. When we had questions about the bill at the end they brought over three men who were rude and intimidating. They charged us for bread they brought to the table, a cover charge and the worst pretzels ever. I hated every bit of it. The food was bland and cold and soggy in all the wrong ways. I was only in Prague for the night and this restaurant completely turned me off from the people. Everyone there had a horrible attitude they glared at us and yelled at us for no reason. We weren’t drinking and I’ve lived in Vienna where the people aren’t very warm so it wasn’t because I’m from the states they were just a very horrible wait staff. I’d rather have gotten fast food than have gone there.

Wenn ich Hunger habe, dann gehe ich hierher weil ich seit Jahren gute und große Portionen bekomme.
Das hier das Schwarzbier sehr gut schmeckt, muß eigentlich nicht extra beton werden.
Solide böhmische Küche.

Ein sehr touristisch ausgerichtetes Lokal. Das Essen war in Ordnung, mit mehr als einem Hauch Großkantine, die Bedienung war professionell bis freundlich unterkühlt, die Preise gehen in Ordnung. Wir fanden im Svejk nichts zu kritisieren, aber auch leider nichts zu loben.

I have to admit to being a little less than entirely sober when we dined at Švejk, but my memory of it’s surprisingly clear. Hot Steve had the salted fish, served with chips, and he raved about it for days after. In fact, he’s still raving. I had some chicken-​with-​a-​sauce concoction that sadly I was unimpressed by, as it reminded me of those Chicken Tonight sauces that come in jars in Asda. Not so much, really. The chicken was tender, but the sauce was too salty, and had an artificial glazed look about it that I wasn’t loving.
The people at the table next to us had ordered traditional Czech fayre, with goulash and sirloins all over the shop, and they had clean plates all round so I’m only knocking one star off for the dodgy chicken sauce as everyone else seemed to have picked proper tasty food.