Review: the new Andaz Prague hotel, part of World of Hyatt (Part 2)

This is Part 2 of our review of the excellent new Andaz Prague hotel.

You can find Part 1 of our Andaz Prague review here, which looks at the hotel location and the rooms.

In this part we will look at the restaurant, bar and public areas.

The hotel website is here.

Andaz Prague public spaces

All of the public spaces are on the ground floor. Because the hotel has street access on both sides, you won’t walk in to find reception directly in front of you – it has been moved off to the side to make it equally accessible from both doors.

Next to reception are a series of open plan spaces which are carefully broken up. In the run up to Christmas, there was a pop up store of high end local design products:

…. and this lounge area:

…. and a third space here:

You can’t get refreshments served in these spaces, as far as I could tell. However, you have the impressive MEZ bar, which looks like something you might find in an EDITION hotel:

and

If you are in the hotel in the afternoon, there is a free afternoon tea between 3pm and 4pm in the lobby. This came as a surprise to me and I only fell across it by accident.

Take a look at this spread:

Oddly, I couldn’t see any tea or coffee available – just cakes. They were very impressive cakes though, and to get this for free was a real perk. This hotel is really trying to please.

Before I go on ….

I said in Part 1 that Andaz Prague had spent far more money than was necessary on architecture and design, and it makes a real difference to the experience.

This is the interior of a lift – it is made up of a huge number of different wooden panels, each cut to a different shape. You simply don’t get this attention to detail in 99% of hotels.

The restaurant

There is one hotel restaurant called ZEM. The theme is not simple:

An avant-garde Czech bistro, juxtaposing the aesthetics of Prague’s traditional coffee houses with 1920s retro-futuristic Czech art, literature and engineering. The menu is a creative blend of Czech produce with occasional hints of Japanese flavours, crafted from a theatrical kitchen stage of charcoal and steam.

Here is a PR photo – obviously it looks stunning:

The restaurant has become very popular with the locals and it was buzzy even when the hotel seemed quiet (breakfast the next day was not busy).

The menu has two sides – a Japanese driven side (gyoza, yakitori etc) and a Czech driven side (zander, rabbit, sea buckthorne, trout). What is confusing is that the Japanese items are ‘order a number of small plates, it comes when it comes’ whilst the Czech side is your standard three course menu. I suspect that this makes it tricky for your table to mix the cuisines.

Pricing is generally around CZK 350 for mains from the Czech menu, which is about £13. Prague is nowhere near as cheap as you may remember it from years gone by, at least in the city centre, but you can still eat in a luxury hotel for less than a West London pub.

There was some confusion with the waiter about the size of the Japanese style plates. He told me that three would too many, so I ordered two. He was wrong – this is the size of each plate:

A different waiter told the table next to me, which had a young child on it, that the plates were very small and that even for a 6-7 year old they should be ordering a lot!

My meal there wasn’t totally satisfactory but eating on your own in a room full of buzzy groups is always a bit odd.

Breakfast is also served in the restaurant. The food is scattered around a number of surfaces so there appears to be less than there actually is. Interestingly, one of the wine fridges is repurposed at breakfast to store yoghurts, smoothies etc and is very easy to miss (well, you can’t miss it, you just don’t think to look into it because few buffets involve taking items from a fridge).

Two things stood out – a ‘Create Your Own Muesli’ bar (you mix various cereals, grains and seeds which you feed into a flake crusher!) and an intriguing list of cooked-to-order items, including Czech Benedict, Avocado Rye Bread, Over The Pan Potato Cake, French Toast and Buckwheat Waffles.

Yet again, it was clear that the hotel was trying to do something a bit different. Here are the pancakes:

The spa and gym

There is an impressive looking spa at Andaz Prague. I know very little about spas and I don’t want to waffle on about something I don’t understand, but the hotel website has more information.

All products are organic and from the local Klara Rott brand. The space includes a Finnish sauna and steam bath.

There is a TechnoGym gym in the basement, open 24/7.

Conclusion

As I wrote in my review of 2022, a number of disappointing luxury hotel stays early in the year had made me question whether I was failing to spot quality when I found it.

As it turned out, a number of excellent stays later in the year – very much including Andaz Prague – made me realise that I was simply staying in the wrong places, and that it was still possible for a hotel to excite and inspire.

A typical night at Andaz Prague in January costs from €300, with the Wintergarden Suite I had costing nearer to €1,000. You should be able to reduce the price of premium rooms and suites by using the Hyatt Prive guaranteed upgrade that I discuss below.

It is worth noting that Andaz Prague puts both standard suites and premium suites up for redemption (normal rooms 25,000 points, standard suites 40,000 points and premium suites 50,000 points on ‘standard’ dates). Until 19th January you can buy Hyatt points at a 25% discount (article here, buy here) which may make a suite cheaper on bought points than paying cash.

Don’t forget Hyatt Prive

If you are booking for cash, I strong recommend using a Hyatt Prive travel agent, such as our partner Emyr Thomas. You get the following extra benefits which, at an Andaz, are available even on one night stays:

• $25 to $100 hotel credit per stay, depending on brand (Andaz is $100)
• One category room upgrade confirmed within 24 hours of booking
• Daily full breakfast for two
• Early check-in (from 9am) and late check-out (to 4pm) subject to availability
• Welcome gift and letter

Bookings via Emyr will be identical to the ‘Best Flexible Rate’ showing on hyatt.com. You pay at check-out as usual. You can contact him with booking enquiries here and learn more about Hyatt Prive here.

The Andaz Prague website is here. Thank you to Lenka and her team for their time during my stay.

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World of Hyatt update – April 2024:

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