Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Prague Restaurants Serving High-end Czech Food?!??!
Sorry, folks. But no one visits the Czech Republic for the food. Sure, I grew to like it when I lived there, and it was cheap, but unless you like rather bland meat, potatoes and dumplings, then save your palate for finer fare elsewhere.
That's simply the way it's been for many years now.
According to a recent New York Times article, however, the Czech culinary scene is surprisingly changing. A number of high-end Czech restaurants serving traditional Czech food (!) are popping up all over Prague. Instead of $1 plates of goulash, the chefs are serving up escabeche, beef tartare, "white tomato meringue, topped with honey and aged balsamic vinegar," "ravioli, stuffed with diced beef lungs," and much, much more. Just check out the slide show here!
Journalist Evan Rail recently took a culinary tour of the Czech capital and his review was something I'd expect to find in a place like France or Belgium. But instead, it was all about the long-established doldrums of the culinary world where high-end Czech restaurants are now offering up first class, traditional meals that can run seven courses long and cost hundreds of dollars.
Man, things have come a long way since my first visit in 1990 when they used ketchup to top their pizzas.
Filed under: Food and Drink, Czech Republic
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Iva.Skoch Sep 22nd 2007 9:34AM
Expensive restaurants with great food have always been in Prague but were not as popular because nobody could afford them. Locals didn't make enough money and the tourists who frequented Prague used to be the “cheap pizza with ketchup” crowd rather than the "honey-glazed tomato meringue" types. Prague has been working hard to shed its reputation as a backpacking mecca (those tourists spend no money) and become a place of sophisticated fun (people who do spend money and don’t throw up on sidewalks after midnight). On some level, you can’t blame Prague.
Oddsocks Sep 26th 2007 12:03PM
I don't think it's fair or truthful to characterize backpackers the way the previous commenter has. Studies in Australia have shown that backpackers spend more money per capita than other tourists simply because they stay for longer.
I first went to Prague in 1994 and detest ketchup on pizzas. I wore and still wear a backpack and not once have I thrown up on a Czech (or European for that matter) footpath.
The vomit on the footpaths is more likely from the Western Europeans who've flown into Prague for a cheap weekend on the piss. Plenty of money to spend and not a backpack amongst them.
You've lost the plot Ivo.