Pretend to be a princess, or a prince, at Castle Praha
I’m not a boozehound, but as a recent college graduate, I’m familiar with the concept of “drunk eating.” It seems that when you have a decent buzz going, just about anything ― even a fresh-from-the-fridge hot dog ― can taste like the most delicious morsel of food ever.This is probably how Castle Praha can get away with serving intentionally cold sausages.
With quite possibly the best house beer in Seoul, it seems that the point of this eatery is to guzzle down as much of its tasty suds as your liver can take before even opening the menu.
But that’s not to say that everything on the menu at this old-fashioned bierhaus is as unappetizing as the chilled tubes of meat that get plunked on your table.
The entire restaurant, from its exterior which resembles the famous tower of the Charles Bridge, to the surprisingly ornate pitchers, is surprisingly reminiscent of the Czech capital for being in the middle of Hongdae (or Gangnam, depending on which branch you visit).
Castle Praha doesn’t look like a restaurant; true to its name, it looks and feels like a royal residence. The immediate interior is more fit for dignitaries than regular Seoulites.
The first floor serves as a cafe and gift shop. While I didn’t see any of the Russian nesting dolls so ubiquitous in the tourist shops in Prague, I did admire some of the intricate, bejeweled curios that adorned Castle Praha’s shelves on my way in and out.
The dining area in its basement is as charming as its top floor, with hefty wooden tables lit by candles, tapestries of crests on the walls and ― a welcome if incongruous touch ― a bowl of fresh popcorn on the table. Eating in such a setting makes any diner feel as if she’s time-warped into a Czech banquet hall of yore.
For those in large parties or those simply gearing up for a night of debauchery, pitchers ― as mentioned above ― are vessels made of colored glass and cast-iron curlicues for handles that seem fit for a king. With three varieties of home-brewed beer ―a light pilsner, a reddish granat and a dark duncel ― the contents of the pitchers (19,800 won for 2,000 milliliters) ($21) are bound to please.
The pilsner is crisp and the sweetest of the three. The granat is a bit on the bitter side, with a dose of rich flavor. A lot like Guinness, the duncel is thick and creamy. One of my companions remarked that it tasted like unsweetened Coke, but I beg to differ. The duncel is great, but those planning to do a lot of drinking should limit the amount of this brew that they drink, as it will probably fill them up too quickly.
As for eating like a king, it’s hit or miss. The focus here is most definitely on the beer.
The menu is notably quite extensive, with Czech specialties, Korean-European fusion, general fare such as burgers and steak and a number of sides. Those looking to really live out the Czech fantasy should steer clear of the nachos, chicken wings and even the “pork belly with kimchi roll roasting” (16,500 won), as interesting as it sounds.
Instead, stick to the first page of the menu, which lists the Czech specialties.
The beef goulash (19,000 won) looks nothing like the wimpy bowl of stew pictured on the menu. As possibly the most visually attractive dish on the menu, Castle Praha’s goulash is a full-bodied stew with juicy chunks of saucy beef with baby corn, red pepper, mushrooms, green pepper and broccoli mixed into a thick, hot broth. The best part is that it’s served in a bowl carved out of an entire loaf of bread ― too bad it’s heinously overpriced. The most I’ve ever paid for a bread bowl of soup outside of Castle Praha is $5. One of my Korean dining buddies insisted that the beef goulash tasted just like jamjorim, a Korean pork dish in a soybean-based sauce.
The icky cold sausages mentioned in earlier were part of the bramborak and utopenci (17,500 won). It wasn’t quite clear to me (even after I asked the waiter) whether the sausage is the former or the latter of the two names, but a quick Google search assures me that it is the utopenci.
Frankly, I just ordered the dish because it had the most intriguing name on the menu. It sounds like what Borat would name twins, if he had them.
The dish as a whole consists of two types of sausage marinated in balsamic vinegar, potato pancakes, sweet and sour sauce and mustard. The franks are sweet and vinegary, and they’d probably taste good if they didn’t feel like the fat fingers of a butcher who has just handled a frozen pound of ground beef.
The bramborak, or the potato pancakes, were just shy of being served deliciously hot, but they had a nice spicy flavor that gives them some potential.
Just a few final words of caution about Castle Praha: Hopeful diners may feel like marauders as they wander the streets of Hongdae to find this restaurant. While the map on the Web site (www.castlepraha.co.kr) makes it look deceptively easy to reach the place from the Hongik University subway station, it most certainly is not.
It took two friends fluent in Korean and at least five phone calls en route to find the restaurant, even though I’d been there before. I probably still wouldn’t be able to find it after two visits.
If guests manage to arrive and get their food, they will also likely feel like barbarians, as the waitstaff only provide one knife per table and the goulash definitely requires some use of the fingers.
But hey, if you’ve just finished watching “Beowulf” and want to pretend to be a reveling Dane in Heorot, the raucous meadhall featured in the film, there is no better place in Seoul to play than Castle Praha.
At least the mead I mean the beer is good.
Castle Praha
English: On the menu
Telephone: (02) 337-6644 (Hongdae), (02) 596-9200 (Gangnam)
Subway: Hongik University Station, line No. 2, exit 5 or Gangnam Station, line No. 2, exit 6
Parking: Difficult to find
Hours: Noon to 2 a.m. Monday to Thursday, to 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. to midnight on Sunday
Dress: Come as you are
By Hannah Bae Contributing Writer [hannahbae@gmail.com]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.
Standards Board Policy (0/250자)