Café review: Café B. Braun

The first thing you notice when walking into Café B. Braun in Prague 2, is the brightness of the room. With light flooding through the full length window facing Sokolská, visitors practically need sunglasses. A modern space (the invention of Czech/British architect Eva Jiřičná), B. Braun is filled with glass, steel, white panels and lots and lots of light. It’s undoubtedly an impressive space.

A street-side outdoor seating area is available and, I noticed during my visits, very popular with locals and tourists. Personally, I cannot imagine anything worse than enjoying my morning coffee whilst sitting next to the busy three lane road that forms Sokolská, but it takes all sorts. Fortunately, there’s a lots of room inside the long, narrow café, which has an upstairs level accessible by an impressive, yet treacherous looking, spiral staircase. A small garden at the back offers customers fresher air than sitting next to the Prague traffic.

I love a good brunch, and so timed my first visit accordingly. The breakfast menu is slightly limited – essentially offering only ‘healthy’ or full English options.  Not to be deterred I asked if there were any alternatives– perhaps a croissant? The waiter, eager to please but perhaps a little misguided, suggested babovka or a chocolate brownie, which was not exactly what I would choose for brunch. Again, it takes all sorts!

I opted for Healthy Breakfast (125 CZK) which arrived quickly with the yoghurt, fruit and granola nicely presented in a sundae glass. Freshly-squeezed orange juice, complete with ‘bits’, was lovely and not too sharp. It was a pity that the (chocolate) granola was clearly from a packet. Lovely, healthy granola is just so easy to make that using shop-bought seemed like a lazy shortcut, and sugary chocolate seems to defy the ‘healthy’ feature of the breakfast. I spied someone else having the English breakfast. This would have disappointed me, as it featured cheap white toast and sad-looking sausages that looked as if they came from a tin.

Lunch options are more extensive, including Panini (from 99 CZK), sandwiches (from 99 CZK), quiche (99 CZK) and fresh salads. For larger appetites, lamb and pork featured.  My chicken breast with shaved parmesan salad (120 CZK) was pleasant and good value, although it suffered from that common Czech complaint of flavorless salad leaves.

The coffee menu is good, ranging from espresso (35 CZK) to Algerian (65 CZK) with more or less everything in-between, including iced options that are appealing in the sweltering summer weather. B. Braun uses La Boheme coffee, which was delicious.

My lasting impression of Café B. Braun is rather mixed. The interior is certainly splendid and the service was obliging throughout my visits, but the cafe is let down by some of  the ingredients it chooses to use – packet granola, cheap bread, and limp salad leaves are clear cost savers but ones that really have a notable impact on quality. I would visit again for a coffee if passing by, but would not rush here for breakfast.

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