Cafe Sant' Angelo

Stretching back behind the blackboard menus and sunny cushion-lined front window of its wooden storefront, Cafe Sant' Angelo is Olomouc's smartest new cafe.

Open from 7am weekdays and 8.30 on weekends, Sant Angelo has a good breakfast menu (with English translations) including scrambled eggs, ham and eggs or omelettes for 55-65Kč, or a full cooked fry-up of sausages, beans, bacon, eggs and toast for 85Kč. There are also pancakes, waffles, oatmeal and homemade muesli from 45-65Kč.

At any time of day though, the coffee is good, comes in all the usual permutations and is accompanied by a square of chocolate and a small glass of water. A good range of quiche, fresh and toasted sandwiches and panini are on offer and the highlights of the cake cabinet are the chocolate crumble slice and the banana cake with caramel.

Look for the dark wooden storefront with stripey cushions inside the window on busy Denisová Ul, the street with the tramlines that connects the two halves of the Olomouc's old town. Immediately inside the entrance are the counter, menu boards and display cases, and behind that is the main seating area of the cafe with enough leather-lined booths and seats for about 25 people.

The entire space is non-smoking and the colour scheme is warm and welcoming. Another big thumbs up is the music selection (something that lets down several otherwise excellent cafes in Olomouc).

Cafe Sant' Angelo
Denisova 11,
Olomouc

Cafe Na Zabradli

Cafe na Zabradli is non-smoking, modern but cosy, and efficient but welcoming.

Also it feels kind of like a secret hideaway even though it's on a busy pedestrian street leading off the main square. Probably because it's on the fourth floor and you have to take the elevator to get up there. There's a balcony that faces the top of Olomouc's ugliest building (Prior) but if you can look past that there are glimpses of spires, columns and towers.

Na Zabradli has all the usual coffees, fair trade sugar and a display case of cakes and slices. They do toasted sandwiches and in the mornings have a special offer with coffee, juice and a small pastry for 50Kc (coffee is usually around 30 and juice is 25 so that's pretty good value).

Hot Raspberries and Ice Cream is a typical old school sundae on most cafe menus. The best in town (and the worst-kept-secret in Olomouc) is just around the corner at Cafe Piccolo, but Cafe Na Zabradli offers an intriguing variation; Hot Forest Fruits and Ice cream. The blueberries, blackberries, gooseberries and who-knows-what-else-berries blend into a complex flavour that's not as intense as the straight raspberries, but most of us like change of pace from time to time don't we??

What else can we tell you? There's carpet on one wall, a rack of design magazines (in Czech), be careful not to hit your head on the lights that hang low over the sofas. Take the elevator into the building above the Terranova store.

Café Na zábradlí
28. října 9,
Tel: 739 946 111

Cafe 87

Cafe 87 is a bright and spacious non-smoking cafe in the same building as the modern art museum. It serves good coffee and tasty lunches but is most famous for its specialty; chocolate pie.

The Modern Art Museum and Theatre of Music share the building’s main entrance, and the door to the cafe is at the side. The staircase leads to the upstairs smoking area and onto an outdoor terrace, but the ground-level part of the cafe is where the pies and cakes are displayed. There are a few different chocolate cakes but the chocolate pie is the flat wedge-shaped tart ‘čokoládový dort’.

Ordinarily you would take a seat and wait to be served, but you can also order up at the counter. An ordinary large espresso is 28 Kč with milk and a tall glass of café latte is 36 Kč.There are also fruit milkshakes for 37Kč and soft drinks. The chocolate pie is 30Kč.

Café 87 is one of the best places in Olomouc for a quick breakfast. Scrambled eggs or continental breakfasts range from 40-45Kč. Or you can choose quiche, toasted sandwiches or baguettes. The menu is in Czech and English and most of the staff to speak enough English to take your order.

Café 87 is open from 8am until 8pm 7 days a week. It’s a popular place for breaks between classes for students of the university and is the place most likely to be open on a public holiday.

Cafe 87
Denisova 47
Tel: 585 202 593

Jazz Tibet Club

Jazz Tibet Club is a non-smoking venue that holds regular concerts ranging from jazz, blues and rock to reggae and funk. There are concerts most Thursday nights during the academic year. When there is no live performance they tend to play good music on the sound system.

The Jazz club is a long open hall with an arched ceiling and murals on the walls and the furniture is all wooden. The bar is under the mezzanine floor opposite the stage, but there’s always table service and the wait staff eventually find their way through even the thickest crowds.

If you’re seeing a concert there, you’ll get a numbered slip of paper at the door. It’s very important not to lose it. Your drinks will be marked on it by the waiters and the security staff will not allow you to leave if you cannot present it with the imprint of the club’s PAID stamp. It’s clearly explained at the bottom of the slip (in Czech) that if you lose it, they will calculate your drinks bill at 2000Kc. That’s enough for one main meal and 85 glasses of beer.

The Jazz Club is also a quite reasonable restaurant. It has a good menu; Turkey skewer is ? Kc and chicken with lemongrass is . The coffee is well made and there’s an extensive drinks list, as the owners of the Jazz Club also have a small wine store.

Tibet Jazz Club is open Monday through Saturday until midnight, but the kitchen closes at 10pm.

Jazz Tibet Club
Sokolská 48,
Tel: 585230399

Kavárna Národní Dům

Kavárna Národní Dům is a newly opened cafe on the ground floor of one of Olomouc's most prominent 19th century buildings.

The new kavárna is elegantly furnished in dark wood, pale leather and large images of Olomouc's main historic attractions line one wall. Chandeliers hang low, the wait staff look sharp in their black and white uniforms and the place seems to be striving to give the impression of a grand Viennese coffee house.

The entry doors from the foyer lead into the main non-smoking area of the cafe; just seat yourself at any of the available booths or tables and the waiters will take your order. The large plate glass windows are good for people watching across one of Olomouc's busiest pedestrian corners and the first booth inside the door offers the best vantage point.

The main disappointments about this place are the apathetic attitudes of some of the wait staff and the fact that there is no physical division between the smoking and non-smoking sections. Most of the time that might be OK but if people are fagging up a storm in that corner it soon wafts out to stain the entire space.

All the usual coffees are available and the prices are around average for the centre of Olomouc; 31Kč for a large espresso without milk, 35Kč with. There always seem to be at least five or six different cakes on display in the cabinet and the Sacher Dort (39Kč) is quite good. On the breakfast menu are about 8 offerings ranging from 29Kč for the omelette to 49Kč (2 Euros) for ham and eggs, but it's only served until 9am (better order by 8.30 to be on the safe side)

The cafe is open from 7am to 7pm on weekdays and 8am to 8pm on Saturday and Sunday and the music is trashy hits and memories from the radio.

Kavárna Národní Dům
8. května 21
Tel: 685 224 806

M-Cafe

M-Cafe on Kateřinska Ulice is one of Olomouc's latest crop of cosy little non-smoking cafes. This one shares its space with a bakery, but they're two separate businesses. If you'd like something from the bakery counter you order and pay for it there, but are welcome to take it through to the cafe at the back.

In the cafe there's table service; the menu is only in Czech but the coffees all have their Italian names and the fruit juices and smoothies aren't too difficult to work out (especially karamelova, bananova etc).

The cafe's main room is exceptionally cosy and the small courtyard is nice, but too high-walled to get any direct sunshine. The upholstered chairs are comfortable and the sturdy tables are perfect for catching up on a bit of writing or emailing (there's free wifi, but you'll need to ask for the password).

The only let down is that the cafe can get a bit noisy, especially when it's empty the tiniest noise echoes around. The music quality is a bit hit and miss; varying from pretty cool jazz CDs to the crappiest commercial radio stations imaginable, depending on who is working that day.

In all it's a nice enough little place to pop into if you're passing, but is probably not worth a special trip across town.

Café Opera

Café Opera beside the Moravian Theatre is an old Olomouc institution that has been renovated and revived in recent years. It’s a popular place with locals for its main square location, summer time outdoor seating, good selection of ice-cream and the children’s playroom at the back.

The ice cream selection and quality is excellent, albeit more expensive than at other ice cream counters. Service, on the other hand, could certainly do with some improvement.

As well as the usual range of cakes and coffees the café serves pizza and pasta.

The main areas in the café are non-smoking but there is a smoking section on the left as you enter the room. You’ll have no trouble finding the children’s playroom, as the squeals and general kids noises will reveal all within your first few steps inside.

Capuccino is 37Kc, tiramisu 31Kc, ice cream 10Kc per scoop, large waffle cones 5Kc, pasta farfalle with mushrooms and chicken is 115Kc.

Open from 8.30-22.00 daily.

Plan B coffeehouse and bar

Plan B – Is it a bar with an inferiority complex or the cleverest name in town?

At the time Plan B opened, nearby Moritz was Olomouc's only non-smoking brew pub. It was rightly very popular and every night dozens, maybe hundreds, of people would be turned away at the door for lack of space. And what do you do when your Plan A doesn't work out?

The entrance to Plan B is on the corner opposite the Theresian gate and the Russian themed bar Rasputin. The short staircase leads you down to the bar and you can either choose the leather lined benches of the room along towards the fireplace on the left or the wooden tables and chairs off to the more private rooms to the right.

Plan B has five types of Bernard beer on tap, including a cloudy unfiltered unpasteurized brew that is very popular among beer lovers. There's also Hoegaarden, Edelweiss weissbeer, and 32 types of Hot chocolate if you happen to have come in from the cold.

They don't really do meals, but the bar snacks include wasabi nuts, baklava and a very generous pork knuckle. The coffee is good, and the 'Dutch Cafe' is a nod to the owner's homeland - it includes a stroopwafel and comes in an orange cup.

The non-smoking interior is kept impeccably clean and Plan B is a good choice for a night out if you want to have a few drinks (hot or cold) and a conversation without shouting.

Piccolo

Oh Piccolo. Great service, awesome coffee, delicious sweet things with soft serve ice cream, and right in front of the best ‘leaving town’ tram stop so that you can conveniently grab a hot raspberries and ice cream before you say goodbye. What more could a person ask for in a cafe? To be open everyday would be about the only thing.

Even if Piccolo isn’t open 7 days a week, it does more than its fair share of business during the hours it is open. This really is a stellar example of doing what you do well. Service is quick, everything is fresh and well made and everybody knows it has the best coffee in town.

For that reason, it's the one place that you're most likely not to find an empty seat, and even to see people lining up and waiting for someone else to leave. It's worth the wait.

Espresso coffee with milk is 30Kc. Honeycake (medovnik) 35Kc. Gelato coffee (delicious iced coffee)40Kc. Freshly squeezed orange juice is 30Kc and the best hot raspberries and ice cream in town will set you back a mere 45Kc (for the small glass, which is what you should start with unless you've been in training).

Cafe Piccolo
8. května 24
Tel: 585535134