La Degustation Boheme Borgeoisie (Prague) 01/10

This restaurant has three degustation menus, one an International style, one a lighter version with an emphasis on seafood and the other a modern variation of traditional meals displaying Czech culinary art from the end of the 19th century prepared using modernized techniques of the culinary personality Marie B. Svobodová. M/s Svobodova wrote a 19th century book of classic Czech recipes which gave the inspiration for La Degustation. The basis of their courses is in ingredients from Czech organic farms and small Czech producers.
The restaurant is in the old town. It was fairly dimly lit
but has an elegant but understated decor.

with a bar as you enter stacked with bottles.
Dark wood paneling hints of the quality of the meal we are about to be served. The chefs were a happy lot, head chef Oldrich Sahajdak was not there on this occasion. Here a server decants a bottle of wine.
We chose the Czech menu. It was made up of seven courses but there were an additional eight, yes EIGHT, amuse bouchon maison. The first was a tiny dollop of foie gras in dark chocolate with a sprinkle of salt served on a slab of coloured marble
In all not much bigger than a jelly bean, the foie gras was lost in the chocolate so it just tasted sweet and salt.
This was followed by a sip of delicious mushroom flavoured jellied bouillon which we had to suck out of a small tube.
Then came an absolutely fabulous beef tartare sandwiched between two discs of toasted bread.
The first actual course we were offered was, Prague ham maliner foam fried eggbread, dried apples. (Only the computer knows what it is doing here)

This was followed by a wild poultry soup, quail egg, house made noodles and duck dumpling The photo does not show the dolls house size of this tiny serve. The quail egg gives you an idea. A very bland dish. Followed by another amuse awaiting sauce here Steamed třeboň trout, marjoram béchamel, topinambour was a super delicacy This meat dish was beef, oyster blade, creamy sauce with freh dill and braised potato. One delicacy after the next! Freshly smoked beef tongue, yellow pea puree We seemed to be getting more dishes than on the menu! olomoucke tvarusky cheese, carraway, pickled shallots Palabi lamb,Juniper sauce, parsley root puree, Brussels sprouts given a wonderful taste by the parsnip.

All this cost 2250 CZK each for the food which today is about equivalent to A$135. Wine pairing added about A$65. The wines were all Czech from Moldavia and Miklova and displayed the winemakers skills which have only redeveloped in the last 20 years. Whilst not every dish made one salivate in ecstasy the total experience was of a world class meal prepared with skill, attention to detail and imagination by a team under the leadership of an extremely talented head chef.
Score 18.5/20