sasicka's Profile
what are the most authentic in Prague
Been to the Golden Well stand at Prague Food Festival - very good!
Special, but casual dinner in Prague
I would definitelly not say that Lokal is a special place. It's a pub. If you go, make sure you reserve (or get a seat) in the non-smoking section. I don't know if Lokal serves wine but I would definitelly not drink wine in any pub (except maybe Lokal but maybe not even there) if you know anything about wine, yuck. Ask for a Kofola - interesting non-alcoholic local drink made originally out of beer waste (not anymore) or Vinea - a vine based non-alcoholic fizzy drink. Lokal serves Kofola and a home made orange lemonade. Lokal is a restaurant only, there is no inn there.
Your clothes - are you taking anything that could be considered smart casual? Some nice shirts and blouses with your jeans and some non-smeakers shoes go a long way here. We usually dress in jeans when we go out.
A pretty special place food-wise might be Sansho. It is one of the best restaurants in Prague, it is very informal (sweaters, t-shirts and jeans are the right attire here) and it serves pan-Asian cuisine. For dinner it is degustation menu only and it takes a few hours. Go with cocktails or beer here, and tap water. Definitelly celebration restaurant, very expensive for Prague.
Prague Food Festival, anyone going?
Been today. Nice place although a little too spread out.
Highlights for me: U Zlate Studny (old restaurant, rediscovered), Cafe Amandine (new bistrot, great simple food), Essence in Mandarin Oriental (totally new project made for fun just for the festival, great!) and the last but not least, the Havana Club bar stand with their discovery plate of rums. Will definitelly go back there.
Dissapointments: Chateau St. Havel - really unimpressive, standard food, Le Grill in Kempinski - tasted only the barley risotto, overcooked and very uninteresting.
If I could go back, I'd try Le Patio, it smelled very interesting and the menu looked great, but we passed it very early on and did not return there in the end.
Advice - go with someone, best if 2 or 3 people together, because then you can buy one dish or menu and everybody gets a taste. Buy extra grands, you'll need them especially if you want to taste wine or cocktails (or rums). We spent 30 grands per person today. You can always buy more at quite a few places throughout the park.
Enjoy!
Ice cream in Venice
Please help! Maybe I'm blind or can't type or read but I can't find any posts on gelaterias in Venice. I like GROM, although I'm not over the moon with it and I would like to try some other ice creams too. I'm the sort of person who says no to diets and yes to cream, egg yolks and hand made non-industrial food.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!
what are the most authentic in Prague
V Zatisi definitelly. Bellevue is sort of Italian, U Modre Kachnicky is downright awfull. Golden Well seems to be doing nicely, I've never been there but there are nice views from their terrace and the food references have allways been good. Artisan or Lobkowitz Cafe - no idea, never even heard of them.
"Tankova" Pubs in Prague
Since your post, I've noticed signs over several pubs, even smaller ones, that they serve beer from a tank. In Czech, the sign would read Pivo z tanku. So there are more of them than a few years ago, but I'm sure that their number is not greater than a hundred. However, as I mentioned in my first answer, there are many more pubs who serve beer from a smaller barrel.
If you enter the pub, take a smell. If you smell stale beer, dirty tables or floor, dirty toilets, go away. Burnt frying oil is not necessarily a bad sign but it can mask other smells. Sometimes it's hard to smell anything over the thick clouds of cigarette smoke :-D But as most pubs do not have a very good ventilation, you can learn a lot from how it smells inside.
Of course, Kukubura has been to the more upmarket or more famous pubs but if numbers is what you're after, there is a pub on almost any street corner here in Prague. But not all of them serve good beer!
Looking for restaurant with rooms by the sea - anywhere in Italy
Thanks guys for a lot of great ideas! I must say I like the Crete tip the best :-D LOL
Prague Help?
If you're going to Germany and Prague, you'll be soon sick of the saurkraut / pork combo. I suggest you print out a few tips about the Italian eateries in Prague (and possibly in the German towns you're visiting) to get some lighter fare in, if you need it. There were some related posts recently.
Otherwise, in Germany you can often get a salad thrown into the meal even at the most traditional restaurants. I allways ask for a green salad (just the green leaves), otherwise you'll get some meat in it.
If you're going in the spring, make sure you eat lots of asparagus - usually eaten white, boiled and served with butter and ham or with hollandaise sauce.
Istanbul - Proposed Itinerary - Input Please!
Antiochia did not strike me as a family place. It is aimed at young hip couples, it's quite loud and there is no place to run around. And I had not such a good experience - the food was good but the service was really hurried and uninterested once they found out we'd not buy their overpriced wine. I preferred Meze by far and Zabayir by a little bit. If I take only food in the account, I'd still say that Meze was far far better and Zabayir was about equal, maybe a little bit worse than Antiochia.
Try to add some family restaurants as per Antman's suggestions, and if you are going in the summer, the gardens are a must. The kids will have a great time running around there while you enjoy your food in peace. One thing that I love about Istanbul are the gardens and parks full of families and kids playing together, as if free from this car / abuse / kidnap anxiety driven parents of the Western world.
Most of the kids I know enjoy bread more than anything else - try to stop at a few bakeries here and there. They'll be happy with their extra carbs :-)
Where to eat haggis in Edinburgh?
Yum yum black pudding in Austria yum... Still salivating :-)
Thanks guys for all the info. My friends actually want to try haggis :-D
Prague Help?
Česká kuchyně is located on Havelská street between Wenceslas and Old Town squares. It's not good with babies because it gets quite busy with people walking about carrying trays everywhere. Also you'd have to think about carrying a tray and a baby at the same time. The food is only OK and mainly good for people who do not trust menus and want to see the food before they order.
U Medvidku caters mainly to Lonely Planet tourists and German seniors bus tours. Food is just OK and I'm not sure about their smoking policy. If you are here in summer you might want to try the summer beer garden for a nice afternoon beer in the sun.
As for kid friendly places, Lokal has a big non-smoking section and lunch is completely non-smoking. They have baby chairs. Also, there is a nice garden restaurant at Žofín by Ambiente group on one of the islands on the river (Slovanský ostrov). It has good children menu and a playyard as well as lots of space to run around on grass.
For another traditional pub, you might try U Pinkasu, which also has a garden. I don't know about their children policy.
Mlejnice - I haven't been for a while. We used to go there when we were in uni, they had good and cheap food. Now they are above student budget but we found their price to value ratio unsatisfactory. They cater to tourists now. Kolkovna - allways busy, half locals half tourists, ok reputation though I've never been.
Enjoy Prague!
Lokal "Worst place for food that I have ever been."
Hi Christie,
Maybe as you've never been to Lokal, you might have misunderstood what it actually is. It's a pub. Not a modern sleek gastropub with a Michelin star. Just a pub. In the evening, it can be hard to see through smoke. People are sitting together on benches and since the tables are close together in a cavernous interior, the noise can be intense. The interior is very basic. Tables for 8 persons, no tablecloths, no views, no decor, not pretty or too comfortable. A down to earth pub. I would never bring my colleagues there for a work lunch or dinner unless they were Czech.
The food is similar. If you've been to La Finestra or V Zatisi, these are uncompareable to Lokal. Lokal is the very basic of Czech cooking - heavy dumplings with heavy sauces, cabbage, fried cheese, potatoes, pork. It is a very good example of true Czech cuisine, done with fresh ingredients, care and love, but you won't find any lightness or greens in it. For lots of foreighners this might be inedible, especially if they are sophisticated. Lokal is as unsophisticated as you can get.
Where to eat haggis in Edinburgh?
Thanks very much, guys, and my appologies for the mistakes. Scottish and Edinburgh :-)
Where to eat haggis in Edinburgh?
My friends are going to Edinbourgh for a few days and they asked me about Scotch food. Where should they go for eating the best haggis? Prefer gastropubs over fine dining.
Thanks so much!
Looking for restaurant with rooms by the sea - anywhere in Italy
Thanks very much. I have not really stayed at Albergo Ristorante and I allways wanted to do it. This just seems such a great opportunity.
One of my favorite restaurants in Italy is in a hotel (just above Trento). But for this occasion, I would prefer something much less formal, hence my emphasis on family ownership.
I will look through your recommendations. As I've said, the main concern for me is the quality of the food. I've just allways wanted to stay in an Albergo Ristorante or restaurant with rooms of whatever you might call it, I've just never had the opportunity.
Thanks!
Looking for restaurant with rooms by the sea - anywhere in Italy
Hi there, I was thinking of taking my 6month twins and my in-laws to Italy for a refreshing holiday by the sea. I hate hotel food and hotel rooms, so I'm looking for a nice restaurant with rooms or any old accomodation with great food.
The criteria are as follows:
1) first and foremost, great simple food
2) sea view from my balcony
3) baby friendly = I will have my own beds and food, I just need a friendly attitude
4) family run / owned
5) parking space
6) can be out of town or in a small village or town
7) beach within easy walking distance (no cliffs, no hard access to the beach or sea
It doesn't matter in which part of Italy it is. I would of course prefer anything far from big cities and over-priced locations, such as Tuscany or Venice, but I will be travelling by car, so will eventually get anywhere.
It can also be an agroturismo or an apartment with a good restaurant nearby, but I would prefer the good restaurant on the ground floor.
Thanks very much!
Where to eat before Noma?
I like to eat at places that serve food as it should be prepared in that location - very regional and seasonal. I don't care if it's traditional or modern, as long as it's good food. Otherwise, I am not at all interested in fashionable, cool or stylish. Price level is debatable - I am not on a student budget, but one Noma-sized bill will be enough. So something reasonable that a middle class person can afford, or even cheaper, if there is some hole in the wall that I should really try.
Thanks!
"Tankova" Pubs in Prague
This might not necessarily be a good question. There is of course a difference between beer being poured from a large tank and from a smaller barrel, but I have yet to come to recognise it. I would say that the biggest difference is if the beer-pourer takes good or bad care of the pipes and if he pours the beer well.
Very few pubs or restaurants or any sort of establishment would have no beet on tap, just bottles or G*d-forbid, in cans.
So, it is not overly common to have large tanks of beer, but there are a few of these restaurants / pubs around. I would think there would be no more than a dozen of them. Lokal is the most famous, but there are some micro-breweries or the Staropramen brewery restaurant (that is the Prague beer). Most of pubs though have beer on tap and whatever brand it is, usually it comes from smaller barrels.
Foreign beer (also from other European countries) is most commonly served in bottles poured into a glass. In posh restaurants you might find mostly bottled beer.
Prague, Vienna, Budapest - need recs for picky eaters
Prague - lots of restaurants have English menus. Otherwise: kure = chicken, vepr...= pork, hovezi = beef, bezmase = without meat (not necessarily vegetarian), brambory = potatoes, knedliky = typical boiled dough side dish but can also mean a sweet dish with boiled dough filled with fruit.. For easy and quick pastry / sandwich lunch, there are 2 chains all over town serving filled baguettes and other pastry stuff - Paneria and Boulevard. Decent quality, vegetarian options, salads, pastries, etc.
Dinner: If you go to either Lokal or Nota Bene, you'll get very good Czech meals that are not necessarily heavy or limited to pork. There is also plenty of Italian restaurants serving good pasta and pizza, such as Pagana or Grossetto Marina on a boat on the Vltava river (beautiful views are a bonus here). Some pasta and salads always fulfill the no-tomatoes limit. The two best Italian restaurants serving fish and meat respectively are Aromi and Finestra, but eating here would probably just fit your budget or might be just above it.
For vegetarian fare, you can try the Light Head or Maitrea, both serving light dishes which even non-vegetarian can enjoy, and are not verged towards North Indian but more towards a fusion Cali-Mexican sort of cuisine. If you are in the area, you can try another good lunch option, Bio Zahrada (could be translated as Ecological Garden), which is a shop-cum-cafe serving daily soups, salads, quiche and maybe some other dishes, always well made and always healthy and from excellent ingredients.
All sorts of cafes are all around town and they serve lighter dishes. Cafe Imperial is the most hefty of them all, but serves very good and reasonably priced Czech and French dishes in an outstanding decor-ed historical building. Cafe Louvre (mostly used for breakfast, but lunch is OK too), Cafe Slavia (historical building and nice views) and Cafe Savoy are all walking distance from each other, basically on the same street. They all serve international light cafe fare, the latter two on the top side of your budget.
I could recommend some Asian restaurants, like Sansho, Sasazu, Aureole or Katsuma, but your budget would not allow for this. It is not a low budget per se, it's just that the Asian and lighter fare tend to be more upmarket and the green and healthy ingredients tend to be more expensive.
Enjoy Prague!
2.5 day Venice Itinerary - suggestions welcome
Thanks so much! Will try some of them out.
Menus in English? Is there an app for that?
The best meals I had were those where I patted the waiter on his shoulder and showed a dish on the next table or a dish that he was carrying. Also, I had a lovely conversation with a granddad running a small trattoria in the middle of Tuscan hills where he did not speak a word of English and me the same for Italian. It took about 15 minutes and ended with him sharing his personal bottle of wine with us :-) Don't worry and enjoy Italy and use your eyes, hands and smiles to communicate. You'll be successful and everybody will be happy.
2.5 day Venice Itinerary - suggestions welcome
PBSF, you mention places that are simple trattorie not specialising on seafood but as good as Alle Testiere and Antiche Carampane. I love seafood but I'll be dining with friends which I don't know so much and they might prefer something else than fish or seafood. Please share a name or two - what places did you have in mind?
Thanks!
2.5 day Venice Itinerary - suggestions welcome
When you have the menu at Il Ridotto, they will ask you if you want seafood or meat - you can choose. I'm not sure about vegetarian but I'm sure the chef is very good and would be willing to prepare something.
9+ days in Mexico City: Where should we EAT?!
Pujol - absolutely loved them, would have returned every day but we left it at the last moment :-(
Prague Help?
sorry, i'm not here every day :-) i hope you enjoyed your stay nonetheless.
Where to eat before Noma?
Hi,
I was able to get a reservation to Noma - so excited! This also gives me a great excuse to visit Copenhagen for the first time (apart from that one time sooo long ago that my favorite place in the world was the Legoland :-)
Anyway, I'll have at least one late dinner (think 9-10pm entering restaurant) before the day and one lunch on the day of the Noma dinner. Also, I might get in one more day (lunch and dinner) on the day after Noma, but that's not at all certain.
Where should I go before the great dinner? I was thinking along the lines of Fiskebaren for dinner and Aamann's for lunch. Or are there better solutions for pre-noma?
Thanks for your advice,
Alexandra
St Petersburg
At the two ends of the scale, I found:
Teremok - a pancakes chain all over SP and Moscow, both sweet and savory choices, not much atmosphere but very typical for Russia. Have a birch soft drink or lingonberry lemonade (Mors). For a bit of change, you can have tvarozhniki, which is curd cheese with little flour and eggs baked in oven.
Tsar - a Europenised version of the Russian classics, very high standard of food, nice ambiance, very good Mors vodka.
Most interesting place - First Russian Vodka Room, with great choice of vodkas and very good appetisers to go with it. If I got to go there again, I'd just ask the waiter for his recommendations for pairings and order 3-4 vodkas with 3-4 appetisers. Also excellent soups. Mains were just OK. Leave room for dessert.
Venice - looking for best food, can be somewhat upmarket
Last time I was in Venice, I enjoyed thoroughly the restaurant Il Ridotto (but also its sister pizzeria across the square).
My question is - is there anything better in Venice than Il Ridotto? I have no restriction on the budget, but I do not need a flashy luxury place. It needs to be maximum as formal as Il Ridotto (of course, if there is better food somewhere I am willing to get into my formal clothes, but not too excited to do so). The great food is paramount. And it needs to be Venetian cuisine. Definitelly not interested in anything remotely French, however good it might be or however many Michelin stars.
Will be staying in San Polo neighbourhood, so closeness is a plus, but anywhere reachable by vaporetto or on foot is OK.
I will do more checking on this web site for San Polo casual recommendations but if you have a place in mind, I'd be gratefull for any ideas.
Thank you,
Alexandra
Looking for a good mix in Prague
Sansho is closed on Sunday and on Monday. I would recommend sticking to Alcron on Friday because it is one of the best places in town. Sansho has a bigger tasting menu for dinner, you need to be hungry for that. If you go, don't order wine there - the wine list is too expensive and not at all good, have some cocktails - they are really full of imagination and very well mixed.
Budapest--Vienna--Prague
Sansho is great but I have not heard a lot of good about the Pind - it seems to be just OK (I've never been personally).
In Prague, you might like the dessert and coffee place Cafe Saint Tropez http://www.cafe-st-tropez.eu/, which is owned by two families - a French and a Czech one.
Also, for food, you might appreciate Cafe Imperial, which is in a very nice building and has very good Czech and French dishes. One of the first real good restaurants in Prague and still not expensive - it is possible to go there for a larger lunch or casual dinner.
New local non-smoking sort of gastropub has opened near the metro stop IP Pavlova http://www.notabene-restaurant.cz/ The web page is in Czech, but there is a map. The lunch is simpler, two or three options only, can be very busy, dinner is better and more sophisticated. Based on great ingredients and traditional Czech basic recipes, they created a lighter and more sophisticated and tasty fare.
Enjoy.
