There are some great local specialties to try in Olomouc. Some of these top tips are traditional regional dishes; others are particularly good local versions of standard foods or drinks.
Olomouc cheese
Olomouc curd cheese, Olomouc stinky cheese, Tvarůžky, Olomoucké syrečky: whatever you call it, it's the flavour most Czechs immediately associated with Olomouc. Actually made a little outside Olomouc at Loštice (near Bouzov castle) Tvarůžky is a ripe cheese with a strong smoky aroma and almost no fat. You can buy it in packets from the supermarket and just chomp on it the traditional way-with some bread, a raw onion and and a glass of beer, but a gentler introduction would be to have a restaurant dish. The Olomoucké tvarůžky v bramboráku (Olomouc cheese in grated potato pancakes) from
St Wenceslas Brewery are especially good.
Valašske Frgal
Wallachian Frgal is a pizza-sized sweet pastry topped with any and all of the region's flavours: Plum, hazelnut, pear, apricot, apple, cream cheese and poppyseed. The plastic-wrapped supermarket versions are not good. Look for stands at festival and markets, or if you're driving call into the bakery in Hrachovec, just outside Vallašske Meziříčí.
Slivovice
Still in the Wallachia region to the east of Olomouc, Slivovice is the region's favourite and most distinctive alcohol. The best way to try this strong plum brandy is to be lucky enough to be invited by locals for a taste of their home made version. The mass-produced slivovice sold in bars tends to be flatter and sharper than the fruity home made stuff that people keep for themselves and their guests. The plum brandy is the classic slivovice but it's also made from other fruits: Meruňkovice is apricot brandy, Jablkovice is from apples, and Hruškovice from pears. Just about any fruit that grows in Wallachia gets made into brandy and there's a distillery near every decent-sized town in the region. The alcohol content ranges from 40-55% so be careful with it.
Pork with plum sauce from Moritz
While we have the aroma of plums in our minds, try the pork with plum sauce from
Moritz. Moritz doesn't have the most extensive menu in Olomouc, mostly because they're focussed on being a brewery rather than a restaurant. Everything they do in the kitchen though,t hey do very well and if you could only have one hot meal in the whole of Olomouc, you could do worse than this one for the flavour of Northern Moravia. (If you don't eat pork, try the chicken strips with plum sauce from the
St. Wenceslas brewery restaurant).
Garlic soup from Hanácka Hospoda
All the soups at the Hospoda are good but the Hanácka Česnečka is the standout. Very good for warding off viruses, unwanted suitors and vampires.
Local microbreweries
Czechia is one of the great beer-making lands of Europe. Many of the mid-sized regional breweries have been bought up by multinationals like SAB Miller or Heineken and made more efficient/profitable or simply closed down and the resulting gap in the market has been filled by ultra-local microbreweries, most of which don't bother with packaging but simply pipe their brew from the vats to the bar. The two places that brew locally in Olomouc are
Moritz and
St Wenceslas. The CAMRA Good beer guide to Prague and the Czech Republic rates St Wenceslas' beer four stars and Moritz is one of the few places to get the full five out of five.
Roast duck
Presuming you'll also visit the bohemian end of the country, you'll probably try Svíčková na smetaně and Vepřo-knedlo-zeli there. Another traditional old-fashioned main dish is Roast Duck. Usually served with pickled cabbage and dumplings, duck is usually considered a meal for special occasions, which is possibly why most English language guidebooks don't mention it as a traditional meal?
Sea bream from the Vila
The Vila Primavesi is probably the single best restaurant in Olomouc and the sea-bream is one of their stand out dishes.
Moravian wine
If anyone has told you that Moravian wine is inferior to French or German wine, take that as a demonstration of their ignorance. The taste and aroma of Moravian wines vary from their Western European cousins because they are made from totally different varieties of grapes, but the Western European prejudice that everything east of the old iron curtain must automatically be inferior will have you laughed out of any cellar stocking South Moravian wine. Try Svatovavřinecké (St Lawrence) for a strong, drier red wine, Modrý Portugal (Blue Portugal) for a medium dry and Frankovka for the sweeter red wine. Cabernet Moravia is a new blend of red and for white wine, try Muller Thurgau. For a real treat, keep an eye out for the local Ice-wine.
Chocolate pie
The famous chocolate pie from
Cafe 87 is a specialty of that establishment. Chocolate lovers should have it on their first day in the city, because they will probably want to go repeatedly. Anyone who is ho-hum about chocolate should stay right away from the pie-it's very rich. The white version is not nearly as good.
The best hot chocolate
The best hot chocolate in Olomouc is at
Cafe Sant Angelo. Don't order from the flavoured hot chocolates on the menu though-ask for the home-made hot chocolate, which is basically melted chocolate flakes in hot milk. Again it's quite rich and even experienced chocoholics from the elite levels of their discipline may find themselves approaching this one a spoonful at a time. You have been warned.
Buffet lunch at Himalaya
For maximum flavour for your money it;s hard to go past the all-you-care-to-eat lunch special at
Himalaya. Every weekday between 11am and 2pm the Nepalese chefs dish up one meat curry, one vegetarian curry, naan, rice, dhal and home made chutney in a non-smoking space in the old water barracks between Mlýnská and Třida Svobody (the easier entrance to find is from třida Svobody, almost opposite Plan B and the Theresian gate). Highly recommended.
Czechia is one of the great beer-making lands of Europe. Many of the mid-sized regional breweries have been bought up by multinationals like SAB Miller or Heineken and made more efficient/profitable or simply closed down and the resulting gap in the market has been filled by ultra-local microbreweries, most of which don't bother with packaging but simply pipe their brew from the vats to the bar. The two places that brew locally in Olomouc are Moritz and St Wenceslas. The CAMRA Good beer guide to Prague and the Czech Republic rates St Wenceslas' beer four stars and Moritz is one of the few places to get the full five out of five.
