A is for Art Nouveau Masterpiece and other Europe Restaurant Reviews

Restaurant Name: Fantona cafe - 2nd floor at Rly Station, Prague CZ

The main railway station in Prague is a complete dump, but this little oasis in the old part of the station is a wonderful refuge of calm.

The domed ceiling to what was the booking hall is a masterpiece of Art Noveau - trying to rival any of the other cathedrals to transport of central Europe.

The booking offices are now converted to shops, but you still sit having a cheap coffee (14 Kr last time I was here) by the iron ballastrades and imagine you are waiting to catch a train in the 1920's to Milan, Vienna, Budapest...

Favorite Dish: If she is still working there the tall waitress in the maid outfit is an absolute babe - and she knows it. (oh sorry, wrong type of dish)

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Theme: Local
Comparison: least expensive
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Address: Central railway station
Directions: Can't miss it on the map. Avoid late evening as the underpasses are a bit dodgy.

Restaurant Name: BIM Seafoood circle

Reliable guide for seafood pubs in Ireland
Description:

I enjoyed an excellent pub lunch in The Tavern Bar & rest. Murrisk, westport Co. Mayo in July 2003.

Whilst there I came across the BIM Seafood circle guide. They recommend a number of restaurants - several of which I know through friends to be good. Here are some examples :

1) An Sugan - Conakilty, Co Cork
2) The Brandywell - Dromod Co. Leitrim
3) The Brewery Bar - Guiness Storehouse Dublin
4) The bridge Bar - Portmagee. Co.Kerry
5) Finn's Bar & The Milestone - Limerick
6) In - Dalkey, Co.Dublin
7) Jonnie Fox's - Glencullen Co Dublin
8) Jonny Frank's - Meadowlands, Tralee. Co Kerry
9) Keenan's - Tarmonbarry. Co Roscommon
10) The Lobster pot - Burtonport Co Donegal
11) The Long Dock - Carrigaholt Co Clare
12) O'Loughlin's Bar & rest - Miltown Malbray Co Clare
13) O'Suliivan's Thatch Bar & rest - Lisselton Co Kerry
14) Pooles Porter house - Gorey. Co Wexford
15) The Purty Kitchen - Monkstown Co Dublin
16) The Queens bar & rest - Dalkey Co Dublin
17) Ryan's Bar - Naven Co Meath
18) Skipper Tavern - Burton port Co Donegal
19) The Tavern Bar & rest - Murrisk, Co Mayo
20) Vaughans Anchor inn - Liscannor Co Clare
21) Wrights Angler's rest - Chapelizod, Dublin


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Theme: Seafood

Phone: 01 214 4250
Website: www.seafoodcirclepubs.com

Restaurant Name: coffee Baum

Oldest or Second oldest ?

There appears to be some confusion about whether this place is the oldest (still operating) coffeehouse in the world, or the second oldest.

It's certainly not the oldest restaurant - as a place in China (Hangzhou I think) beats it by only a couple of thousand years.

This place however is however well worth the visit : a place to argue witha good friends in the tradition of former customers like Goethe, Lessing, Liszt, Wagner and Schumann. I would love to be a fly on the wall of all four of those acually got around a cappuchino at the same time !

The coffee is well made, and well priced. Despite being used by tour companies on their "see Leipzig" excursions the place does not seem to rely on its past glories for trade.

Favorite Dish: Try some of the cakes alongside you caffine fix - especially the chocolate moouse cake

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Theme: Coffeehouse
Comparison: about average
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Address: Kleine Fleischergasse 4
Website: http://www.coffebaum.de

Restaurant Name: Feel like an intellectual

The winding stair used to be a bookshop with a small cafe where you could brouse books off the shelves whilst you sipped. Now it is the other way round.

The place actually does have a winding stair, and perhaps more accurately a rickety staircase. The place has a slightly musty feel to it and is inhabited by some students and other 'intellectual' types. No one is bothered if you sit and read a book all day there.

Between the shelving are photographs of pensive looking Irish intelligensia of yesteryear, paintings and old pages from books stuck to the walls. The place is topped off with a rather eclectic taste in music.

Daytime only

Favorite Dish: The place serves mainly crepes, ciabattaas and salads. Nothing is outstanding but the portions are fair and well presented.

What I like are the names given to the sandwiches / ciabatta e.g-

Watership down - salad

Bram Stoker - Garlic salami & salad

Old man and the Sea - Tuna (should be Marlin ?) , celery , onion & mayo

Europe A-Z

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Theme: Coffeehouse
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Address: By Ha'penny Bridge - Quayside north
Directions: On the River on the O'Connel street side by ha'penny bridge opposite Temple bar area

Restaurant Name: Any B & B or hotel

The Scottish Breakfast...

I recently described on a forum (and got a fair bit of flak for it) French food as an attempt "to make any old disease ridden rat taste nice". Whilst there was some jesting going on then it seems to me that Scottish cusine is just the opposite. You begin with good fresh ingredients like meat, potatoes or vegatable and contrive to make them totally inedible.

Breakfast is a good case in point. At a B&B in Inverness we ordered "Home made porridge" from the nice landlady. A big bowl duly arrived, but we refused to eat it as it was laden with salt - it tasted awful. The landlady became frosty at that point and took the dishes away with the words "Well that's the way we like it here."

After we left (my wife still without breakfast inside her) we pulled into a cafe. She ordered some black pudding. Again it arrived, it was about the size of a average model spaceship - and deep fried in batter.

This was probably not one of the better days of our married life.

On the other hand a good Scottish Breakfast CAN be the best meal in the world - even if you do risk a heart attack directly after consuming it.


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Theme: Breakfast

Restaurant Name: Mcdonagh's

This place is a Galway institution.

It has a kind of double identity, as one side is a take away with wooden benches where you have to squash on with everyone else.

The other side is like a proper restaurant with a more extensive repertoire.

I would stick to the fast food side for atmosphere.

The place is decorated with a mish-mash of fishing stuff and clipping from mags / newspapers about the place.

Update : August 2004. recently shared an excellent meal with some guests from Boston.They seem quite amazed at the alcohol arrangements : unless you had wine, you had to walk next door to the Spanish arch hotel and take your drinks back from there - seemed sensible to me !

Favorite Dish: Cod and chips is the obvious choice and excellent, but it also a good chance to try out some more unusual fish that you don't see everyday in chippies (or chippers as the Irish call them)

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Theme: Seafood
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Directions: As you approach down Shop street you should be able to smell the enticing aroma

Restaurant Name: The best cafe in Palma Majorca, Spain

Created out of a Majorcan townhouse, this is no doubt one of the classier places to have coffee, and to be seen having Coffee.

The display of cakes is mouthwatering, the bathrooms are a riot of marble and the waiters swish around in their neatly pressed white aprons.

The courtyard out the back may not have aview but it is nicely secluded witha a soothing fountain as a centrepiece.

Favorite Dish:
I came across a 'Diablo' for the first time, which is a mmixture of strong coffee and dark chocolate - I bounced along the road afterwards.

This contrasts sharply with a coffee shop I say in Play de Plama which advertised the fact that they made coffee - "with real Nescafe". God help us.


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Theme: Coffeehouse
Comparison: more expensive than average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Address: Grand Cafe Capuccino C. Sant Miquel 53
Directions: On the road between Plaza Mayor and paza Espanya

Restaurant Name: Various Scottish eateries

The Haggis...as mad as food gets.

I have no wish to know exactly what is in a haggis. I do know it contains most of insides of a sheep, whithout the sensible bits - like meat.

I remember taking the plunge once,and ordering it in a Fort William restaurant. I must admit I rather enjoyed it and thus asked the waitress to mention it to the chef.
She replied in that dour manner that only the Scots can muster that "Aye, there's no need - he just gets it out of a can from Safeway's". So much for the sign that said "Good home cooking" on the door.

The existence of Haggis is of course a boon to the tourist board who market it along with all the other hallmarks of Celticness.

It is also fairly well known that a traditional way to 'wind-up' tourists is to go about the existence of the Haggis as an actual animal.

Apparantly the BBC reported in 2003 that following a survey of 1,000 American tourists
A third of them who were quizzed about their trip to Scotland said they believed the haggis was a creature.
The survey also revealed that almost a quarter of those questioned thought that they could hunt and catch the country's most famous dish.

Here is a typical example of the wind-up :

"A haggis is a small animal native to Scotland. Well when I say animal, actually it's a bird with vestigial wings - like the ostrich. Because the habitat of the haggis in exclusively mountainous, and because it is always found on the sides of Scottish mountains, it has evolved a rather strange gait. The poor thing has only three legs, and each leg is a different length - the result of this is that when hunting haggis, you must get them on to a flat plain - then they are very easy to catch - they can only run round in circles."

When they start going on about it's right side legs being shorter than those on the left to be able to run round hills then the penny usually drops. Useful trick to play on you kids however !


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Theme: Local

Restaurant Name: Istanbul

Great stuff - even when your sober!

It may seem somewhat incongruous in a city with so many gourmet restaurants to be recommending a Turkish Kebab shop - but they served me one of the finest kebabs I've ever eaten. To be fair most kebabs taste wonderful when you down one after a skinfull, but on this occasion I was completely and utterly stone-cold sober.

The place itself is painted in warm colours with a few nice touches, such as the prints on the wall and the various light fittings. I especially liked the hood over the cooking hood, which was a cleverly converted half-shell of one of those enormous copper vats that you find in breweries.

The road this restaurant is on is developing into an alternative eating area with a range of reasonably priced Turkish, Italian, Chinese and Thai restaurants together with a couple of bars and cafes.


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Theme: Middle Eastern
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Phone: 0472 286528
Address: rue de marche aux fromages 17
Directions: One block off the Grand Place

Restaurant Name: The curries of Birmingham, UK

All mixed up in a bucket please

Birmingham is one of the places that lays claim to inventing that most English of dishes : the Balti.

For those of you have not experienced this culinary delight ( the word literally means 'Bucket' ) it is usually served in a stainless steel bowl with a Nann bread on the side. Many people like to order rice with it as well to soak up the wonderful juices.
it was developed in the UK by Indian restaurants - and is totally unknown in India.
It is however evolved from (so I am informed by a friend of mine who owns a Balti House) from certain dishes that can be found in more mountainous areas of india.

There are so many places that specialise in baltis now - an area of Birmingham has developed as the 'Balti Mile' or 'Balti Triangle'.

Essentially it is around the Sparkbrook area and Ladypool road inparticular.

A cheaper alternative is to go to Selly Oak (useful local train station here) and find one there. They tend to be cheaper here as they mainly service the nearby University crowd.


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Theme: Indian
Comparison: about average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Address: see above
Website: www.restaurants-of-birmingham.com