Dinner at Bellevue, Prague

Our very first fine-dining experience in Prague was dinner at Bellevue, one of the most highly regarded culinary institutions in town (according to Tripadvisor and other websites on Prague) with a great view of the famous Charles Bridge. The restaurant is housed in an imposing fin-de-siècle building with Art Nouveau features, a very common architectural style found throughout newer parts of this beautiful ancient city. It was more difficult to locate than we thought; the website map puts it right beside the Charles Bridge, along the bank of the main Vltava river (Old Town side), but is in fact quite a distance away.

So we were late for the dinner reservation, and not exactly the most well-dressed, but still received a warm, professional welcome from the staff. We were shown to our table by a very friendly and courteous waiter who spoke excellent English and would be taking care of us for most of the evening. It was a good start, I must say.

Bellevue has a rather unique menu: it allows diners to make their own multicourse combination by selecting a total of 2 to 5 dishes from any of the sections (so if you were taking 5 courses you could have 2 starters, 2 mains and 1 desserts, or 1 starter, 2 mains and 2 desserts, or indeed any other imaginable permutation). Not everyone at the table has to take the same number of courses, so if you were a small eater you could just go for 3 courses, while your partner could be having 5, for example. This flexibility is great for diners but surely a challenge for the kitchen in terms of timing between the courses, and I was keen to see what would be done throughout the course of the evening. For the record, two of us had four courses each, while my mother went for three, and we had bits of one another's dishes.

Selection of breads: nothing to shout about really. Most of them were rather dry and tough, with the exception of the dark sunflower seed bread which was quite moist and had a nice crunchy texture.

An equally lacklustre amuse-bouche followed: plain salad with balsamic vinegar dressing. I wondered if I couldn't do better myself. I really hoped that the actual dinner would be more promising than this.

Starter 1: grilled scallops, traditional barley kuba with porcini (a Czech barley and mushroom casserole traditionally served on Christmas Eve), mild sauce from Czech sweet garlic.

This was pretty good; the scallops were well-cooked, with adequate moisture and a nice spring to the texture. The earthy flavour of the porcini mushrooms, combined with the aroma and subtle sweetness of the sauce, was in itself truly intoxicating, but threatened ever so slightly to overwhelm the delicate flavours of the scallops.

Starter 2: seared foie gras, homemade brioche (not pictured), date-vanilla marmelade and Xerez-citrus sauce.

This was an excellent dish! The generous portion of rich and succulent foie gras, with a delightfully charred outer layer, was aptly matched with accompaniments that brought out the best in its taste: a sweet and velvety date marmelade (with real pieces of dates for garnishing), infused with vanilla for an even more luxurious mouthfeel, and a dessert wine sauce that had the perfect balance of sweetness and acidity. The flavours of this dish were as bold as its striking presentation.

Starter 3: Bellevue sea dégustation of (from left to right) fried sardines with white onion, sweet and sour dressing; grilled tiger prawns, salad of yoghurt and cucumber with mint; yellowfin tuna tartare.

This dish is supposedly a signature of the restaurant. It was rather well presented, but failed to match up taste-wise. Let me start with the positives: I thought the mound of sardines was very good indeed, with its strong natural flavours complemented by powerfully aromatic onions in the mix, and a dressing that balanced the all-round intense flavours with a cleaner taste. The tuna tartare was very fresh, but I thought its sweet fruity accompaniments (orange slices and apricot purée) were ill-judged and had no real complementary function in taste. The prawn centrepiece was slightly overcooked, and again the combination with yoghurt, cucumber and mint (somewhat peppery and acidic when taken together) was not convincing.

Main 1: grilled monkfish in a Dijon mustard crust, tri-coloured lentils, curry ragout scented with martini. The purple garnishing strips are vegetable crisps, although I've forgotten exactly what they are made of.

This was quite disappointing, to be perfectly honest - the monkfish was slightly overcooked and rubbery, and the rather indiscriminate use of spicy accompaniments completely overwhelmed its naturally delicate flavour.

Main 2: black pepper roasted seabass, fregola sarda (traditional toasted semolina pasta balls from Sardinia, Italy) and lime-honey emulsion.

This was the major disappointment of the evening - the fish was again overcooked (even worse than the previous monkfish) and ended up being quite dry and unpalatable. The little pasta balls were tasteless and their rubbery texture merely brought more unwanted attention to the dryness of the fish, while the emulsion was overly acidic (definitely more lime than honey - and these two ingredients do not go well with fish in any case). I finished it in order not to waste food, but would definitely not recommend it!

Main 3: crispy roasted duck leg, honey-lavender sauce, homemade sunflower seed dumplings, red and white cabbage.

The only traditional Czech item on the list of mains, this was pretty decent and authentic; whether it belongs to a fine-dining menu is arguable. Its seemingly unsophisticated appearance concealed some subtle tweaks in the use of ingredients (honey and lavender in the sauce, and sunflower seeds in the dumplings, for example) that slightly elevated this humble dish. The execution was very good indeed - with nice crispy skin, fork-tender meat, fragrant sauce with a good sweet-savoury balance, and dumplings with an appealing bite - but still, I wished that a restaurant of this level would surprise me with even more creativity in creating (or should I say, re-creating) this modest dish. Perhaps, that's just me.

Main 4: herb-crusted rack of lamb, fine pink garlic purée, fried artichoke with mint and lamb jus.

This was a very good dish. The lamb was moist, tender and succulent, and its rich flavour was well matched by the aromatic herb crust and garlic purée. The fried artichoke was wonderfully light, sweet and crunchy, and the mint wrapped within imparted a whiff of freshness amidst all this indulgence on the plate. The side of fava beans with bits of bacon (background) provided both wholesome balance and a savoury touch to this dish, alongside the tasty lamb jus.

Main 5: grilled suckling pig chops with honey orange sauce, crispy sauerkraut and red onion.

This was my mother's dish and it caused rather divided opinions within our party; she didn't like it because she found it too tough, but I thought it was bearable (though certainly not the juiciest pork chops around, I must say). What did strike me was the breadcrumb coating, which I found strangely soggy and unevenly spread. The dish as a whole gave the impression that it had been a somewhat rushed job, for reasons that I will explain in my summary notes on service. To the kitchen's credit though, the accompaniments worked very well - the honey orange sauce had a delightful sweet-savoury balance (much more could have been given for that enormous chunk of meat!), and the sprinkling of crispy sauerkraut was a rather unusual yet effective touch.

Dessert 1: homemade apple strudel with caramel foam and walnut ice cream.

The presentation of this dish was exquisite - a truly sophisticated take on a classic dessert. I was particularly impressed by the layered design, topped by an incredibly thin slice of apple encased in a sugar disc, and sitting in a dramatic pool of foam. More importantly, it tasted every bit as good as it looked! The juicy and soft apple compote with a hint of cinnamon (bottom layer) and the smooth and richly flavoured walnut ice cream were a lethal combination. For some people the huge pool of caramel foam might have made the whole thing too sweet, but I love my desserts to be on the indulgent side (as I think they should be!) so I wasn't complaining.

Dessert 2: homemade mascarpone tiramisu.

Another morsel of delight, served in a futuristic-looking glass vessel. Layers of smooth and velvety mascarpone cheese alternated with moist and intense coffee sponge, with an obvious hint of liqueur (most likely Bailey's). Chocolate and mint garnishings on top completed this very satisfying dessert.

Dessert 3: vanilla bean crème brûlée, Carolans whiskey cream, cigar stuffed with Valrhona chocolate mousse.

This dessert looked rather dull in comparison to the other two, but actually tasted pretty good. The crème brûlée had a very nice velvety texture, and the intensity of the vanilla flavour was aptly complemented by the full-bodied and slightly bitter layer of whiskey cream under the burnt glaze. The chocolate cigar was rather underwhelming for my taste and I would have expected deeper cocoa flavours and a richer mouthfeel from the cream, given the quality of the chocolate that the kitchen was using.

Summary notes: food was generally acceptable for a restaurant at this price point, but with the exception of the foie gras and apple strudel dishes, lacked any wow factor. Some dishes, particularly fish and seafood, were downright disappointing (I really think the kitchen needs to go through retraining in handling and designing such dishes!). 

For service, we had a very friendly waiter who was with us most of the evening, and other staff who came by sporadically were nice too. They all spoke excellent, if rather heavily-accented, English. A major blooper occured during our meat courses, when two lamb dishes were brought out - our friendly waiter had registered the wrong order, and my mother had to wait for a further 15 minutes while the kitchen scrambled to make her the correct suckling pig dish - and of course by the time her dish arrived we were already done with ours and had to wait for her; the timing between courses was far from ideal. We were offered some more water, for which we were duly charged (it should have been on the house as part of service recovery!). To the credit of our waiter, he was extremely apologetic for his mistake, and sensing our slight annoyance, showed genuine concern over whether everything was alright. He also offered to charge my mother for 2 courses intead of 3 (though the rather expensive extra bottle of water had already offset the price difference). 

With regards to the ambience of the restaurant, I found it quite disruptive that loud 'Happy Birthday' music was blasted over the speakers throughout the course of the evening, complete with huge sparklers, for people who were celebrating their birthdays (there were at least 4 tables doing so while we were there). While I can appreciate the nice gesture and have no intention to wreck any joyous occasion, I also believe that a restaurant at this level needs to exercise utmost discretion and maintain an elegant, sophisticated image. Just look at what their Michelin counterparts are doing; a nice piece of cake or pastry with a candle and a genuine smile from servers usually suffices. There is no need for an ostentatious fanfare whatsoever, and fellow diners may continue to savour their dishes undisturbed. 

Based on this experience alone, I would say that it is one famous restaurant ticked off my to-do list, but I am unlikely to return. Keeping in mind that Bellevue pitches itself as a premium fine-dining destination in Prague, there is still quite a lot of room for improvement in various aspects of style and substance.