EBG Rating: 7.7/10

Choice/Quality of Drinks:
❤️❤️❤️❤️
A Braník pub, don’t expect strong flavours from this brand. Braník is intended to be drunk in volume, therefore milder than most. To be fair to the pub, it is served close to as best as you’re likely to get. The pour and condition are often immaculate. The alternatives are spartan, but very typical for a little Knajpa like this one.

Style/Décor:
❤️❤️❤️❤️
A little drop-in boozer that looks to have had a refurbishment in the 1990s, reportedly for the worse. Nevertheless, the compact, intimate space with tap straight ahead on entry and bench seating adjacent still feels suitably out of time, particularly for the central location. Locals gather around the bar so don’t by default hang around there – head for the benches to the right.

Atmosphere/Character:
❤️❤️❤️❤️
An old school drinking hole of a kind that is a genuine rarity in central Prague, a process which has taken the best past of 30 years to erode, but is now sadly genuinely true. If you want to experience a classic Czech pub with a proper taps and tapster, and unpretentious, typically masculine environment, you can hardly pick a better choice in the centre than this.

Amenities/Events:
❤️❤️❤️
TV, food, snacks, limited outdoor space (leaning posts).

Value For Money:
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Around the cheapest pint you can find in Prague old town with some of the pub snacks not far behind.

Description:
A famous pub and one of the final Old Town ‘pajzly‘, small old boozers, this Branik pub still retains its 8am opening and 9pm closing. Perhaps this gives it its odd sense of similarity to a Spanish bar. Starting early is no shame to the regulars here who obey their own, rather than society’s rhythms.

The tapster Roman Pavlik belongs among the pantheon of famous old dudes working the beer taps around Prague. It isn’t solely a seedy drinking den, as the pub welcomes respectful tourists and workers from the nearby Pasaz shops, cafés and theatres too. The entrance leads direct to the taps with a small bench to the left occupied by the regulars, with the benches to your right the safest bet.

A 1990s refit has slightly, but not overly tackified the interior, indeed those surroundings themselves are taking on a certain age and patina by this point. The Braník, for what it’s worth, is delivered in supreme condition, proving you can sometimes make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

The prices? Well, you’ll be looking at a handful maximum that can compete with it in the city centre. This particularly goes for their food offerings which are so cheap as to actually arouse suspicion rather than temptation, but some reviews are quite convincing.

It is a particular kind of pub, a masculine redoubt and so not to everyone’s tastes, but to criticise that is to miss the point entirely.