I'd been meaning to go to the Prague forever, but somehow was never in the mood for Central European comfort food when in the Queen W. neighbourhood. Until yesterday, when I had dinner plans with my pal JN, who - like me - is a veteran of Mitteleuropa.
We got there about quarter past six, to find out that the place closes at seven - so a long catch-up over dinner was pretty much out. The menu is full of Czech stand-bys such as svicková (beef in creamy sauce), fried cheese, roast pork, sauerkraut, etc. - all very authentic. So far so good.
We both ordered the smoked salmon appetizer - house-smoked salmon was excellent, a good start to the meal.
And then we got our mains. Both the svicková and the blood sausage with potatoes and sauerkraut were bland, bland, bland. Liberal application of Czech mustard helped my blood sausage a bit... But we both agreed that on the scale of post-communist Central European development, our dinner was somewhere around 1995. Better than 1989... but not up to snuff by today's standards.
Sadly, by the time we got to dessert, the kitchen was closed and they couldn't make palacinky - stuffed crepes. And my vanilla-custard-filled Czech donut was... well, I only ate half, and I never leave dessert unfinished.
So why does the Prague get three stars and not two? The service was friendly and warm - indeed, delightful. They let us stay long past closing as they cleaned up. And the Slovak beer was excellent.