Restaurant Review Prague: U Vejvodu

Their downstairs

We spotted this restaurant while walking from Old Town Square to Charles Bridge. It looked large but somehow quaint and friendly and I got a kick out of the name. For whatever reason, I kept mispronouncing it as Dejavu, and so we decided to go back and figure out how to pronounce it.  After taking pictures by the bridge we walked back and found it again.  Luckily it was quite easy to find.
The restaurant is actually quite famous not only for its typical Czech atmosphere in the style of an Old Bohemian restaurant (once upon a time the Czech Republic was known as La Bohemia, which I think is awesome) but also famous for its Pillsner beer and traditional Czech cuisine.  I'm quite glad that we stumbled upon it.
We walked inside and it has a lovely traditional ale house feel.  The bars are prominent in all the different sections of the large restaurant.  There are a lot of different seating areas so we decided to go downstairs to escape the chill, damp in the air (since we had gotten rained on earlier in the evening.
 The waiters were lovely and low key and did not really care where we seated ourselves. They also throughout the evening left us in peace. They definitely didn't rush us even though we stayed in there for a long time but they also were pretty good about paying attention to our table. We didn't sit there too terribly long waiting for them to clear the table or for them to bring us the bill.
We chose a table in a not terribly crowded nook. It wasn't too loud but still had a lot of sound and vibrancy. The restaurant wasn't too dark or too bright which really let us relax after a long day of travelling and walking around.
I also loved the table settings because there were pretzels on a rack on each table. It was quite quaint and picturesque to me. We sat down and promptly ordered drinks. I got my Kingswood Cider and Endira got a more traditional Pilsner.
We took a lot of time to look over the menu. We wanted to get traditional Czech food that would warm the soul and stomach after all the damp of the afternoon.

Enjoying my cider!

I decided to order the Plzeňský guláš sypaný cibulkou, houskový knedlík otherwise known as the Pilsner Urquell Beef goulash, served with fresh onion and bread dumplings. It was really heavy as a dish but absolutely delicious and flavorful. The stew was thick and had a hint of spice and the beef was quite tender. I didn't love the quantity of raw onion on top (it was definitely too much raw onion for me), but I did like the texture that it added to the dish. My goulash was served with 3 pieces of crust-less bread to sop up all of the stew-like sauce. This worked for me since I liked the flavor.  It also came with a bread dumpling. The dumpling was a little on the dry side, but it was quite good with the sauce and beef.  Overall I liked my dish even though it was quite heavy and I was ready to burst after eating it all.  I didn't even finish all the bread and sauce and I was incredibly full. And I was missing my vegetables. I really wanted greenery.
Endira decided to go for something traditionally Czech as well.  She ordered Moravský vrabec s bílým
zelím, bramborový a houskový knedlík which is Roasted pork pieces with white cabbage, potato and bread dumplings.  Warning: the menu says white cabbage, but they really mean sauerkraut (which I suppose is equivalent but we weren't thinking) which is pretty important since Endira nor I really like sauerkraut. Endira did not love her meal. I liked the flavor of her pork but it was quite rich, and I think needed more sauce. Since neither of us actually like sauerkraut I can't really make a comment on the kraut served, it looked and tasted like ordinary sauerkraut to me.  I did like her potato and bread dumplings as well, although they were admittedly a little strange. I've never had anything like them. They were potato and bread pressed together and then steamed. I have no comparison point for it. They were great for soaking up the flavor of sauces but they had no real flavor of their own and I don't think there was enough sauce in that plate for them to be totally useful.  The dish was quite heavy and Endira was also ridiculously full at the end of our meal. I know that she would have loved some vegetables as well.
We opted out of getting dessert because we were too full to eat even another morsel.  The prices were also quite good (at least I think since I had very little concept of the Czech money) and I felt like we didn't spend a fortune on our very filling and traditional meal.

The cuteness I found on the way out of the restaurant