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On the green

New vegetarian restaurant emphasizes global flavors
Restaurant Review | Search restaurants | Archives

By Dave Faries
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
May 30th, 2007 issue

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
Natural fibers, wood and clean lines: Maranatha's buffet area looks like one hip — very hip — school cafeteria.
Maranatha

Vyskočilova 2 (Brumlovka Bldg.)
Prague 4–Michle
Tel. 234 749 822
Open 11 a.m.–9 p.m.

Food **
Service **
Atmosphere **
Overall **

From the menu

Goat cheese in filo 155 Kč
Radicchio trevisano salad 155 Kč
Green asparagus with Bearnaise 195 Kč
Grilled aubergine with potato puree 205 Kč
Vegetarian paella 235 Kč
Cantonese tofu 225 Kč
Fresh orange juice 45 Kč

Right from the start, Maranatha’s theme is fairly obvious. There’s a large saltwater fish tank, natural fibers and earth tones — it’s either a vegetarian restaurant or another one of those trendy fusion destinations. Both have a tendency to employ new-age materials and soften all the meaty words once found on menus, a la vegetable tartare or pineapple carpaccio.
Which is not to belittle the verbiage or décor. Maranatha sits in the Brumlovka building in BB Centrum, a patch of earth that could easily pass for Houston or Charlotte. Despite the rather sterile starting point, those responsible for designing the space managed to pull off a surprisingly deft transformation from blah to comfortable. The restaurant’s vegetarian menu is worldly, and interesting enough to rouse the curiosity of dedicated carnivores.
Be forewarned, though: The nonalcoholic beer and wine (or is it grape juice?) may be a shock to the system.
For the lunchtime crowd, Maranatha offers a buffet line stocked with salad, pasta, tofu, gnocchi and such, tallied on a “by the kilo” basis. My impression after two sit-down meals and one dip into the buffet is that it’s best to skip the latter, unless you’re truly pressed for time. Pasta and gnocchi in particular suffer from exposure to the cold stainless-steel elements. Many of the table-service items are, however, quite impressive.
Radicchio trevisano salad is a well-considered mix of bitter greens. Cassis dressing applied in slight driblets counters with a piercing sweetness. Slices of red and yellow bell pepper contribute a sweet-citrus crunch that settles the surge of macerated berry. Then there are roasted peppers stuffed with Cretan myzithra cheese, a powerful combination of gentle smokiness and piquant saltiness. It’s one of the better salads you can find in Prague — a wild flurry of bold impressions rising and falling, darting about, peeking, ducking, but never beating each other down.
Another starter, goat cheese in filo pastry, plays a more sedate game. Wrapped like a package, the cheese is reasonably sharp and crumbly in texture. Nuts and thyme honey reign in the sour taste, pulling it back to earth and drenching it with a sweet finish.
One of the more interesting entree selections, Cantonese tofu, features two slabs of seared bean curd under a wilted mound of sautéed peppers, with paprika hidden in the mix (for a little punch) and three or four stinging chilis on the side (for third-degree burns). Call it mellow with a mean streak. The tofu is fluffy inside, except at the edges, where the effort to achieve the golden-brown finish curdled it into a chewy mass.
For all that, the restaurant never really hits a consistent stride. Asparagus spears served as an appetizer are fresh and crisp. But there’s something missing from the Bearnaise (just possibly egg), leaving a wan, sickly smudge. Grilled eggplant stuffed with pureed potatoes forces one passive ingredient to save another. The aubergine has firm flesh and a clean taste, with just a shade of richness from the grill. But the other elements offer little support: flat spuds, wimpy garlic and basil pesto so frightened of exposure that it disappears, leaving only a trace of color.
Still, the kitchen does more than competent work, even when dishes collapse into monotony. The vegetarian paella is a good example of this: rice steamed to that wonderfully elusive al dente point, sticky but holding on to individual character, nudging back against the bite. Most restaurants in Prague prefer to boil pasta and rice into gooey mush. Yet, in the desire to allow freshness to stand out, the kitchen’s timid roasting of bell peppers and scallions — with no charred natural sugars — leaves nothing to defray round after round of vegetal sweetness.
Maranatha still has a few things to work on. But an emphasis on fresh greens, fresh fruit, freshly squeezed juices and the fusion of global flavors makes it worth a look if you’re in the neighborhood. Then you can pick up wine at the shop next door.

Dave Faries can be reached at dfaries@praguepost.com


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