Katr Restaurant

"If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life." Frank Lloyd Wright

Prague is filled with history and beautiful architecture at every turn. But there is also a place for modern and contemporary design. When it comes to restaurants, I wish there was more of it in this town.

Mistral Cafe is a place I consider a success in this area. The dining room achieves a clean, concrete simplicity that gives it the feeling of a gallery. That alone doesn't keep it filled. The cooking is also generally good and the prices are moderate.

The eye-catching design and somewhat unusual concept of another new eatery caught my eye and made me want to try.

I'm talking about the recently opened Katr Restaurant in Old Town.

One glance inside and you'll see what I'm talking about. It's light, white, shiny and bright.

Some walls double as blackboards, chalked up with various items from the menu.

But the most interesting aspect of the design is the tables with built-in gas grills, each with its own silver ventilation system descending from the ceiling.

There were ashtrays on the tables and people were smoking in different parts of the restaurant.

We sat down at a table without a grill for lunch one day. It was much too warm a day to be anywhere near hot metal. We'd come back and cook another time.

The waiter delivered a basket.

There was fresh Czech bread as well as one with peanuts mixed in. A dish of creamy blue cheese spread sat on the side. There is a 20 CZK cover per person.

I had a half-liter of Kozel (39 CZK).

It could have been colder. I later had a half-liter of Pilsner Urquell.

This one was cold enough, but also quite foamy. Miss P had a .33 bottle of Mattoni (45 CZK).

She started off with a Katr Salad (170 CZK). This included young asparagus, avocado, mushrooms and a variety of lettuce.

She dressed it herself with oil and vinegar and pronounced it very good. Everything was fresh, the avocado was ripe and it mixed together well.

There is a section of the menu where you can order raw meat or fish to grill yourself. But I ordered from their list of meals fully prepared in the kitchen. I had the Uruguayan rib eye steak with a veal and sage sauce and roasted sweet potatoes (400 CZK).

The beef was very flavorful and beautifully tender. Although rib eyes can be fatty, this one was on the lean side.

There was still plenty of pink at the center, as requested.

The terrific sauce tasted like a top quality demi-glace. I wished there was more of it. The sweet potatoes were cut thick and had a light char on the edges. I liked it all.

The waiter told Miss P that the kitchen could prepare something from the grilling menu if she wanted, so she ordered the sea bass. They charge by weight, so she got the minimum, 200 grams (280 CZK).

The fish arrived cut into small pieces, which is how it is also given to guests for grilling. The sea bass was cooked to the point that a crisp, brown crust formed.

These fish nuggets were on the dry side, especially around the edges, and had little seasoning. We both found it very dull.

The potato puree with feta was quite salty and had the strong taste of fennel. They charge 70 CZK for sides that go with the grilled items. So the total price for the plate was 350 CZK. I liked the potatoes more than Miss P did.

With the grilled meat and fish, you can choose two of the three sauces. We had to remind the waiter about this, so they arrived later. The sauces are hoisin, tomato salsa, or homemade tartar.

Putting any two of these together are like culinary non sequiturs. They just don't work together.

The tartar and hoisin tasted generic, while the salsa was basically a combination of stewed tomatoes and tomato paste. I'd say they need a rethink.

I was pretty full, but when I saw the dessert menu, there was something I absolutely had to try. Churros!

There are a number of variations of this extruded, fried dough. I've had the ridged, cinnamon sugar covered sticks served alone in paper in Los Angeles and Barcelona. I've dipped them in hot chocolate in Madrid. I've had them Brazilian style, filled with dulce de leche, at London's Camden Market. Damn, that was good.

These churros appeared to be a non-ridged variety with the thinner dough common to southeastern Spain (90 CZK).

The plate was piled with plenty of them. In the middle was a rich, thick hot chocolate sauce. This was excellent.

However, the dough was over-fried to hardness. A bigger issue was the cinnamon sugar. Large granules deeply caked the surface of the churros. I have a big sweet tooth, but I was trying to shake off sugar onto the plate. That didn't work too well.

These were the first churros I had ever seen in Prague, and I was disappointed. If they get better, I'd come regularly just for those.

There was a long wait for the bill. The meal, which included some of their more expensive dishes, added up to 1257 CZK.

I returned the following week to try their burger (199 CZK).

It is served on a dense, toasted, ciabatta-like roll. It comes with mustard, chive mayo, lettuce, tomato, pickle and red onion. Fries are included.

As for the meat, it was terribly dry, dense, and difficult to chew. The texture was unpleasant.

I asked for it to be prepared medium but it was cooked all the way through. This was the worst burger patty I've had since I began keeping records. I could only eat half of it and gave up due to fatigue.

To wash down the bungled burger, I asked for their homemade lemonade. The waitress told me they only had the elderberry version, so I said I'd take that. What I got looked and tasted like lime and nothing else.

It was sour, with a light sweetness. I liked it. It came in a small pitcher with no glass. When I mentioned this, I received a straw.

On the third visit, Miss P started with a vegetable salad with feta cheese, grilled artichokes, tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, and onion.

We had high hopes for the artichokes, but the whole thing was a rather dull affair.

After the salad, we were ready to do some cooking.

The waitress pulled down the exhaust vent, fired up the gas grill and set the flame to high. I got 200 grams of pork neck (200 CZK) with a side of potato puree with truffle oil (70 CZK).

I could taste the oil in the potatoes, but they were lukewarm and needed salt.

Miss P got the chicken (200 CZK) with a side of mixed vegetables for grilling (70 CZK).

The meat comes with almost no seasoning, so they give you some basics: salt, pepper, Tabasco, and olive oil.

The grill radiates a lot of heat, so perhaps it would be nice on a cold evening. It's something I'd avoid during hot weather.

With that high heat, the meat cooks the food super fast.

On the one hand, this is good because it puts a nice crust on the meat's exterior and saves you from spending too much time tending the grill. On the other hand, it's hard to keep up a conversation because if you don't pay attention and flip the little pieces at the right time, something will burn.

How was it?

It tasted like meat cooked on a hot pan with salt and pepper and perhaps some oil. In other words, it was fine, but nothing special. Sure, there was a novelty to it, but it's not something I'd do more than once. Maybe people with a deep love for grilling for friends and family will feel differently.

The service was average to poor. Although very friendly, sauces that come with grilled dishes were forgotten on both visits. The waiters would disappear for long stretches, and it was always hard to get the check at the end.

A lot was invested in this restaurant's design and concept, but most of the food just didn't do it for me. After three visits, I didn't feel the love.

There were too many disappointing dishes and the grilling just wasn't so thrilling.

Katr Restaurant
Vězeňská 9
Prague 1 - Old Town
tel. (+420 222 315 148)

El Asador

"When I go out to a restaurant, I definitely order dishes that I know take either a long time to make or are difficult to source. Unless it's a really special steak, there's no reason for me to go out and eat that." Mario Batali

How far would you travel for a really special steak? I faced this question when I heard that a new South American steak house had opened in Prague.

But it is barely in Prague. El Asador is in a small village on the eastern outskirts, near Průhonice. Still, my quixotic quest for quality beef has few limits. I am always searching for cuts to add to my Prague steak list.

Getting there meant a drive of about 30 minutes from the center, unless you want to take the C line metro to Opatov and then bus 326 or 327 to the stop at Hrnčíře.

I drove, but even my GPS system sent me down two dead ends into the surrounding farmland before I found the restaurant.

In this tiny village, a shiny new building houses this steak house.There's a big patio around the back that must be fine for dining al fresco, weather permitting.On this rainy night, it did not permit. It could be fun to sit out there for their Sunday barbecue brunch. They have a special grill menu and buffet that day for 580 CZK per person.

My first glimpse of the interior impressed me. It might not be to everyone's taste, but thought it made a strong statement that this is a high-end place that takes its steaks seriously.It is furnished with heavy wooden and tiled tables, custom wrought iron work, and dark-stained hard wood flooring. At the back end is specially designed wood-fired grill with a chef cooking the meats in full view.It's all a little over the top, but not too far. I think it is certainly more appealing than the Disney-like setting at La Casa Argentina.

A climb up the staircase takes you to the bar area that occupies the entire upper level. The long bar itself stretches almost the length of the room.The wood-beamed ceiling stretches out above an inlaid wood floor and comfy-looking overstuffed chairs.I daresay it is even nicer than the restaurant downstairs.

This made it all the more heartbreaking that I had to drive my car to get to the restaurant. In solidarity, my friend joined me in ordering virgin mojitos (100 CZK).We also had a big bottle of Mattoni mineral water (90 CZK).

On this Saturday night, there was live music. A guitar player and singer, along with a percussionist, covered a variety of Latin classics.They performed them well, which added to the pleasant atmosphere.

We each ordered starters. My friend had the selection of seafood tapas (245 CZK). This sounded good on paper, but the reality brought some real regrets.The calamari was fresh, not frozen, and it was pretty good with lemon squeezed on it. That's the good news. Maybe it's an American thing, but I thought it could use a dipping sauce.

The menu said the tiger prawns were cooked "tempura" style. The medium-sized shrimp were fine, but this was not any tempura I am familiar with. The thick, cake-like batter made the prawns taste like they were encased in a dinner roll.

There was a bowl of fairly ordinary olives.

Finally, there was the gratinated scallop. While I expected some cheese, I didn't think there would be an orange sea of what looked like molten cheddar. It completely smothered the delicate scallop. Luckily, the cheese was easy to scrape away to reveal a perfectly seared mollusk that was much more enjoyable on its own.

I had the ceviche de pescado (170 CZK).The sea bream or dorade was marinated in lots of lime juice and mixed with cilantro and chilies. Then it was buried under a pile of chopped red onion. The chunks of clean-tasting fish were nice enough, but we thought the onion overwhelmed it. I scraped most of them to the side.

The waitress came by to clear the plates and asked how everything was. I mentioned that I thought there were too many onions in the ceviche. She said she was sorry, and shortly afterward, the manager came by.

"I've heard you had a problem with the onions in the ceviche," he said.

"It's really not a big deal. It was just too much for me."

"I can assure you, our chef is from South America and this is an authentic recipe," he informed me. "But if you like, we can prepare it with less onion."

I told him that would not be necessary, but I didn't necessarily accept the indirect word of his expert. Later, I consulted my own source, a man very familiar with this recipe, which is actually Peruvian, and who also tried this dish at this restaurant. He told me that while the manager was technically correct, the authentic version uses much milder and sweeter red onions, making them less dominating.

So we were both right. Except that the strong, sharp onions were, indeed, too strong and not right for the dish.

But enough of this pedantry over the preliminaries. It gets a lot better from here on out.

I had to have a grilled steak. I got the 250 gram Aberdeen Angus rib eye from Argentina (300 CZK).I will state now and for the record that this was the best steak I have had in this country. Each bite of the tender, charred, smoky meat was pure pleasure. You have to like your rib eyes on the fatty side, and I do. It was better than many steaks I've had in the USA. I was amazed.

On the side, I ordered the Isleña sauce, a quite spicy, creamy, chili pepper mix (38 CZK).It was hardly necessary. It would be a shame to let much interfere with the fantastic flavor of the beef.

The chef also does excellent grilled vegetables (55 CZK).The zucchini, tomato, aubergine, and peppers picked up flavor from the grill as well as the particular perfume of fresh thyme.

My friend had the octopus cooked in Sauvignon Blanc (299 CZK). We found this highly enjoyable.The strong flavor of the wine came through the sauce sweetened with honey and seasoned with thyme. The sliced tentacles were fresh and tender. The gratinated mashed potatoes on the side had been placed under some kind of heat, which dried out its outer layer, but otherwise tasted fine.

We had gone from the sad to the sublime. We decided to try our luck with dessert. My friend ordered the Nube de los Andes (95 CZK).It was described as a "chilled mousse with forest berries and egg yolk cream." I'd describe it as an ethereal meringue sitting on top of uncaramelized crème brûlée with blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries.

We would both characterize it as an unusually delicious and different dessert. The spun sugar on top actually made it more like a crème brûlée but with some great added twists. Yum.

Predictably, I had the Chocolate Volcano, otherwise know as chocolate fondant (135 CZK).This takes time because it has to be baked to order. But it was worth waiting for. It was a particularly good version with an intense hit of cocoa.However, the vanilla ice cream tasted cheap and was not a worthy partner. A scoop of Häagen-Dazs would have done a far better job.

The bill for this three-course meal was 1667 CZK. I'm sure it would have gone past 2000 CZK had we been drinking alcohol. Despite the misfires with the appetizers, the main courses, desserts, and atmosphere were great. We had no real problems with the service

Someone spent super serious money building one of the Czech Republic's best South American steakhouses in a wealthy but sparsely populated suburb of Prague. Whether that was a wise move, I cannot say. But I seriously wish there was an El Asador in the center of of the city. I wish I didn't have to drive and forsake alcohol to partake.

But it is a special steak that is worth a special trip, so I will certainly drive out there again to go and eat it.

El Asador
Osvětová
149 00 Prague 4 - Hrnčíře
Tel. (+420) 246 067 600

Bilkova 13

"We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting." Samuel Johnson

As much as I love getting tips and recommendations about restaurants, there is a downside.

If praise is too effusive, it raises expectations. Unmet expectations lead to disappointment.

I heard and read good things about Bilkova 13, but for some reason, I was still uninspired, and my expectations were still in check. Finally, a friend talked me into going down to Old Town, near the Intercontinental Hotel, to check it out.The name of the restaurant is also the address.

With few expectations as to what the place actually looked like, I was impressed. The restaurant is huge. There's a usually bustling bar area in front.There's a room with tables for people who want to sit down and drink.Once you pass through that part, there's a big, multi-level dining room in the back.There are glassed-in wine racks, faux-hardwood floors, exposed duct work, brick walls and steel beams.I thought the modern-industrial look worked fairly well. Some dining areas can be made private with the use of curtains on tracks in the ceiling.There's space for just a few outside tables.There's a play area for kids.And there's a play area for adults -- a special "Cognac Point" with fine liquors and a cigar room.A paid membership is required for that part.

We sat down and were greeted by a very friendly waiter. The music had to be some eclectic playlist on shuffle. It went from "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" by Pink Floyd (which I loved) to "I Need Somebody" by Bryan Adams (not so much).

We started with crystal flutes of Pizzolato extra dry prosecco (75 CZK each). We had a big bottle of Mattoni sparkling mineral water (95 CZK). The house wine I had, a Pinot Grigio from Veneto, was dry and light (.2 liter/90 CZK). The Alsatian Pinot Gris was sweeter and less to my taste (.2 liter/130 CZK).The bread basket had good slices of Italian bread with salt crystals.With that, the waiter gave us something we'd never seen before: olive oil with an island of tart, grated Parmesan in the middle.We both liked the combination a lot.

One starter was the tuna tartare (230 CZK).On the menu, it says in English that it is salmon tartare. In Czech, it correctly says it is tuna.

It is definitely one of the most creative and tasty iterations I've had. The decent-sized, squared-off portion was mixed with tomato, caper, olive, and lemon. I thought olives might overwhelm the flavor, but the mild black ones worked well.

The other starter was the tortellini with fresh black truffle, butter and Parmesan (210 CZK). Even before I took a bite, I inhaled the intoxicating aroma of truffle (though I wondered if any of that was truffle oil).The tortellini were very plump and well-stuffed with snowy-white ricotta.The rich, mushroomy sauce was delicious. It was a generous portion and I enjoyed it very much. The only issue I had was it was not very hot and too al dente for me. But my friend thought it was just right.

Note that the menu says they also have gluten-free pasta available for those with celiac issues.

For a main course, my friend had the sea bass (360 CZK). The kitchen removed the bones on request. The fish was moist and had a clean, fresh flavor.It came with buttered new potatoes, a small rucola salad, and a roasted tomato on the side.

I had the Brazilian filet steak with refried beans and grilled shiitake mushrooms (450 CZK).It was confusing because the menu said in English that it came with "green bean purée." In Czech, it just said "bean purée." I was strangely curious to find out what it was.

The large lump of brown frijoles refritos that came were a little dry and perhaps not the best complement. I ate about half of it. The four little mushrooms were oddly flavorless.

But the beef itself was great. I've had a few better tasting steaks in Prague, but I don't think I've ever had one that was more tender. It was a pleasure just to cut it. Eating it was quite enjoyable, too.

We wanted coffee and dessert. It took forever. Our once efficient waiter began fading as the meal went on. He was AWOL by the end.

Eventually, I got my homemade tiramisu, (135 CZK). It was a large portion.The mascarpone that made up most of it was very light. Overall, I thought it was lackluster. I wished for more coffee-soaked savoiardi and prefer thicker, creamier versions. My friend just had fresh pineapple (90 CZK).

The good caffee macchiato (45 CZK) and latte macchiato (65 CZK) came after the desserts.

The total bill for the meal was 2050 CZK. That seems like a lot, but I thought it was reasonable when you consider three courses for two people along with Prosecco, wines, and coffees. I thought the prices were quite fair.

I like the look of the place, and it feels like you are eating in a more expensive place than it is.

We appreciated the starters more than the main courses, but nothing was bad. The service was both good and terrible. My friend said our waiter was one of the better ones, so watch out.

I'm looking forward to going back and tasting some other dishes. I'm also telling my friends to try Bilkova 13.

Unless something unexpected happens, they probably won't be disappointed.

Bilkova 13
Bilkova 13
Prague 1 - Old Town
Tel. (+420) 224 829 254