Fresh tastes for spring

Whether it's cold and gray or sunny and pleasant, March inspires reveries of spring and warm days outdoors. While it's not time for terrace dining just yet, restaurants are cleaning up their menus and rolling out special offers in anticipation of winter's end.

The Mandarin Oriental Hotel's Barego Lounge is offering a sushi menu that includes both Nigiri and Maki. The Nigiri, available for 80 Kč per piece, offers a choice of Ebi (shrimp), unagi (marinated eel), hamachi, maguro, tobiko (flying fish roe) or sake (salmon). Maki sushi is served as six pieces, and the choices include California rolls for 350 Kč and salmon or tuna for 180 Kč, among others. Various assortments of sushi, sashimi and tempura are available for 420-450 Kč.

The hotel's restaurant, Essensia, is offering a "feast" of high-class proportions with various presentations of oysters and lobster. Fine de Claire oysters are available by the half-dozen, raw with lemon and shallot dressing for 360 Kč, au gratin for 420 Kč or oysters Kirkpatrick for 420 Kč. Canadian Lobster is prepared either as a salad with brown butter vinaigrette for 490 Kč, as a bisque for 390 Kč, a half-lobster thermidor for 590 Kč or a grilled buttered whole lobster for 990 Kč. For reservations, call 233 088 777.

The Vltava restaurant, housed in the President Hotel, has a new menu for March that matches the optimism of the season. As the press release says, "Who knows, maybe we will also attract those that, so far, have not been great fans of Czech cuisine." Available March 15-21, the new offerings include dishes such as veal knuckle in a truffle sauce with mushrooms from the a la carte menu.

A three-course degustation menu for 900 Kč, which runs the entire month, includes a salmon and artichoke tartar with fine paprika cream, lamb chops in rosemary sauce with baked vegetables and baked zucchini pancake with blue poppy seeds. For reservations, call 234 614 138.

The Aromi restaurant family, which includes Aromi, La Finestra and the Aromi bottega store, is filling the calendar with a full schedule of cooking classes and sommelier courses.

This month, a class on cooking a five-course menu with beef will be taught on the 15th, and a five-course menu with sea bass on the 25th. For more information, check www.aromi.cz.

The next sommelier course will be held April 13, with Flemming Laugesen giving a talk on the Puglia and Basilicata regions of Italy. He will devote special attention to unique, original vineyards that specialize in local varieties of grapes. Wines to be tasted include Eleano Aglianico del Vulture, Guttarolo Primitivo, Sinfarosa Primitivo, Masseria Maime Negroamaro and Nero di Troia Rivera. The price is 2,350 Kč per person and includes dinner. For more information, call Tereza Virchlavská at 774 248 820.

Le Grill restaurant at the Kempinski Hybernská has introduced a new seasonal menu. Chef Marek Fichtner has prepared a cream of green pea soup with prosciutto chip and herb crouton, pan-fried salmon trout on lemon-rosemary risotto and braised fennel, and a mille feuille of grilled vegetables and cheddar cheese polenta, among other new dishes. For reservations, call 226 226 111.

On March 19, Zinc restaurant at the Hilton Old Town is hosting a four-course degustation dinner paired with wines selected by a sommelier from Le Panier wine shop, at a cost of 1,150 Kč per person. Choices include three versions of salmon trout - house-smoked, tartar with salmon caviar and a rillette with crab and tobiko - braised pork belly with white cabbage puree, and a roast venison loin with wild mushroom puree. For reservations, call 221 822 300.

Restaurant Mlýnec hosts its monthly exotic brunch March 28, an all-you-can-eat affair for 490 Kč per person. This month it includes fresh sushi, tropical salads, tataki, grilled meats and fish and a wasabi raspberry sorbet. The brunch runs 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., with live jazz music. For reservations, call 277 000 777.

Claire Compton can be reached at
ccompton@praguepost.com