A cup of cà phê: Prague's Vietnamese cafés are having a moment

Prague has long known where to find good Vietnamese food. What is newer is where to find a proper Vietnamese coffee, a weekend brunch, or a pastry inspired by flavors from Vietnam.

In recent years, Vietnamese-owned cafés have been popping up across Vinohrady, Karlín, and the city center, expanding a food culture that many people still associate mainly with pho and bánh mì.

It's a natural evolution, because in Vietnam, breakfast is street food's main event. Mornings there mean steaming bowls of pho from vendors who open before dawn and often close by noon, bánh mì grabbed on the go, cháo (rice porridge), sticky rice, egg dishes brightened with pickled vegetables and herbs, and French-influenced pastries. Even egg coffee – whipped yolk and condensed milk over dark robusta – was born in Hanoi.

Czechia’s Vietnamese community has shaped the local food landscape for decades. Now a younger generation of Prague-raised Vietnamese entrepreneurs is bringing Vietnamese flavors to breakfast and brunch to cafés and bakeries, creating dining experiences that feel equally at home with bánh mì and a Czech rohlík.

Here are five of our favorites.

The one that started it all. Widely credited as Prague's first Vietnamese coffeehouse, this perpetually buzzing spot on Jiřího z Poděbrad square has been fusing Vietnamese and Continental café culture for years – from the same family also runs the pho restaurants along the street.

Come for the traditional phin-brewed coffee sweetened with condensed milk – the closest thing in Prague to a Hanoi street corner – and stay for the menu that schooled the city on what a Vietnamese brunch could be: fig toast, shakshuka with edamame, and grapefruit salad. Filter options rotate through a lineup of respected roasters, so coffee purists are well looked after.

Tucked into Belgická street in Vinohrady, this self-described quirky-and-cozy café from partners Quang Nhat Ha and Ngan Vu takes its name from a beloved Vietnamese preserved-fruit snack. Regulars swear by the salmon avocado toast on crusty sourdough and the house Benedict, while the vegan mango sticky rice – coconut-milk sticky rice with ripe mango, coconut cream, and toasted sesame – brings a Southeast Asian dessert classic to the brunch table.

The drinks list is where the Vietnamese-meets-Prague identity really shines: alongside espresso classics and a pistachio matcha latte with a devoted following, you'll find a traditional egg coffee, the creamy Hanoi original made with whipped egg yolk and condensed milk.

When the ô-mai team opened their second spot on Slavíkova street near Jiřího z Poděbrad earlier this year, they built the whole menu around a single hero ingredient: black sesame, or mè in Vietnamese. It threads through everything from pancakes with black sesame cream and brown butter to matcha with black sesame cream.

The kitchen's cleverest crossover, though, is the bánh mì × sourdough: Vietnam's beloved street-food sandwich reimagined as a breakfast number on chewy sourdough instead of the classic airy baguette – a bite-sized summary of what this whole generation of cafés is doing.

Karlín's entry sits on Sokolovská and keeps things tightly focused: specialty coffee, matcha, and all-day brunch served until late afternoon.

Here open-faced sourdough toast from Prague-bakery Tisse is topped with homemade kimchi and a signature gochujang mayo drizzle, finished with prosciutto, pickled red onions, Japanese ajitama egg, and a sprinkle of sesame. Pair with bạc xỉu, a Vietnamese white coffee that layers fresh milk, sweet condensed milk, and Vietnamese drip.

With its warm interior and a kitchen running until 5 p.m., it's fast becoming a Karlín default for the laptop-and-latte crowd and lazy-Sunday brunchers alike.

Brothers Khanh and Giang Ta – the duo behind acclaimed Vietnamese restaurants Taro and Dian – opened Patê on Národní třída after Khanh's formative stint at Copenhagen's cult-favorite Hart Bakery, and the result marries French technique with Vietnamese soul.

The pastries look Nordic-minimalist in the display case, but bite in and you'll find coconut-pandan cream, mango sticky rice, or yuzu filling hiding inside impeccably laminated dough. There's honey miso toast, congee for breakfast – that Vietnamese morning staple, right on Národní – and, naturally, given the name, bánh mì baguettes spread with rich house pâté. Vegetarians get their own: a bánh mì stuffed with omelette, truffle, spicy mayo, and coriander.