VINOHRADY – wine and dine part 2

The 2^nd part of my tour around Vinohrady took me around another location where I used to live earlier on during my young, free and single years in Prague around 2002. Admittedly I never used to venture out much in this area so it was interesting to finally get the chance to walk around the streets of my old neighbourhood and see what I had missed out on and I was sad to realise that there were so many interesting places that I could have spent better use of my time visiting during this period. Instead of heading to the more usual frequented expats haunts in the centre of the city, but you live and learn and another popular cliché that comes to mind, it’s never too late, seems appropriate in this case.

Vinohrady in the past was not part of Prague but like so many of the districts of Prague it was swallowed up in 1922 and divided into what is now Vinohrady, Zizkov and some of Vrsovice though it is hard to imagine that it was ever separate from Prague and it definitely has a lot of interesting parts to it which add a lot of what is Prague’s character today.

Review no. 1

Los v Oslu has a very typical English pubby feel to it and what drew my attention to it was the fact that it had a lot of interesting beers to try, that would not usually be found when going out for a drink or something to eat and also that its speciality are mussels and bottled Belgium beers and lots of them, in fact over 200 to be a little more precise, so there could be another challenge if I so felt like it but I am not that young and reckless anymore, so I keep telling myself anyway.

Los v Oslu is a play on words I was told by one of my students. It can mean the moose in Oslo or the moose in the donkey, which he thought was very funny, though that was most definitely lost in translation.

I started with a 12 degree Lobkowice which is a beer that has been springing up all over Prague recently and my local Haunt Jama the hollow has a large selection of beers from this cooperative brewery. I suppose we could call it this or it is probably more like an alliance of smaller breweries trying to put an alternative to the larger breweries, which I wholeheartedly give a big thumbs up to. After the beautiful refreshing starter which was more filling than I expected I had a traditional pickled cheese or more recognisable in Czech lingo for me is a nakladany hermelin, basically it is a spicy pickled cheese and goes great with a beer or 2.

The pub/rest/beer club is fairly small. There are about 8 tables, with bar stools and the downstairs Belgium beer club. It is predominantly wood everywhere and dark and very cosy. The staff are very friendly and speak English. The food menu looked interesting, as well as the mussel specialities that were displayed on the board outside.Also on offer are a very nice selection of beers on tap and the large selection downstairs of Belgium beer as well. I give it a big thumbs up and I have been back there since and was not disappointed, though what I did notice was that there was a lot of reservations on the tables for 7.30 so get there early or be Czech smart and reserve a table.

www.losvoslu.cz

Review no. 2

Being a Brit there are some things from home that I would like to bring to Prague and one of them is a nice Indian restaurant and apart from the overpriced ones in the centre there is very little choice, so when I found 2 in one street I thought that it would be a good opportunity to see if there were some hidden jewels lying around so I was intrigued with the Dilli Delhi cocktail bar/restaurant, well who wouldn’t be right?

As you enter you come face to face with the cocktail bar, but we, well when I say we I mean me and my SVG continued through the back and found the restaurant part. The restaurant is fairly small. It is divided into 2 parts and has about 10 tables. The menu is fairly small but has a nice selection of vegetarian and more interestingly for me are the lamb dishes. I just love lamb. It is just so tasty but quite hard to find in Prague restaurants.

I had the Lamb Vindalhoo, being a Brit you have to always go for one of the hottest dishes on the menu, which I did, though usually back in the UK we usually hit the Indian restaurants at around 12am, after a heavy session on the sauce and get a take away which can be found all over your bedroom the next morning. My SVG had the green peas and paneer curry, both of which were pretty good and at 190 czk for the Lamb Vindalhoo. It was good value for money. It is rare to go to an Indian and have 2 meals with rice and bread with a couple of drinks for under 500czk and as far as Indians go it was pretty good though the menu could do with being a little more extensive, that is if I was going to go there more often, which if I could afford to then I probably would do.