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

Prague Adventures Part I

A picturesque walk across Charles Bridge

Sooo I originally wrote this as one longgggg blog, and then I realized that there is no way anyone would have the attention span to read the entire thing. Hence, I decided to split the blog into 3 parts, 1 for each day spent in Prague.  I'll also have a Restaurant review or 2 because some of the restaurants were good enough to warrant their own posting.

The Easter Market

Just about 2 weeks ago during my work break I went to Prague for 3 days. It was an absolutely gorgeous city and I can definitely envision myself living there one day. It is the biggest city in the Czech Republic but it's still on a considerably smaller scale than NYC or even Rome. It reminds me of Florence in size, beauty and feeling (it oozes comfort to me). The city is very walk-able. It has art, history, culture and of course incredible food.

Delicious sausage and beer

I'm going to be honest. I didn't love Czech food, I liked it. It was tasty. But the things I tried were quite
heavy and there weren't many vegetables involved (which I know would thrill some friends of mine).
When I first got to Prague the first thing I did was try sausage from the Easter Market. It was served simple with a slice of wheat/whole grain bread and some mustard.  I loved it because it was simple and full of flavor.  Plus it was great with my Pilsner beer. I'm not the biggest beer drinker but while in Prague beer drinking is an ABSOLUTE must. Prague is the beer capital of the world. It's where Pilsner originates and I can

Potatoes of delight

absolutely confirm that beer costs less than water in some places.  Soo I had a lot of beer there.  It was necessary for a proper Prague food experience.  Sadly, I never made it to a beer tasting but that ill just have to wait till next time.  I think it would be worth it simply because I know next to nothing about beer.  I know there's light)blonde beer, red and dark beers. All other classifications are lost on me.
So my first meal involved Pilsner and then I switched to cider (there was a cider shop in the Easter market that was utterly adorable). They had Kingswood which is a Czech Cider. I love cider and had it again with dinner too. It is delicious and sweet but not too sweet. We also got this lovely, spicy potato salad that had sausage, bacon and lots of great spices. It was heavy and delicious and went really well with the rain. It rained that afternoon, so cider, sausage and potatoes really hit the spot.

Kingswood cider

At dinner I stuck with my cider. It was great but I must admit beer probably would've gone better with my Goulash. Goulash is a typical Eastern Euopean plate and quite common in Prague. It is a kind of stewed beef. The sauce is full of flavor and quite heavy and it is served with a variety of different traditional dumplings. Goulash can also be served as a soup sans chunks of meat  (we tried it the next day).
We had our first sit down meal at a restaurant called "U Vejvodu" which I kept pronouncing incorrectly as Dejavu. I'm going to review the entire meal in a separate post because it was delicious.
After dinner we were going to get cocktails or ice cream made with absinthe but sadly we were too full and tired. Absinthe is competely legal and there are a lot of absinthe bars foating around. I was very tempted but I also wanted to enjoy the intense schedule of walking tours we had planned without a hangover or migraine.  I think I made the right choice.

Prague Adventures Part II
Prague Adventures Part III