Stand Out Meals In Prague
November 02, 2007
Heading up yet another hill at dusk with hungry bellies, we were searching and searching for a great restaurant that I had read about that served traditional Czech food. Three violins decorating a building caught my eye, since we have a little violinist. Later I read that these works of art, so called “house signs” were used as addresses before numbers were used, especially in the Lesser Town area. I grabbed a quick picture and kept walking.
After another false lead and dead end, heading back down the hill, we saw the three violin plaque again. This time I noticed that these three violins were above a lovely, small romantic restaurant and with aching feet and back, I decided to go in and claim it for dinner, as I was too tired and hungry to look any more. The restaurant was named “Three Little Violins” and it could not have been more perfect!
I just love it, how fate has a way of landing you in just the right place, right when you are ready to give up and once again we had this fortunate stroke of serendipity. It turned out that it was a famous little house that went back to a court painter in the 16th century and later became the seat of the most famous Czech violin workshop. The restaurant was beautiful and they served scrumptious traditional Czech food.
We were a little worried that it might be above our budget, but food is one thing that is still priced very well in Prague. Thus, we ended up eating one of the best meals of our trip at a very reasonable price. This was the perfect place to splurge on a special meal!
I was tempted to try one of the local wines, but I had taken an Advil after lunch to help me with all the walking that comes with Prague (which is hard on my knee), so I had to pass as the two do not mix. We all started with some wonderful soups and then I decided to go for the famous duck Czech style and DaVinci tried a beef dish that was a Czech specialty. They were both outstanding. Mozart went for something safer and enjoyed devouring her new book “Clever Isabel” and drinking her apple juice in a wine glass, while she waited.
When we left she gave the golden angel playing violin outside a hug and kiss. She had been carrying her violin with her for two days as we had gotten a video of her earlier on the Charles Bridge. Like Vienna and Salzburg, Prague is known for its music and connection to W.A. Mozart, so it was special to end up in a restaurant with this musical theme that touches our family due to her playing this instrument.
We had a funny thing happen when we did her violin video in Prague. They are used to performers on the Charles Bridge since there are many, so unbeknownst to us, a large crowd gathered as we quickly set up. Mozart was focused on her music as she is used to the drill now and we all try our best to get it down in one take if possible, which takes concentration from each of us.
She was stunned to look up after finishing to a large crowd thunderously clapping and shouting for “more”. They assumed she was going to perform for money, but we were just trying to get our little video in and thought it was a great spot. It caught us all by surprise and made us chuckle. Mozart blushed and turned bashful with all the attention, but I think she secretly liked it. She is always giving coins to street musicians, so dreams about being on the receiving end. I am still considering the pros and cons of this idea.
Another fun and yummy spot, we stumbled onto the very first day in our wanderings around the center of Prague. We were just hungry and looking for a good place to have lunch, but were quite pleased with this lucky choice. It was called Pizzeria Giovanni and was quite adorable inside, although it was such a nice day that we sat outside.
It was Italian food, obviously, and not Czech, but it was surprisingly delicious, sophisticated and authentic, plus budget prices. Mozart had her Margarita Pizza (which is what they call a cheese Pizza all over Europe) and we had some scrumptious pasta dishes (with truffles again for me) and we all shared a salad. Mozart looooves balsamic vinegar, so could eat a meal of fresh bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic if we let her. We were happy campers.
We sat next to two women from France and another couple on the other side of them. I was quite surprised when the man came over towards the end of our meal and remarked on how intelligent Mozart was. She tends to talk in a booming voice and can be quite wiggly as kids of this age tend to be, perhaps more so with her boundless energy, so I had been worried that she might be bothering them, so his comment caught me off guard.
She has not learned yet to modulate her voice automatically and just has a loud voice (like many on my side of the family and the opposite of DaVinci’s side who tend to talk extremely quietly). Perhaps I am imagining things, but European kids seem to often be quieter. She has been like this and very expressive since babyhood. It is endlessly fascinating to me how each child comes in with their own personality, gifts and quirks.
I wondered how in the world he came to the conclusion that my little bouncing bunny had any intelligence at all. It seems they had been utterly flabbergasted by her reading the sophisticated menu when we first sat down and she was trying to decide what she wanted. They said they could not believe a child of her age was reading high school words with no problem. We take it so for granted now, that we had not even realized it was difficult reading!
They do almost always forget to give her a menu at restaurants, which she finds so annoying because she loves to scrutinize every inch of a menu herself, discuss the possibilities and order her own meal. They almost always hand us two menus and we are on automatic pilot asking for a third, because Mozart often grabs hers right off, leaving one of us adults without one! We had never even thought about this issue of menus until this couples comments, but we do see now that her reading skills have made this trip better and easier for us in so many ways.
We can not end this food focused entry without mentioning our Mozart's favorite home made chocolate chip cookies, melt-in-your-mouth brownies and hot chocolate, that she got in Prague many a night at Bohemia Bagel, where we did our internet checking-in. It was one of her favorite spots because of the aforementioned goodies and because they had a play room for kids there.
Usually we have to buy her time on the internet too at internet cafes so that we can get something done, which adds up, but this way she was perfectly happy playing while we got on our computers nearby and checked email and such. She was as fond of the basketball and toy filled, bright yellow, polka-dot room as she was of the sweet treats. It became one of our favorite night haunts in Prague before heading home.
Heading up yet another hill at dusk with hungry bellies, we were searching and searching for a great restaurant that I had read about that served traditional Czech food. Three violins decorating a building caught my eye, since we have a little violinist. Later I read that these works of art, so called “house signs” were used as addresses before numbers were used, especially in the Lesser Town area. I grabbed a quick picture and kept walking.
After another false lead and dead end, heading back down the hill, we saw the three violin plaque again. This time I noticed that these three violins were above a lovely, small romantic restaurant and with aching feet and back, I decided to go in and claim it for dinner, as I was too tired and hungry to look any more. The restaurant was named “Three Little Violins” and it could not have been more perfect!
I just love it, how fate has a way of landing you in just the right place, right when you are ready to give up and once again we had this fortunate stroke of serendipity. It turned out that it was a famous little house that went back to a court painter in the 16th century and later became the seat of the most famous Czech violin workshop. The restaurant was beautiful and they served scrumptious traditional Czech food.
We were a little worried that it might be above our budget, but food is one thing that is still priced very well in Prague. Thus, we ended up eating one of the best meals of our trip at a very reasonable price. This was the perfect place to splurge on a special meal!
I was tempted to try one of the local wines, but I had taken an Advil after lunch to help me with all the walking that comes with Prague (which is hard on my knee), so I had to pass as the two do not mix. We all started with some wonderful soups and then I decided to go for the famous duck Czech style and DaVinci tried a beef dish that was a Czech specialty. They were both outstanding. Mozart went for something safer and enjoyed devouring her new book “Clever Isabel” and drinking her apple juice in a wine glass, while she waited.
When we left she gave the golden angel playing violin outside a hug and kiss. She had been carrying her violin with her for two days as we had gotten a video of her earlier on the Charles Bridge. Like Vienna and Salzburg, Prague is known for its music and connection to W.A. Mozart, so it was special to end up in a restaurant with this musical theme that touches our family due to her playing this instrument.
We had a funny thing happen when we did her violin video in Prague. They are used to performers on the Charles Bridge since there are many, so unbeknownst to us, a large crowd gathered as we quickly set up. Mozart was focused on her music as she is used to the drill now and we all try our best to get it down in one take if possible, which takes concentration from each of us.
She was stunned to look up after finishing to a large crowd thunderously clapping and shouting for “more”. They assumed she was going to perform for money, but we were just trying to get our little video in and thought it was a great spot. It caught us all by surprise and made us chuckle. Mozart blushed and turned bashful with all the attention, but I think she secretly liked it. She is always giving coins to street musicians, so dreams about being on the receiving end. I am still considering the pros and cons of this idea.
Another fun and yummy spot, we stumbled onto the very first day in our wanderings around the center of Prague. We were just hungry and looking for a good place to have lunch, but were quite pleased with this lucky choice. It was called Pizzeria Giovanni and was quite adorable inside, although it was such a nice day that we sat outside.
It was Italian food, obviously, and not Czech, but it was surprisingly delicious, sophisticated and authentic, plus budget prices. Mozart had her Margarita Pizza (which is what they call a cheese Pizza all over Europe) and we had some scrumptious pasta dishes (with truffles again for me) and we all shared a salad. Mozart looooves balsamic vinegar, so could eat a meal of fresh bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic if we let her. We were happy campers.
We sat next to two women from France and another couple on the other side of them. I was quite surprised when the man came over towards the end of our meal and remarked on how intelligent Mozart was. She tends to talk in a booming voice and can be quite wiggly as kids of this age tend to be, perhaps more so with her boundless energy, so I had been worried that she might be bothering them, so his comment caught me off guard.
She has not learned yet to modulate her voice automatically and just has a loud voice (like many on my side of the family and the opposite of DaVinci’s side who tend to talk extremely quietly). Perhaps I am imagining things, but European kids seem to often be quieter. She has been like this and very expressive since babyhood. It is endlessly fascinating to me how each child comes in with their own personality, gifts and quirks.
I wondered how in the world he came to the conclusion that my little bouncing bunny had any intelligence at all. It seems they had been utterly flabbergasted by her reading the sophisticated menu when we first sat down and she was trying to decide what she wanted. They said they could not believe a child of her age was reading high school words with no problem. We take it so for granted now, that we had not even realized it was difficult reading!
They do almost always forget to give her a menu at restaurants, which she finds so annoying because she loves to scrutinize every inch of a menu herself, discuss the possibilities and order her own meal. They almost always hand us two menus and we are on automatic pilot asking for a third, because Mozart often grabs hers right off, leaving one of us adults without one! We had never even thought about this issue of menus until this couples comments, but we do see now that her reading skills have made this trip better and easier for us in so many ways.
We can not end this food focused entry without mentioning our Mozart's favorite home made chocolate chip cookies, melt-in-your-mouth brownies and hot chocolate, that she got in Prague many a night at Bohemia Bagel, where we did our internet checking-in. It was one of her favorite spots because of the aforementioned goodies and because they had a play room for kids there.
Usually we have to buy her time on the internet too at internet cafes so that we can get something done, which adds up, but this way she was perfectly happy playing while we got on our computers nearby and checked email and such. She was as fond of the basketball and toy filled, bright yellow, polka-dot room as she was of the sweet treats. It became one of our favorite night haunts in Prague before heading home.
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A lovely post.
I passed the Three Violin restaurant on Tuesday, and Tuesday night I had pizza at Giovanni, after watching a Don Giovanni marionette opera.
If I had known you were as well, I would have taken a photo :-)
Posted by: Britt-Arnhild | November 08, 2009 at 04:01 AM
Great Read! I studied abroad in Prague in 2012, and your post is making me itch to get back!
Cheers and Happy Travels :)
Drew
Posted by: Drew | The Hungry Partier | February 12, 2014 at 04:37 PM