Buddha Café Norská, Prague, Czech Republic

Buddha Café Norská is the new Sister restaurant to the popular Café Buddha Balbínova. We visited on Friday 20th January and had a 30% discount (food) from a Groupon-style site. The restaurant is on a side street not far from the 22 tram line where it leaves Francouzská and turns into Moskevská. Nearest stop is Ruská.

There are two rooms; the one at the front also contains the bar and has maybe three tables, the rear was configured as five tables (for 2, 2, 2, 4 and 6) when we visited. There were only three tables occupied and that’s a shame as the place is really good. We sat in the back room which I think is better.

They offer cookery courses in the back room during the day and so you may need to sit in the front room at lunchtime – might only be Saturday when they do the cookery course.

The waitress was friendly and we ordered a jug of tap water (25Kc) and an excellent bottle of Rioja Crianza (598Kc).

The main draw for us was the Kanom Jeeb (Steamed Thai Dumplings) 185Kc per person, that are really difficult to find in Prague. They were absolutely delicious – I could actually have these for a starter and main course!

We ordered a Green Thai curry with Prawns 295Kc plus Rice 35Kc and a Prik Thai Dum Beef (Beef and Black Pepper Sauce) 325Kc + 35Kc. Everything was obviously made from fresh ingredients and was really tasty.

We could have left quite full and happy, but with all the food so good, we had to have the Kluay Bud Chee (Bananas in coconut milk) 95Kc per person. As you can guess, these were excellent.

The total bill for food was 876Kc – but would have been 374Kc higher without the 30% discount. Wine and water made it 1499Kc. So this isn’t inexpensive compared to many local places in Prague, but I think the quality makes it well worth it.

We left our table, where above us was a sign that said ‘the best Asian food in town’ and I’d have to agree with that.