Going Lokál

All agree that restaurant culture in Prague has advanced dramatically over the past ten years or so, with perhaps the exception of some notorious tourist traps in the areas popular with visitors. Service has improved and so has the quality of food. And those who have had enough of international food can now even go for traditional Czech cuisine in its traditional environment – a successful restaurant group has opened an eatery called Lokál which promises to take you decades back in time.

Since its opening in October last year, Lokál, in Dlouhá Street in Prague’s Old Town, has earned a great reputation with food critics and customers alike. The décor imitates restaurants from way back, with roller-painted ornaments on the walls and the matching hanging lights. Wooden panelling makes the place cosy and gives it the feel of a small and familiar place, although it is in fact very large. The panels have graffiti cut through them, with lights behind, which I found somewhat annoying. They are obviously inspired by the kind of things people would write on the walls in the toilet, and I don’t think they serve any particular purpose where they are now.

Other matching details include the 1970s-style plastic bread baskets, all the bowls, plates, sauce boats and so on, as well as the waiters’ outfits with vests and aprons. There is also a menu board stuck to the wall. This device, used to this day in many cheap “bufets”, has slots that hold plastic strips with the names and prices of dishes available. Once the kitchen runs out of a particular meal, it is removed from the board – easy and efficient.

But Lokál has real menus as well. They are also retro-style and are supposed to remind the guests of the blue carbon typed copies of menus that were almost everywhere during communism. Strikingly, there are no English menus available in Lokál.

When we visited a few days ago we started with cauliflower soup, which was excellent. Then I wanted to try something ultra Czech, like svíčková – beef with cream sauce and dumplings. The dish was unfortunately not on offer that day, so I went with the second best choice – beef in tomato sauce. This staple dish of school canteens back in the day is still popular pub food. But here they make a point of going back to basics, with fresh ingredients and honest cooking. And they are right – my rajská s knedlíkem was exceptional. However, it is perhaps better to stick with Czech cuisine. My girlfriend had steak tartar served with toasted bread, and said it was tangy to the point of being inedible, as too much seasoning killed the taste of the meat.

The real disappointment of the night was the beer. Lokál has Pilsner on tap, straight from tanks, and you would expect that places like this would make absolutely sure their beer is fine. But the Pilsner I had in Lokál had what in Czech we call ocas, or tail. It’s the kind of unpleasant aftertaste caused by either bad pipes, or by a bad batch.

All in all, Lokál is the place to go for safe and sanitary Czech pub food and a faint notion of what restaurants might have looked like half a century ago. For adventurers, however, I would recommend one of the authentic pubs that have not changed in decades. They have the style Lokál is imitating, and what they do, they do well. One of the best of these places is perhaps U svatého Antoníčka in the Prague area of Holešovice.