Where to Eat in Olomouc: Czech Food and Restaurants

What to eat in Olomouc: tvarůžky and Haná cooking

Tvarůžky is the dish to seek out. Olomouc Tourism describes the festival menu as tvarůžky in hot and cold dishes, savory and sweet, fresh and pickled, appearing as burgers, pancakes, pizza, dips and spreads, with cheese desserts alongside.

Beyond the cheese, Haná cooking is the hearty Moravian home cooking of the region around Olomouc. If you only want a taste of the cheese, order it as a starter rather than a full main, and save the bigger appetite for a regional meat dish.

Traditional pubs that serve food

The classic Czech hospoda is where you find the regional cooking, and Olomouc has them in the center and the surrounding streets. Hanácká hospoda, a traditional Czech-food pub, is the sort of place to settle in for a pork-and-dumplings lunch before an afternoon of sightseeing; confirm its hours before you go.

Expect a printed menu with numbered dishes and a daily lunch list, and beer on tap as the default drink. Order by number if the names are unfamiliar, and say whether you want a large or small beer — the small pour is genuinely small. A pub lunch is the most economical way to try the local cooking.

Restaurants and bistros around Horní náměstí and Dolní náměstí

Almost everything you want to eat sits between the two squares. The eating clusters around Horní náměstí, where the town hall and the Holy Trinity Column stand, and around Dolní náměstí a few minutes south, which the cheese festival uses for its family program.

Bistros are the modern counterweight to the pubs — smaller menus, more vegetables, and tvarůžky used in ways the cheese festival also showcases, such as in burgers and spreads. Look for them on the side streets off the two squares.

Small kitchens change their menus and hours, so confirm the day's opening before you build a meal around a particular place. For the wider geography of the center — which streets lead where — see the Things to Do in Olomouc guide.

If you are walking the center anyway, plan lunch into an Olomouc walking tour loop so you are not doubling back across the squares at midday.

Cafes and bakeries for a daytime stop

Between a museum morning and an afternoon of churches, a bakery or cafe fills the gap. Bakeries sell bread, pastries and coffee to take away, which suits a traveler moving between sights, while cafes give you a table and a proper sit-down coffee.

Use these stops strategically. A bakery near Horní náměstí is the practical option before a train, and a cafe is what you want in the mid-afternoon lull between sights.

What a meal costs in CZK and how to read a menu

Menus in Olomouc are quoted in Czech koruna (CZK), and prices are per dish, not per person. Look at the daily lunch list first — it is the cheapest way to eat the same cooking — then at the main menu for the evening. Drinks are listed separately, and water on the table may be a paid bottle unless you ask for tap water.

Side dishes can be priced separately in traditional pubs, so read the line before you order, and check whether bread is included or charged. For where tvarůžky fits into the city's identity, see the Olomouc cheese guide.

Olomouc cheese festival: the weekend tvarůžky takes over

For one weekend each spring the squares become a food market. In 2025 the Olomouc cheese festival filled the center on 5 and 6 April from 10 am to 6 pm on Upper and Lower Square, with nearly 80 vendors selling tvarůžky specialties and a fair of regional producers holding the Haná Regional Product label.

The Upper Square stage hosts cooking shows by local chefs on both days, and the Lower Square runs a family program with a family zone. There is also a competition for visitors who arrive by train: show your ticket at the Tvarglšop souvenir stand and fill in a draw ticket for shopping vouchers at Olomoucké tvarůžky shops.

If you are making the festival the centerpiece of a trip, treat the published dates and lineup as the previous edition's and check the current year on the city tourism site rather than planning around a past program.

Which meal should Olomouc be planned around?

Make lunch the anchor. A pub lunch with tvarůžky and a local beer leaves the afternoon free for the cathedral and the squares. If your trip falls on the festival weekend, build the day around the cheese festival and eat your way across both squares instead.

For a fuller view of how meals fit into the city's sights and streets, start with the Olomouc Attractions guide and work outward.