While this pub (At The Golden Tiger) right in the heart of Old Town features almost in all the tourist guidebooks on Prague as a "must see", it still retains some of its old charm, which is well captured in the writings of Bohumil Hrabal. His colourful and poetic descriptions of the table societies at U Tygra are part of the canon of Czech literature.
Shortly before 3pm when the pub opens, there is a queue of elderly regulars impatiently waiting for their pint. The regulars always have their place reserved on a given day and time and this cannot be surrendered – not even to the Queen of England. Her majesty is not known to have ever had a beer at U Tygra, but former US president Bill Clinton was a guest during his term of office. He was taken there by Václav Havel.
U Tygra is also renowned for its brief menu, which, apart from the crisp Pilsner beer, contains only coffee, ordinary red and white wine, soda and coke. Don’t even think about spirits.
In the food department, the beer cheese is legendary. The rest of the menu contains classic cold snacks to go with beer and a number of warm dishes, which once in a while may include something exotic.