This post and the two to follow will summarise some of my best dining experiences on my recent family holiday to Prague. Czech cuisine is typically very meaty and heavy (very similar to South German cuisine), so after days of roast duck, pork, sausages, sauerkraut and red cabbage etc., we were craving for something fresh and lighter. We spotted Rybí Trh (literally 'fish market' in Czech) in a little courtyard just behind the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn on the old town square. Upon seeing its endorsements from the New York Times and Michelin as one of the best fish restaurants in town, we decided to give it a try (very importantly for me too, it didn't look too touristy). We ended up having two dinners there during our stay in Prague, and this review summarises the dishes that we tried.
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| Freshest catch of the day... yum! |
The staff speak good English and are very helpful in recommending items (both on and off the menu, depending on the day's catch) as well as describing the dishes. Also, menus are available in several languages, so you know exactly what you'll be getting.
The seafood experience starts from the very beginning, with a good variety of breads accompanied by lobster and smoked fish butters, and a dip of olive oil with chunks of crushed black olives. Both butters were surprisingly light and flavourful, and the olive dip was fresh and pure delight.
Amuse-bouches: halibut and scallop in a cold tomato and peach soup. These were truly promising appetisers, with the fresh seafood well complemented by the sweet-and-sour-soup. The halibut had a firm and succulent texture, while the scallop was incredibly tender, sweet and juicy.
Starter 1: fish consommé with a shrimp roll, vegetables and dill oil. This warm clear soup was indeed very intense and concentrated in flavour, well paired with the shrimp roll (we weren't quite expecting a shrimp-flavoured bread roll but it still tasted good anyway), and enhanced with the refreshing aroma of dill. Light and wholesome.
Starter 2: lobster cream soup with a black tiger shrimp skewer and Hennessy cognac foam. Another intense soup chock-full of lobster flavours, and surprisingly light - we were expecting a typical creamy bisque but this wasn't too different from a consommé apart from the surface foam. The shrimp was fresh & juicy and had a really good firm & springy texture. The cognac foam gave the soup further aromatic depth. Very indulgent and satisfying.
Starter 3: light octopus salad with fennel purée, shallots and garlic. I followed the waitress' recommendation on this dish and it was indeed the best starter in my opinion. The texture of the octopus was excellent, second in my memory bank only to those served at top kaiseki restaurants in Japan - fresh and precisely cooked such that it was completely tender and not in the least rubbery. I was amazed at how effortlessly I managed to chew through each piece. The salad itself also contained cherry tomatoes, black olives, cooked fennel, shallots and garlic - a delightfully juicy and aromatic mix which I could eat all day.
Palate cleanser: lemon sorbet, very smooth and consistent in texture, with just the right balance of acidity and sweetness.
Main course 1: wild Sicilian sea bass with crispy skin and Barbera olive oil, with baked La Ratte potatoes, mushrooms and baby brussel sprouts. As usual, the fish was extremely fresh and moist, and the light accompaniments were a perfect complement to the wholesome nature of this dish. Simple and delightful.
Main course 2: homemade smoked eel (centre) on a warm salad of Czech lentils with fried onion (left), pork flank cooked in a vacuum flask (right), roasted garlic with thyme and horseradish foam. This was a rather heavy course with large portions of each component, and intense aromas from the garlic and smoked eel. The eel was disappointingly dry and tough, but well-matched in flavour with the pork flank, which was thankfully very tender and succulent (having been cooked sous vide). The mash of lentils with onion and garlic was very aromatic but also somewhat dry and sticky (like glutinous rice). A bit of a hit-and-miss in my humble opinion.
Main course 3: roasted South Bohemian pike perch topped with grated apple, with a purée of potato and chervil, and a velouté of smoked onions. The pike perch itself was very nice and fresh but my dining experience was marred by the constant presence of small bones - of course I understand that the fish is bony in nature but it is the duty of the kitchen to ensure that such distractions are removed, especially for the high prices charged. The portion was huge - the description says potato purée but it was actually more like a mountain of mashed potato. The smoked onion velouté was very good on its own but threatened somewhat to overwhelm the light flavour of the fish when taken together. The grated apple was the nicest touch in my opinion - sweet, crunchy and a good complement to the natural sweetness of fresh fish. If any improvements could be made to this dish, the kitchen should consider reducing the amount of potato and velouté so that it is not too heavy on the stomach and the palette. And please, ensure that the numerous small bones are completely removed.
Main course 4: grilled tiger prawns on a bed of spinach. The simplest things in life are sometimes the best - here the prawns were incredibly fresh, sweet and juicy, with an amazingly springy texture. I was in seafood heaven - the picture will speak for itself.
Main course 5: baked Alaskan cod with almond purée and amaretto, homemade ravioli stuffed with morel and ricotta confit. The fish was succulent and flaked effortlessly. Its velvety texture and rich taste were wonderfully complemented by the strong presence of almond in purée and liqueur forms. The ravioli completed this picture of understated luxury with their rich and fragrant stuffing.
Main course 6: grilled monkfish with mushroom risotto and a truffle, topped with a poached quail egg and pecorino cheese shavings. My first thoughts were: where is the truffle? Nowhere was its characteristic aroma or form present in this dish. That aside, this was a really good dish with well-cooked fillets of monkfish that remained juicy and succulent (still not as amazing as at The Waterside Inn but it'd be unfair to make such a comparison), on a aromatic bed of risotto with generous bits of mushroom (but no truffle, I am sure - that is in a different class altogether), and grains that maintained a nice firm bite. The poached quail egg was also very well done, with a runny yolk that blended nicely with the creamy risotto.
Dessert 1: chocolate ball with vanilla ice-cream filling, in a pool of flaming brandy. This was dramatically presented, with the waiter setting a small pot of brandy alight before pouring it into the dish. The chocolate ball melts beneath the heat to reveal the ice cream filling. Nice visual effect, even if it was a touch gimmicky. The dessert itself was solid but pretty conventional - not much to add really.
Dessert 2: classic homemade Czech sweet buns with nougat blancmange and quark cheese. This was a simple but delightfully indulgent dessert, with pieces of warm fluffy buns sitting in a huge pool of warm & runny nougat cream which tasted exactly like Nutella. I'm not sure why the restaurant calls it a blancmange, which is actually a cold vanilla pudding set in a mould, similar to panna cotta; anyway I wasn't going to complain. A generous amount of creamy dessert cheese on the buns tops off this rich dish.
Dessert 3: nougat cake with marinated kumquats and a warm mocha drink. Another great dessert with rich layers of nougat cream and mousse on a bed of light sponge, paired with a warm coffee drink - perfect for the chilly weather outside and perking up after a long day of walking. The dessert did not feel as heavy as it looked - the cake was not cloyingly sweet and the marinated kumquats (arranged nicely like flower petals) with a raspberry provided a good balance with their mild acidity.
On the whole, it had been two satisfying dinners at this restaurant, despite the isolated hits and misses. Admittedly it is not the cheapest place to eat at compared to all the touristy places just a stone's throw away on the main square, but the service is friendly, the ambience is elegant and understated, the seafood is incredibly fresh, and the location is as central as any new visitor to Prague could hope for. Go for a treat - you'll not be disappointed.
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