Why? Well I’m glad you asked. The hospoda is the best-value restaurant in the centre of the city; the portions are large, and most of them are less than 100Kc. It’s also your best chance to try the traditional food of the region.

The menu is available in the local dialect Hanáčtina (with the explanations in standard Czech) and also in English and in German. It’s worth asking for a copy in your preferred language as soon as you sit down, as the restaurant is very popular and the waitstaff may not be able to visit your table as often as you might be used to in other places. If you’re wondering why it’s taking so long to have your order taken, close the menu and try to look decisive. Please don’t expect the waitstaff to speak English. Some of them do, and those that don’t will be happy for you just to point to what you want. I once overheard a group of people at the Hospoda complain indignantly ‘she doesn’t speak a word of English’. They probably would have been happier just staying in Prague.

What to order? Possibly the best-value dinner is the ‘chicken like duck’; half a chicken cooked in a dark beer sauce on a bed of pickled cabbage with two different kinds of dumplings, for 79Kč/2.5 euros/$3U.S. If you prefer your duck to be duck, 900grams of roasted half-duck is 169Kč with the same side-dishes. The pick of the pork dishes is the three pieces of sirloin with three different flavours, (basil, curry, and chilli) for 110Kč/3.5 euros, and my favourite chicken dish is the Franta Šostal cutlet with a sauce of ketchup, wine garlic, basil and cream. A close second would be the chicken schnitzel in a batter of cornflakes. Tastes better than it sounds. There are only eight dishes in the vegetarian section, and they mostly revolve around cheese.

The menu is also quite entertaining. Pickled sausage is usually ‘Utopenec’ on menus, which translates literally as "drowned man". At the hospoda the dish is called ‘Břetik the nonswimmer’ and comes with the offer that if your name is Břetik (Břetislav) and you prove that you cannot swim, you’ll be treated to three pieces for free. The potato pancake filled with the pungent local cheese, tvarůžky, comes with two breath mints included, and the request to write down, rather than voice, any order for more. The ‘Gossiping aunt’s potato pancakes’ are baked pancakes with spinach, pork and cheese. Steak for real Haná men (89Kč) is pork with three kinds of pepper and Steak for real Haná women (also 89Kč) is chicken breast with ham, ketchup, garlic, cream and leeks.

The desserts include the widely available medovnik/honeycake (39Kc) and red hot love, which is vanilla ice cream with a hot sauce made from raspberries.