La Provence Restaurant Saves the Day in Prague

Gabriele and I just got back from a very fun trip to Prague, where my best friend Chris married a beautiful Czech woman named Martina. It was a beautiful ceremony held at a castle outside of Prague, and we were thrilled to share the day with them.

The service and food at the wedding was exquisite, unlike any meals we had up to that time. Unfortunately we found the food and especially the service in Prague restaurants to be mediocre at best. Often the service was downright brusque, which is a real turnoff when you’re spending decent money for a meal. (Quick note — the service at our hotel U Zlateho jelena (The Golden Stag) was excellent and not anything like what we encountered eating out) We were staying another two days after the wedding, and wanted to have at least one really nice dinner before the end of our holiday.

We found it at La Provence, a good French place not far from our hotel. It was Sunday and they were not crowded, and we sat downstairs near the piano player. That was a nice touch, she played a lot of popular hits and Broadway numbers. The decor was a little funky eclectic — on the way to the bathrooms you entered a dark room with an oversized red leather chair under a spotlight, the urinals were filled with ice and oranges and there was a huge apparition created by melted wax in front of the service bar. Quirky, but that’s a lot better than boring.

Maybe they just forgot one day and decided to go with it?

We were excited to have a nice bottle on wine, and the list looked promising. Since we were both having fish we asked the server for a recommendation on a Pinot/Burgundy that wouldn’t be too “earthy” tasting, with more fruit than funkiness. He suggested a 2002 Domaine Belland Santenay Premier Cru, but then returned to say they didn’t have it. In fact, they only had two Pinots in the house, which was extremely surprising to me for a French place that offered a lot of seafood on the menu. We went with the 2002 Bourgogne Lucien Muzard and Fils.

Maybe Fate intervened, because we really enjoyed the wine. The first nice touch was when the waiter poured the bottle into a large decanter at table side. It was light and bright, light-bodied and balanced. The fruit was dominated by cherries and restrained by a hint of leather and a subtle taste of minerals. It’s not easy to find a Burgundy Gabriele likes, so big win. As a final plus, it was more affordable than the Belland and a better value. Online research shows a retail price around $25 and the markup was just over the standard 100 percent, while the Belland was very over-priced.

Most importantly the wine was great with our food. I started with a very good beef carpaccio, and Gabriele had the tuna tartar. Mine was excellent and so was hers, although she noted the preparation carried the dish more than the quality of the tuna. For dinner she had a fantastic boullabaisse with loads of fresh fish and I had codfish with artichokes and a barigoule (herb cream) sauce that brought forth an outstanding interplay of flavors. Dessert was a high quality creme brulee and excellent cappuccinnos.

A superb meal, though again we encountered a lack of options, this time after dinner. Gabriele likes dessert wines, yet there wasn’t a single Sauternes available by glass or even half bottle. It didn’t disappoint us greatly but again was a discordant note for an establishment that clearly pays attention to other details. So why not provide a better wine selection?

With that single caveat, I highly recommend La Provence. It’s not cheap by any means, but we found it an oasis amongst restaurants more interested in wringing every dime possible out of tourists than in providing a good dining experience.