“What a pity that it wasn’t around sooner!” we said to ourselves with a little sigh the other day at Polévkárna, a new restaurant in Karlín (Prague 8) that has rocked our world with its selection of colorful soups. Adding to the experience is the charm of the improvised garden terrace on the sidewalk, consisting of just a few tables and chairs.
The interior, too, is simple yet cozy: wood, pastel blue counters lined with goodies, the occasional flower pot with seedlings, plants pained on purplish-red checkered kitchen dish cloths, tables and benches.
The chalkboard menu on the wall tempts with the soups of the day: peas with mint, chicken with tarragon, borsch and carrot with ginger. Of course we had to try them all. They go for Kč 35 a cup and for Kč 50 a bowl — accompanied by an open-faced sandwich, the cup would be just enough. And it proves impossible to resist the lure of the fresh sandwiches on display, of which the kitchen has a seemingly endless supply.
Perhaps we can also be forgiven for considering indulging in the rhubarb and apple tarts. (Our table sagged under the weight of our collection of porcelain saucers and plates.)
Soup of the stars
The chicken soup with tarragon is no measly clear broth but a nicely honest and colorful potage with plenty of cut veggies (onions, potato cubes) just the right amount of garlic and rough tarragon leaves, nicely accented with lemon to achieve a totally unexpected taste and aroma. Before all the feelings it aroused within us could be named, we found ourselves at the bottom of the cup.
We had to wait a bit for a fresh batch of borsch; sadly, it was clearly rushed, as it was brimming with undercooked vegetables. Not that we are fundamentally opposed to al dente cuisine, but this soup was too crunchy for our tastes. The sprinkling of fresh coriander and parsley gave the impression of straw and served to underscore our minor misfortune. But the color was a fine reddish-purple with an optimistic note of green and a dollop of snowy white sour cream.
The spring green pea soup with roughly mashed onions, meanwhile, was flawless. The cream did not assert itself, except in trace amounts, which is fine for a hot early summer day, and anyway we found the mint intoxicating enough.
The carrot soup was of an equally high standard though the ginger bits could have been more finely graded. The one somewhat unfortunate addition — albeit nostalgic for Czechs of a certain age — was that of Karotela, a prerevolutionary hit orange and carrot juice mixture that we never warmed to.
Apart from knowing how to serve up a colorful soup, the talented women in Polévkárna’s kitchen also seem to have a solid understanding of cuisine from the Caucuses and what makes for a good sandwich. Our favorite homemade bread with grilled eggplant and lettuce with an unrivalled walnut paste — with three garnet apple slices — and the Georgian specialties stuffed with cheese or meat along with leaf spinach, onions, ground nuts, topped off with grilled red peppers on bread.
And for dessert…
Unfortunately, our capacity to eat at one sitting has limits, so we gave dessert a pass but the rhubarb sponge cake and apple tarts in flaky pastry and apricot preserves looked nice. To quench your thirst, Polévkárna offers water with lemon wedges gratis but you can also indulged in a half carafe of wine (maybe we did, maybe we didn’t).
In any case, all goes well with some fair-trade brew from Mama Coffee, and you can begin your day where ours nearly ended (i.e., with cake and coffee), as the doors open at 8:00 a.m., perhaps with a casual read of the morning paper if you’re fortunate enough to live nearby. Our sumptuous afternoon experience set us back Kč 370, including (oops) the vino.
Polévkárna
www.polevkarna.cz
Sokolovská 97, Praha 8–Karlín
Tel.: 775 114 050
Open: Monday to Friday, 7:30–18:00
