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Fine corporate dining

Le Pavillon stands out as an expense-account destination
Restaurant Review | Search restaurants | Archives

August 15th, 2007 issue

Jan Přerovský/THE PRAGUE POST
Tasteful décor and the promise of good wine: Staff await the corner-office crowd.
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Le Pavillon

Za Brumlovkou 2
(BB Centrum, Budova Gamma)
Prague 4–Kačerov
Tel. 607 267 388
Open Mon.–Fri. 8 a.m.–11 p.m.

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

FROM THE MENU

Gazpacho 320 Kč
St. Jacques scallops 420 Kč
Beef bourguignon 420 Kč
Poisson with marjoram sauce 490 Kč

The grove of corporate offices that is BB Centrum needs Le Pavillon.
If not for the spalike serenity, the soft drone of music, stellar wine list and other expressions of privilege, corner-office types would have to hold business dinners in the noisy proletarian confines of Grosseto or Hacienda Mexicana.
This is, after all, the home of Microsoft, GE Money and other giants — companies that require impressive settings with cuisine to match in order to close beyond-the-boardroom deals. Le Pavillon is from the same stock as Old Town’s Le Terroir, one of only three restaurants to earn Bib Gourmand recognition in this Michelin-starved city.
And the Le’s have it.
The amuse bouche on one occasion was a sliver of foie gras in a jellied shell served with a dab of forest fruit compote and a few grains of kosher salt — just enough to excite the palate after the buttery pate melted away. It’s enough to stop any conversation midsentence, as meaty flavors collaborate with adornments in a manner so subtle as to command attention. The gazpacho opens with a volley of husky fruit, followed by a warm, pungent rush of tapenade. The approach is softened by a few welcoming phrases of balsamic and finished by the earthy, briny residue of olive.
Were that all, Le Pavillon’s cool summer soup would divert the interest of any midlevel manager/gourmand. But the kitchen also heaps buffalo mozzarella into the bowl — very fresh, finely spun in texture, milky and a little sweet. Surrounding this stark white mound are fresh cherry tomatoes and dark olives that unleash musty, thoroughly cured tastes into the mix.
Scallops arrive like a gift, wrapped in thin slices of grilled zucchini, topped by indistinct foam. One resides on a bed of crisp, sweet snow peas countered by bitter scallions. The other sits atop what truck-stop denizens would call hash browns before gasping at the creamy texture within, and the serene combination of burnished, buttery and salty flavors cascading with each bite. Art form aside, these are scallops cooked with precision, pulled from the heat before their sensitive flesh toughens, so that the fibers of meat fall away under pressure, almost as if raw. Yet each end is seared to the point where golden streaks welt the surface and bittersweet flavors emerge.
The kitchen staff also understands how to flatter the mainstays of country French cuisine. For beef bourguignon, they forsake dense, bitter earthiness for a less-rigid mirepoix from which rises the rich, fruity savor of red wine. Bacon counters this, along with chunks of tender beef with a smoky flavor and the curious sweet-tart meatiness of an aggressive cure. Mashed potatoes contribute a soothing, creamy finish to the piece.
Poisson features a somewhat ordinary centerpiece of young chicken breast, mundane but tender, flanked by legs stewed so that the meat drops willingly from the bone. It’s almost as if the meat were from two different birds: the drumsticks are gray and compellingly delicate in flavor, the breast tacky and white.
Sides make the chicken dish far more interesting: A narrow rivulet of marjoram sauce breaks in with powerful acerbic shrieks. Grilled and gratinated vegetables lure your palate in another direction, tangy, following by a smoky haze from the grill and a low, sweet vegetal hum. This is simple chicken surrounded by a plate full of jabbering flavors, a vibrant marketplace of collisions and collusions, a tilt-a-whirl swinging wildly around something calm and gentle — the carnival stilled only by a square of bronzed polenta, oozing from each cut of the fork, buttery and gentle.
A basket of Albert-quality bread served with fridge-burned butter is the only real flaw here. Well, that and the less-than-impressive setting of parking lots and glass towers.
But that’s the toll paid for a symbiotic relationship. Le Pavillon needs the office complex and the expense account types who dwell there five days a week.
And if corporate execs have any taste, they will get along with this restaurant very well.


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