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Far from it

Nobody's perfect, especially this multilevel disco eatery
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By Dave Faries
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
May 9th, 2007 issue

Jan Přerovský/THE PRAGUE POST
The bar area at Perfect is set up for unbridled extravagance. Upstairs, the dining room is less picturesque.
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The name invites criticism, begs for sardonic headlines. Sorry, not going to play along.
Besides, several of Perfect’s menu items speak more eloquently to the obvious “Is it?” question. Singaporean chicken rice, for example, is like a Whitman’s Sampler in which every piece of candy has that pink stuff inside. The dish is a medley of separate items on one plate. There’s a ball of jasmine rice so timid the fragrance dissipates almost before you pick it out. Next to that, a cup of dull, powdery peanut sauce. Unadorned greens constitute the salad, atop of which sits flavorless white meat.
Perfect

Soukenická 4
Prague 1–New Town
Tel. 222 311 600
Open Mon.–Sat. 8 a.m.–11:30 p.m.

Food
Service
Atmosphere
Overall
It’s hard to say how all this fits a theme — unless the sheer absence of character is supposed to tie everything together. Only a bowl of noodles steeped in coconut milk provides relief from the doldrums, pulling natural sweetness and a smooth, silky feel from the tropical fruit.
Salmon tartare also testifies to the hubris of the Perfect moniker. It’s burdened by an overt fishiness of something long deceased. Herbs and other filler disappear under the malodorous weight. Meanwhile, gray-brown patches turn the appetizer into a test of will.
From the Menu
  • Borscht 95 Kč
  • Baked goat cheese salad 175 Kč
  • Beef tartare 155 Kč
  • Salmon tartare 155 Kč
  • Mushroom risotto 155 Kč
  • Wok pan chicken 255 Kč
  • Perfect ribs 295 Kč
  • Singaporean chicken rice 275 Kč
Another tartare selection, this time beef, brings up a curious point. The meat itself is fine: thoroughly marinated until healthy red flakes darken into a substance the color of Illinois farmland, and delicate in texture, with natural flavors surrendering to something vaguely Worcestershire-ish, perhaps yakisoba. The menu description, however, brags “prepared by Perfect chefs.” Same with the rich, meaty (and quite enjoyable) interpretation of borscht —“home made,” according to the menu.
So, do they order the other stuff from a competitor down the street? Pry it from frozen packages? Mrs. Paul’s Homestyle chunky mushroom risotto?
In fairness, Perfect’s risotto measures up to local standards. It’s overcooked by a narrow but noticeable margin, yet nice, with piquant Parmesan that offsets the musky flavor of mushrooms, and a strong creamy finish rounding out the experience. Baked goat cheese salad could dispense with the smattering of leaves and survive on the other ingredients: pine nuts, dried tomatoes and a cake of midrange curd (on the crumbly side, mild to tart in flavor) most notable for a suspiciously consistent crust of deep gold, as if it had been slapped with a branding iron.
The marinated ribs are so thinly coated with meat that the kitchen, apparently as a kind of apology to hungry carnivores, throws in several hunks of tenderloin to make up the difference. And, as is generally the case in Prague, beef spends far too much time on the grill. Here, though, the damage is relatively light and the seasoning modest enough to allow the rich taste of red meat some room for expression. Served alongside are four sauces, five pommes frites and a handful of very good onion rings, fried without batter to a gossamer sheen, vegetal sweetness overriding a pleasant bitter backlash.
On the other hand, wok-sauteed chicken forces dried-out white meat to fend with watery overcooked rice and a mundane mélange of vegetables. Yakisoba sauce, which at its best should bear a vague resemblance to Worcestershire but with a fruity tang, here devolves into a bitter, brackish solution that rises slowly but eventually dominates the entrée.
Definitely not perfect.
Instead of living up to its name, the restaurant fumbles around in Prague’s ever-expanding field of midrange underachievers. Many dishes will satisfy the night-out with-the-kids or first-date crowd — thanks in particular to such attractions as a children’s playroom, street-level lounge and basement disco. But the lineup of DJ-driven events downstairs — from “love affair” singles parties to Deluxe Night, a “luxury night for quality and classy people”— doesn’t begin to make up for the flaws in food service.

Dave Faries can be reached at dfaries@praguepost.com


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