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Smooth sailing

A new chef keeps Alcron on course
Restaurant Review | Search restaurants | Archives

By Dave Faries
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
June 4th, 2008 issue

Alcron


Štěpánská 40 (Radisson SAS Hotel)
Prague 1-New Town
Tel. 222 820 038
Open Mon.-Sat. 5:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m.

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

JAN PŘEROVSKÝ/THE PRAGUE POST
Chef Roman Paulus is justifiably proud of his bisque.
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FROM THE MENU



Marinated scallops 550 Kč
Lobster bisque 550 Kč
Mackerel in phyllo 790 Kč
Halibut in bacon crust 990 Kč
La Minga Chardonnay 770 Kč

Not much about Alcron has changed over the years.
It’s still a cozy little room decked out in Jazz Age elegance. Wait staff project the same near-formal confidence as always, walking as if through tables of Rockefellers and Morgans to pour — without smirking, mind you — the bottle of cheap Chilean chardonnay you ordered. And it continues to boast a solid reputation as the city’s finest seafood venue.
How long that renown lasts, however, depends on a major change in the restaurant’s lineup.
In late April, longtime chef Jiří Štift left the kitchen he made famous to open a place of his own. To replace him, the Radisson lured another of Prague’s veteran celebrity chefs, Roman Paulus, from Hilton’s CzecHouse Grill.
On the surface, it’s a natural fit: one hotel chain to another, one high-end restaurant to another — the kind of predictable rotation that makes these places rather dull news-wise. But Paulus earned his name more for clever, modern Czech creations and his keen grasp of global ingredients than a particular knack with fish.
Occasionally it shows. When line cooks prepared mackerel under Štift’s direction, for example, the result was surprisingly elegant; mackerel being plebeian, oily and very pronounced in flavor. Paulus did little, if anything, to the original recipe. Yet the side dishes so well-orchestrated by Štift — tomato coulis unleashing an acidic assault through the rich, fatty flesh and tapenade to beat down the strong fishy taste — now seem a little off-balance and, well, messy. Even worse, the usually crisp phyllo crust contained a few uncooked sheaths.
The balance issue pops up during other courses, too. Although marinated scallops are silken in texture and wonderfully gentle, an expressive base of pureed celeriac proves far more expressive. Mossy, sharp, slightly bitter and quite robust in nature — and perhaps the best celeriac puree I’ve ever tried — it pushes the delicate shellfish into the backseat.
But if it sounds like Paulus may be faltering in his new role, a taste of his lobster bisque will force you to rethink that notion.
Served with a flourish tableside, the soup doesn’t really need help showing off. Teetering between sweet and earthy from lobster shell and a grounded mirepoix, it has the taste of deep seas implied somewhere in the mix, burnished by shellfish oil, sharpened as white wine condenses over heat, rich and creamy — it’s possible to rave about this dish for several paragraphs. But I’ll just note a couple essentials.
Restaurants around the world label pale cream soups as bisques. Over time, many diners have thus come to expect something white or pastel pink when ordering the classic bowl. Good lobster bisque, however, appears ruddy and almost murky, drawing its distinct desert-red color in part from pureed shell and a splash of Cognac. The luxurious taste of lobster rises from the thick soup. And, in this case, pieces of singed artichoke release hints of smoke and bitterness to trail behind, while a devilish pepper bite lurks in the distance.
It’s complex, compelling and just about perfect.
Halibut in a bacon crust pairs a difficult fish — very lean and susceptible to bold flavors — with an acrid morel sauce enriched by diced ham, a clever link to the fillet’s feathery coating. The halibut itself emerges from the kitchen in beautiful form, both firm and flaky, yielding somewhat to the taste of bacon yet never disappearing completely.
This is what you should expect from Alcron: perfect technique, flavors arraying in support of the main ingredient, subtle undertones and the right ingredients.
So the amuse bouche pricks at areas of the palate recognizing bitter, sour, sweet and salty characters, with a drawn smoothness stimulating the more finicky umami buds. It’s accompanied by a dish of Maldon sea salt, harvested on England’s north coast, and a fruity, aromatic olive oil.
Granted, the restaurant could invest in an artisanal butter. And a few menu offerings (the mackerel comes to mind) may cause you to reconsider Alcron’s place among Prague’s elite restaurants. But I doubt it.
Despite a change at the helm and a few minor bumps, Radisson’s destination restaurant still offers the finest seafood dining in town.
But, considering the rash of solid openings recently, and the sea bass at Le Cornichon, and the Wednesday tasting menus at Little Whale, it seems to me that several cheaper places aren’t far behind.

Dave Faries can be reached at dfaries@praguepost.com


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