Eating Well in Prague

Patrick Prague, Restaurants

Prague is more well known for its beer than its food so I was a bit worried heading over for a short weekend break. Fortunately scouring the food blogs and various websites helped turn up a number of winning formulas. Between the meals, and the slight snacks in cafes and ice cream stores, this managed to tide us over the weekend.

One of the cafes I managed to hunt down serve a pretty decent breakfast and a very complicated coffee menu. It’s calle Cafe Lounge (Plaská 615/8, 150 00 Prague 5, Újezd / Lesser Town) and they definitely know their stuff.

The menu appears to be pretty complex but I tried their flat white and it was exactly what I needed. They even brought a bottle of water before to the table before you start ordering. A very nice touch.

Another great place worth visiting is Chagall’s Club and Restaurant (Kozí 5, 110 00 Praha 1). A definitely up market affair, with white table cloth dining and even where the waiting staff handle your cutlery with white gloves!

This is a bite sized piece of smoked duck meat and a perfectly matching jam complements of the chef.

I had these beautiful braised cheeks in marjoram with baked apple and cabbage (206CZK). No signs of infamous Czech dumplings that are easy to overload on in any other restaurant. This was perfectly executed, amazingly balanced and well seasoned cooking. The cheeks literally fell apart and I love the reduced sauce that I just wanted to cover all the other elements in.

Following on from that I had lamb loin crusted in parsley, fresh peas, parmesan risotto and sauce of herbs (CZK390). Yet another almost perfectly executed dish – I would have preferred the lamb slightly more rare as it started to get a bit dry, but every other element was just divine. Juicy, freshly cooked peas that still had bite. An amazingly rich and probably unnecessary risotto and the intensity of the parmesan definitely noticeable even against the strength of the lamb flavour. Really well done and a shame I didn’t have space for dessert.

Kampa Park (Na Kampě 8b, Praha 1-Malá Strana) is
yet another well known dining location. It’s definitely more accessible to the tourists just being off the ever popular Charles Bridge.

Some yummy bread.

And an intense wild garlic soup that wasn’t overpowering but perfectly done. This came off their spring menu and was a delight to eat. Small chunks of asparagus dotted throughout as well.

I opted for their club sandwich which was not really a club sandwich (I thought they were supposed to have three pieces of bread) but was super filling regardless. A fried egg, steak, mediterranean vegetables and tomato providing plenty of substance. The chips were perfectly crisp and chunky enough to still be fluffy in the middle.

Other notable places that I either checked out but didn’t take photos of or I didn’t actually get to eat at and would like to go back to.

  • Bakeshop – A popular place just around the corner from Chagall’s that seemed a bit like a NY bakery. Definitely popular and prices proving it.
  • Le Terroir – A french restaurant tucked away down a little side street that I saw but never got to go to
  • Sansho – A bib gourmand restaurant serving pan-asian food getting pretty good reviews. Just the soft shell crab bao that I read about made me want to go here.

And a few shout outs to the places I went to that really helped me out:

Rebell

Patrick Malmo, Restaurants

A good Swedish friend also into his food recommended this restaurant, Rebell and what a great little restaurant it was. They don’t advertise heavily and you won’t really find it listed on tripadvisor or any of the other big sites, so I’m guessing it’s quite new.

They served bread in a bag, a few pieces of nice crusty bread that went well with the soft butter.

We sat outside, enjoying the long hours of sunlight where we had a good Swedish beer while we perused the menu. They had an English translated menu but the bound book was only in Swedish. I guess it’s a popular place that has been around because they seem to already published a book.

I started with a bag of smoked prawns served with a homemade aioli. The prawns were quite small but super tasty, the smoking effect turning the tiny flesh into wonderfully flavoured hunks of meat. Even though they were small prawns, it was a very generous serving for a starter.

I asked the hotel to book for us, but as you can see on a Tuesday evening in Malmö, it probably wasn’t too hard to get a table.

The recommended dish to have are their pork ribs, served with some freshly sliced apple and home made coleslaw. The ribs were perfectly tender and although I don’t think they equate to the “best ribs ever”, they were pretty good for a stewed variation. They definitely could have done with some more smokiness, but very very nice.

Dessert was just as stunning. Small flowers of white chocolate mousse piped into flowers on a plate, decorated with strips of beetroot and an arugla (rocket!) sorbet that was actually a really perfect combination. I thought the arugula sorbet potentially overpowered the subtle mousse flavourings but it was perfectly light and refreshing.

I really enjoyed the atmosphere of this restaurant and would highly recommend it. I’ll definitely be returning if I ever go back to Malmo.

Name: Rebell
Website: http://gastrogate.com/restaurang/rebell
Found at : Friisgatan 8, Centrum, Malmö

Mildreds of Soho

Patrick Restaurants, UK, Vegetarian

Mildreds is one of these vegetarian institutions running since 1998 (unbelievably long!). It draws a crowd and they don’t often take bookings unless you want to reserve an entire floor upstairs. Turning up anytime after 6pm is an almost guaranteed wait. Fortunately when we went, our group of six turned up and they had a table large enough for us to be seated immediately. It felt a bit like cheating stepping through all the couples and friends already waiting, but hey, who are we to complain. I guess the secret to this special visit was that larger table sit upstairs (the more quiet space) and more suitable for large groups.

The menu is all vegetarian (with vegan options) and all the offerings looked tempting. Things appeared quite plain and simple but well focused. Fortunately they all proved to be really flavourful as well. I started with the pita bread and hummous and smoky red pepper babaganoush – not really one to turn down any sort of dipping type mix. Great flavours and a nice way to start the meal.

The burger called out to me on the mains but I settled in for the mushroom pie with mushy peas and homemade fries. A number of people also ordered the fries (we over did it as a table) and although I liked the crisp outside and the chunkiness, I think a number of people preferred the slimmer, smaller french fry style that these chunks of potato did not represent. To be fair, they seemed a bit more like potato wedges but they were pretty good. The pie was absolutely divine. Umami-rich, flaky pastry and generous amounts of lots of different types of mushrooms. I’m a big fan. The tomato sauce in the picture is also a chipotle one. Yum!

Although getting full, I could not resist ordering an orange chocolate brownie dessert. I got it to come with a scoop of ice cream instead of cream. I’m pleased that the brownie was more of a cake – the serving size itself would have defeated me if it had been any more dense. Instead, light flaky (okay, not that brownie like) but rich and chocolately with plenty of orange flavours definitely won me over.

If not for the crowds, I think I would find myself returning here all the time. The food was great. The service was a bit meh, but hey, they had character and it is in the middle of soho!

Name: Mildreds
Website: http://www.mildreds.co.uk/
Found at: 45 Lexington Street, London , W1F 9AN

Inamo

Patrick Asian, Japanese, UK

Inamo is a Japanese restaurant that has sat in the heart of Soho for a long time. It’s a pretty well known for its “gimicky” touch table where you place your order via the complex menus. Apparently you used to be able to use the entire table top, instead the “touch” part is limited to the corner part of the table instead. Given the “service” is pretty much limited to people bringing you food, I find it a bit cheeky they still want you to pay 12.5%.

Here’s the menu divided into appetisers, mains, side dishes and drinks. Prices aren’t cheap either with most appetisers starting at almost £6 heading towards £8 and the mains averaging £15. Unfortunately the portions are on the small size as well.

Here’s one of the “small plates” of a california roll with only four pieces.

The aubergine was a much better dish. Silky flesh with lots of flavour. Once again a bit of a small portion.

I guess of the reasons that Inamo has managed to stay open is that it serves pretty tasty food and the “gimick” works well for the first visit. I’m not super keen to go back considering you get better value for money at many other London places and the service totally isn’t worth the 12.5%.

Name: Inamo
Found at: 134-136 Wardour St, W1F 8ZP
Website: http://www.inamo-restaurant.com/

Kopapa

Patrick Asian, Restaurants, UK

Although Kopapa opened more than a year ago, it’s only recently that I ate there with my friends Toni and Luca for our regular catch up meeting. We always try something different and since I’ve got an ever-growing list of places to eat, I thought we should try something. My rule for trying places is generally to avoid going as soon as a place opens. Those that manage to last more than a year are probably doing okay.

Kopapa is another Peter Gordon outlet. Known as the chef who manages to mix different ingredients sourced from different areas, and had the exception Anna Hansen of The Modern Pantry as his protege I thought things would be pretty good. To get the most of the experience, we split all the small plates amongst us favouring to share our food rather than order large meals individually. The bread basket (above) was okay including a mixture of interesting breads and a generous portion of balsamic and oil mixture.

We tried the Burrata with tomato salad, mint & black vinegar Medjool dates. Classically creamy and an interesting mix of the sweet dates helped contrast the overall richness of the salad. On the other hand the potato, pepper, caramelised onion, spinach & feta tortilla with black olive dressing was probably just best left as a normal tortilla. I found the black olive dressing especially overpowering and could not taste the sweetened vegetables contained in the midst.

The Deep-fried Sichuan pepper & chilli salted squid, smoked aioli was another disappointment for me with the squid barely spiced and the aioli hardly smoked. I could taste the sichuan pepper and that dish deserved more heat than a dog in breeding season. I found the squid tepid and lifeless instead of the crunchiness I’d hoped for.

On the other hand I would probably order two of the Crispy soft-shell crab & ham hock, pickled carrot, lychee, cucumber & peanut dressing. Though more pricey than the other dishes at almost £10, this was a great dish of complex flavours and textures that I wanted to go back to time and time again. Half a soft-shell crab came on the side of the salad and guessing (hoping!) the rest was chopped up throughout the dish. You can also see the Char-grilled Iberico pork with piquillo pepper salsa in the background of the dish. Nicely cooked though nothing particularly memorable.

The Spring rolls of slow roasted duck, Sichuan pepper, feta & guindilla chillies, tamarind aioli were slightly more successful. Each roll was generously stuffed unlike those you might find in a Chinese restaurant and the tamarind aioli providing an earthiness to the dish. Once again I couldn’t taste the sichuan pepper.

The Rare seared Yellowfin tuna, green mango, hijiki & coriander salad, nori sauce was lovingly well made. You can see the searing process done perfectly and finely balanced against its other asian-inspired counterparts.

We also ordered this Beef short rib that was only on the menu for the evening (so missing all the components). A little bit more classic british but extremely soft and well seasoned. We also tried their rosemary salt fries after reading about recommendations on it. We had to remind them of this side that then looked slightly as if they’d run off to McDonalds for their shoe string fries to dispense with their own rosemary salt. Not particularly noteworthy on this visit I’m afraid.

I guess they change their menu regularly and was looking forward to a black sesame creme brulee that happened to be replaced by the classic creme catalan on the night. On the recommendation of the waiter I tried the Peanut butter parfait with Original Beans 75% Piura Criollo chocolate delice, sea salt caramel & chocolate crumble . A good choice as well that had rich flavours, good contrast of creamy, crunch and texture that a good dessert needs.

We had some good wine and an espresso to finish our meal off.

I’m torn about my visit to Kopapa. Some of the dishes turned out wonderful. Others, less so and I think this is the danger of an ever changing menu and fusion cuisine. Rather than paying for a dish honed and perfected over a season, it feels like you’re slightly the guinea pig for another restaurant and you’re paying for the privilege as well.

Fortunately the staff definitely earned their 12.5% service with someone at hand when we wanted to move courses, or finally order the bill without the wait staff in your face. They were friendly and courteous and definitely helped the evening be a success.

Name: Kopapa
Found at:
Website: http://www.kopapa.co.uk/

Cafe Gratitude

Patrick American, Restaurants, San Francisco, Vegetarian

Our cousin and her partner told us to go and try Cafe Gratitude for the proper west coast experience. It’s a vegan restaurant that offers all the dishes that make you feel powerful and homely. Their names are cleverly named to try to give you a boost to your esteem through positive reinforcement such as “I am Dazzling” or “I am Fulfilled”. It continues with pretty much any positive saying you could talk about. Beverages continue the theme with “I am Renewed”, “I am Healthy” and “I am Luscious” (one of their richer drinks).

The restaurant offers dining on communal tables and offer plenty of shelf ingredients to buy including a vegan cookbook to help you get started.

There’s also a bar area where you can sit at.

Goodness in a glass.

Here’s the “BLT” or the “I am Extraordinary” dish. The waitress puts it down stating, “You are extraordinary” and making sure that we have everything we need before leaving. Of course there is no bacon or mayonnaise in a dish like this. I’m not even sure if they used a tofu or mushroom substitute as I didn’t have that.

I opted for a warming chipotle squash soup. Our waitress gave us a bit to try and the kick in it made me want a full bowl. It was a very generous serving. Almost too much because I ordered the side of garlic bread for some texture.

A nice cafe and a restaurant and quite the West Coast experience. Probably not somewhere you want to take someone craving a steak.

Name: Cafe Gratitude
Found at: 2400 Harrison Street (@20th Street), San Francisco, CA 94110, United States
Website: http://cafegratitude.com/

Tartine San Francisco

Patrick American, Bakery, Cafe, French, San Francisco

Tartine is a well known institution in San Francisco where you need to queue and you need to come early. It’s well known for being a great bakery and with only a number of tables inside, you need to queue and watch like a hawk to get one on a first come first serve basis.

Just like the good citizens of the city, we queued just like everyone else. Things seemed to be move pretty fast although I’d recommend they had pictures of what they sold as well as their names so you got an idea about what you wanted before you got to ordering. Once at the counter where you can see into their case of decadent cakes and baked goods, the pressure is on for you to hurry up and order by the big number of people behind you.

I tried one of their morning buns in the hope for trying to get some cinnamon roll goodness before leaving. Although not filled with cinnamon sugar delights, their bun lightly coated with caster sugar also came with pleasant hints of orange infusions. The bun instead made of reasonably good bread and not pastry.

On the other hand, I looked at all the croissants. The one below is an almond croissant and the pattern seemed to be the same across the entire range. Impressively large, but way over cooked. Almost no croissant appeared unharmed by their overzealous baking and the result, bitter aftertaste in the pastry. The pastry was indeed very flaky and buttery, but devastated that a “good” bakery can’t quite perfect the honest croissant.

Here’s one before the eating.

Tartine definitely has its fans. Is it worth lining up for? Maybe if you were buying quite a lot. And then again, be prepared to pay a premium for all their goods. I’m sure you cold probably find better elsewhere in the city but for a whole bunch of people this is probably an easy option.

Name: Tartine Bakery and Cafe
Found at: 600 Guerrero Street San Francisco, CA 94110, United States
Website: http://www.tartinebakery.com/

Una Pizza Napoletana

Patrick Italian, Restaurants, San Francisco

Our cousin took us out to dinner and we wanted to return the favour since they tend to cook for themselves more than go out. And San Francisco has far too many places to go out. The combined effect means you’ll never stay on top of them. Friday is typically pizza night for them so we headed out early to get to a “gourmet” pizza place in the SOMA district. Una Pizza Napoletana used to be based in New York. I guess a combination of expensive rents and probably a different lifestyle caused the owner to move cities.

I have no idea whether he used to have a wood burning oven in New York, but it’s the grand centrepiece in the converted warehouse, now restaurant area. There’s plenty of space although the dining area looks tiny in comparison to the extremely open kitchen preparation area including lots of flour thrown on the ground. I couldn’t tell if that was for effect, or just the culmination of hard working pizza making. The pizza restaurant has plenty of articles, all of them posted up in the corridor that leads to the restroom, and if you were really impressed by the pizza can take home merchandise like these trendy Italian coloured socks.

The menu is pretty simple. There are no shared pizzas. There are no single slices and unlike the American way of having alterations there are no extras you can put on them. Most of the pizzas abstain from a tomato sauce base. The closest thing are the smattering of cherry tomatos or the delicious San Marzano tomatoes flecked across.

They ran out of Chinotto and of course offer a number of bottles of Italian wine and beer. Pizzas aren’t exactly cheap at USD20 per bite but what you’re paying for is essentially super fresh, Italian pizza. Despite a very large oven, they could only make three pizzas at a time and with the four of us dining, I took the hit and waited whilst everyone tucked into their hot slices.

I couldn’t resist this gorgeous creation that included smoked buffalo mozzarella, rocket and cherry tomatoes. The crust was a little bit thicker than I expected from an Italian thing, but that might be a regional thing. It was extremely fresh and light and I ate mine probably far to quickly.

Look out for the sign way above your head. I missed it the first time since it’s not really at eye level.

Great tasting pizza and worth getting there early to avoid the queue.

Name: Una Pizza Napoletana
Found at: 210 11th St + Howard St San Francisco, CA 94103, United States
Website: http://www.unapizza.com/sf/

Ferry Building Farmer’s Markets

Patrick American, Markets, San Francisco

My last memory of the Ferry Building Farmer’s Marketers was a good one. So much so that I wanted to make sure I came back to see how it’d been developing. I remember lots of people and raw goods and the building itself not so significant. I was pleasantly surprised to find the entire Ferry Building turned into one giant complex filled with artisan producers and stores. They seemed mostly independent though I cannot be sure. We headed here first thing in the morning, but it was just heading into lunchtime by the time that we got there.

I needed a necessary pitstop for coffee. Although well known Blue Bottle Coffee had a physical store and a market stall, I first stumbled across the Frog Hollow Farm store and was drawn in by their offerings. The attendants warned me that service was going to be slow with a few people queueing but the result was good. A nice latte with lots of interesting produce like jam, biscuits and teas to look at whilst waiting.

Our cousin’s partner told us about the wonder of the Roli Roti Porchetta Sandwich, a freshly carved pork roll served with a bit of crackling, plenty of rocket lettuce and some good stuff. The queue already formed and it wasn’t even noon. We thought we’d split one of these baby’s and it turned out to be a great thing too. I’m pretty sure they had some other great looking rotisserie meats, but the main event was definitely the porchetta sandwich.

A few other stalls lined the marketplace front including a home made pizza company who somehow brought along their own wood fired pizza oven, a korean food stall and a mexican stall that I had to try. The special was three tacos for $9 and so ordered a handful of then including the chicken mole verde, the beef short rib and the traditional carnitas.

Look at those beauties below. My favourite was probably the carnitas and a bit disappointed the mole didn’t have the richness and complex flavours I expected.

My sister tried the deep fried mac and cheese from the korean joint. We have no idea about how they formed it, but as you can see, they somehow managed to fry a block of it. I didn’t really try this kind of full from the rest of the food we tried.

It’s a great place to visit and I’d count myself lucky if we worked in the area. Be prepared to come early or queue. By the time it was noon, all the office workers descended and huge queues formed. Make sure to get a porchetta sandwich at least once!

Name: Ferry Building Marketplace
Found at: 1 Ferry building, San Francisco, California 94105, United States
Website: www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com

Ana Mandara

Patrick Asian, Restaurants, San Francisco, Vietnamese

We stumbled across Ana Mandara after being told about it on our Segway tour. Apparently owned by Don Johnson (and others), this restaurant offers modern vietnamese cuisine. The interior is amazing, opening up into an oriental oasis and a haven from the tourist-central Fisherman’s Wharf area it sits in.

I’ll warn you now. The restaurant isn’t cheap and although we had a look at the menu before sitting down, didn’t realise how much the entire meal would cost us in the end after ordering. Starters begin at USD10 ranging up to normal main meal prices at other places (USD20) whilst mains began at USD20 and went to USD30. The meals are aptly named like the Temple’s Delight involving a plethora of vegetables mixed together with a miso sauce or the Dreams of Sea and Fire, a crab soup with house made noodles.

We started with the Honourable Road or what other asian restaurants might simply label as the Mixed Appetisers. Perhaps much of the USD31 for the plate went into the naming. Fortunately most of the components of the dish were pretty good. The fresh summer rolls arrived with a huge prawn, the chicken satay nice and smoky and the tender grilled beef succulent and moist. The calamari was probably the only disappointment remaining rather soft and lifeless and not with the crispness, or spice I’d expect.

I really enjoyed the Pieces of Gold (USD24) or a spicy caramelised claypot fish that they scooped out of the claypot and served on the plate. I’d hoped for something sizzling but instead we had some generously sized chunks of fish covered in a nice sauce. Considering the spice levels typically found in a vietnamese place, they could have used much more chili and failed to live up to its spicy name. I asked for some extra chilli sauce on the side that made up for it. We got some noodles as the side and some eggplant vegetables as well.

My sister wanted to try the Memories of Nha Trang (USD36). I’m a bigger fan of crab than lobster. I think the fun of lobster is over far too quickly, with the meat often more tough and less flavourful than its shellfish brethren. In this case, the lobster was covered in a tomato based sauce. It had some flavour and their presentation made the task of picking out the lobster flesh even easier. As I predicted though, it was over a bit too soon although I thought the flavours should have been sharper in a dish like this.

Although a nice experience, I don’t think I would return to Ana Mandara. With so many other offerings in San Francisco, I don’t think it offered the grace and wonder the prices demonstrate. This place feels like one you would want to take a nice date. The upstairs area looked great for sitting around, indulging in some drinks and absorbing the nice restaurant feel. It didn’t really work for a dinner place for a couple of tourists looking for a great meal around the Fisherman’s Wharf area.

Name: Ana Mandara
Found at: 891 Beach Street San Francisco, CA 94109, United States
Website: http://www.anamandara.com/