Best Spot for an Important Lunch or Dinner: The Bellevue (tel. 222-221-443) has artful Continental fare and impeccable business-friendly service with a cozy atmosphere near Charles Bridge.

Best Czech Cuisine: In an intricate flower-embellished setting, U modré kachnicky (tel. 257-320-308) brings delicacy to Czech fare, including savvy spins on heavy sauces and wild game.

Best Romantic Dinner: Though for years it took raps for its sky-high prices, the now more-affordable menu of gourmet haunt U Malíru (tel. 257-530-000) brings its haute cuisine a little closer to earth.

Best Bird's-Eye View: The food may not be anything to write home about, but you can't beat the panorama of Prague offered at Nebozízek (tel. 257-315-329) on Petrín Hill.

Best Riverside View: A tie. You can dine in the shadow of Prague's most famous bridge during the high season at Kampa Park (tel. 257-532-685). Or you can look at the river and the other side of Charles bridge while dining at Hergetova cihelna (tel. 257-535-534).

Best Home-made Italian Pasta: Feel the Italian ambiente and enjoy the great taste of southern Europe and its cuisine at family-run Il Ritrovo (tel. 224-261-475).

Best Pub Gulás (Goulash): Old Town's boisterous Pivnice Radegast (tel. 222-328-237) dishes out a fine spicy goulash along with its Moravian namesake brew.

Best Spot for a Celebration: With huge portions of hearty Czech food perfectly accompanied by a Pilsner lager, Restaurant U Cízku (tel. 222-23 2-257) feels like a festive Bohemian hunting lodge.

Best American Bistro: With the death of Planet Hollywood and the California-esque Avalon, Red Hot & Blues (tel. 222-314-639) remains the last best hope for Yankee food in Prague. The menu is mostly Tex-Mex and Cajun, with a good burger thrown in.

Best Seafood: Old Town's Rybí trh (tel. 296-767-447) ships in fresh monkfish, salmon, shellfish, and just about anything else that swims in saltwater, and serves them in an airy space in the courtyard behind Týn Church.

Best Fast Food: Even with McDonald's outlets multiplying like mushrooms, a Big Mac can't match the Philly cheesesteak or Cajun chicken sandwiches at Cornucopia (tel. 224-220-950).

Best Bagels: Bohemia Bagel (tel. 257-310-694) at Újezd in Malá Strana and at Masná Street in Staré Mesto (tel. 224-812-560) has filled what was a curious vacuum.

Best Kosher: Astonishingly, it was several years after the revolution before a real kosher restaurant returned to Prague's Jewish Quarter. The King Solomon Strictly Kosher Restaurant (tel. 224-818-752), across from the Pinkas Synagogue, finally gets it right.

Best Value: A friendly, family-run restaurant on a narrow Malá Strana street, Vinárna U Maltézských rytíru (tel. 257-533-666) feels like an old Czech home with food that tastes as though Babicka (Grandma) made it.

Best for Kids/Best Pizza: You can please the kids and satisfy your own cravings at Pizzeria Rugantino (tel. 222-318-172), a friendly and energetic Old Town room run by an Italian family that loves kids and dogs.

Best Late-Night Dining: The Radost FX Café (tel. 224-254-776) dishes out veggie burgers, burritos, and salads to the trendy post-club crowd until 5am.

Best Outdoor Dining: The terrace looking up at Charles Bridge insures that the grill-fired steaks and seafood at Kampa Park (tel. 257-532-685) are a summer favorite.

Best Pancakes (Crepes): The Creperie Café Gallery-Restaurant Café at the foot of Charles Bridge (tel. 221-108-240) is for those who have a sweet tooth.

Best Art Nouveau Cafe: The reinvigorated cafe at the Municipal House (Kavárna Obecní dum; tel. 222-002-763) has re-created the grandeur of Jazz Age afternoons.

Best Landmark Dissident Cafe: Prague's pre-revolution dissident mecca, the Kavárna (Café) Slavia (tel. 224-218-493), across from the National Theater, reopened to presidential fanfare in 1997. Its sparsely elegant Art Deco space beckons those seeking a post-theater literary buzz.

Best Student Cafes: The Globe (tel. 224-934-203) pulls in expats with English banter, books, and brownies. True intellectual angst, old furniture, and huge inexpensive cappuccinos await the crowd at Kavárna Medúza (tel. 222-515-107) in Vinohrady.