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Not so far east

Korean restaurants are the new trend in Prague
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By Dave Faries
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
May 16th, 2007 issue

Jan Přerovský/THE PRAGUE POST
Working for the tourist crown: in the kitchen at Koba, a favorite stop for visiting groups from the home country.
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In terms of popular culture, one occurrence marks an anomaly, two merely happenstance. But, with three new Korean restaurants opening in Prague over the past six months, we’ve got a definite trend on our hands.
The first, Man-na (reviewed in March), serves purely Korean fare and, bumps aside, is a representative place. Gaya and Koba fall into the hybrid category, grouping sushi and sashimi — both wildly trendy Japanese items — in with traditional dishes. Otherwise, the two locations are miles apart.
Koba

Dušní 6
Prague 1–Old Town
Tel. 224 813 433
Open daily 11 a.m.–
10 p.m.


Food HHH
Service HH
Atmosphere HH
Overall HH

FROM THE MENU

Miso 50 Kč
Bibimbap 320 Kč
Jeyukbokeum 280 Kč
Zazanman 180 Kč

Gaya

Pod Lysinami 1 (Hotel Michael)
Prague 4–Hodkovičky
Tel. 241 093 501
Open daily 11 a.m.–11 p.m.

Food HH
Service H
Atmosphere H
Overall H

FROM THE MENU

Kimchi 50 Kč
Roasted pork 290 Kč
Fried chicken 180 Kč
Kimchi soup 290 Kč

Koba feels more authentic, providing the cluttered, arms crisscrossing the table, metal-chopsticks-clinking chaos you expect from a Korean restaurant. It fills a narrow, unexceptional slot on Dušní in the heart of Old Town, the Mecca of tourist dining. On two separate occasions, I shared the space with Korean groups. The restaurant caters to tourists, with the second group flooding in as the first was settling the bill. Long before they arrive, banchan bowls (in this case tangy pickled vegetables, earthy bean sprouts, beets and kimchi more tart than hot) and plates overflowing with lettuce leaves monopolized the better tables, waiting.
Gaya is buried in the expanse of Prague 4, 20 minutes or so from the center on the 3 tram, past the point where the 16 tram slams on the brakes and loops around for a trip back into the Art Nouveau caverns of New Town and Vinohrady. It’s an unusual spot for a hotel-restaurant combination, to say the least. The first time out, we took a wrong turn and a colleague (I can no longer say a friend) and I spent 30 minutes hunting through the suburban bliss of drab homes and poorly marked lanes.
Gaya is still working out the service kinks, but meals lack the familial, familiar bedlam. Banchan plates consist of skimpy portions and concede less to marinade. The kimchi is dominated by gochujang (chili paste), which bellows for a while before yielding to a peppery bite, leaving very little behind it.
Maybe the orderliness, lack of clutter and presentation of manageable portions make Gaya seem less satisfying. There’s nothing wrong with the food: Roasted three-stripped pork steeps in a sauce smacking of cloves and nutmeg and other intricate earthy-sweet spices. But there’s a noticeable kick to it, riding up under cover of the other ingredients, never breaking into the lead. Fried chicken with sweet sauce encases downy, melt-in-your-mouth meat in a compelling coating also resembling allspice, this time laced with sugar.
The selections at Koba include a quiet, meatless bibimbap, its familiar medley of julienne vegetables hovering over the mellow flavor of toasted sesame. The sticky red sauce spurns instant heat in favor of a complex series of impressions: nuttiness followed by a gentle, sweet draft, behind which emerges a burning sensation. Jeyukbokeum (spicy pork) is not the most alluring dish, loaded with chewy fat. What makes it work are dabbles from a plate of bean paste. Rich and nutty to start, the malty flavor of fermented soy quickly looms, backed by a swell of salt. Almost at the point where it becomes a burden, the brackish wave of salt backs down. In its wake flows a fiery current.
Zazanman comes with a dense and hearty, though one-dimensional, sauce bolstering good buckwheat noodles — equally confident in flavor, coarse but malty, and therefore able to reign in the bitter sauce.
From the perspective of atmosphere, service and location, especially for those living in or near the center, Koba is the better choice. As for how the Japanese halves of their menus affect this assessment — well, I’ll save that commentary for another time.
The addition of three Korean restaurants suggests a growing diversity in the Prague dining scene. If this be a trend, let’s make the most of it.

Dave Faries can be reached at dfaries@praguepost.com


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