Pub grub goes upscale

Tucked away on a small side street in Malá Strana, the newly opened Artisan Café bears little resemblance to Banditos, the Tex-Mex hangout near I.P. Pavlova that features rowdy happy hours and great bar food. But they share the same owner. And, while the approach is clearly different at Artisan, it comes from the same commitment to good food.

In terms of décor, Artisan is one of the lovelier restaurants to open in recent months. The dining rooms are lit by tea lights and light bulbs muted by hammered copper shades wrought in the shape of leaves. The wooden floors are handsomely matte, and the chairs have brocade backs. In the back room, plated glass doors open onto what will likely be a beautiful terrace in the warmer months.

The menu globe-trots, sprinkling culinary cues from nearly all continents. Interesting pairings liven up many of the options, though, in practice, they're often an exaggeration or even misleading. While the food is tasty, it doesn't always match the descriptions on the menu.

Salmon ceviche promises a citrus-marinated raw fish that's meant to be nearly pickled by the acids, as it's traditionally served in Latin America. While the salmon slices were fresh, they felt oddly dry for raw fish, and didn't pack the bright punch ceviche usually delivers. Where citrus was lacking, however, minced mango and jalapenos managed to dress up the salmon to make an altogether interesting bite that was hot, salty and sweet.

Raspberry BBQ beef short ribs had a nice black crust on the outside meat that was tender and flavorful. The marinade had an undeniable sweetness, though it wasn't identifiable as raspberry. While that extra flavor might have made them more interesting, the ribs were delicious enough as they were, and reappear in larger quantity under the mains.

A scallop appetizer was the highlight of our visits. Three plump scallops had been seared perfectly, preserving the buttery, soft quality of the flesh. The kitchen excelled in the trimmings around the scallops, a vibrant green pea puree that tasted of spring, ringed with a creamy emulsion with warmer notes of root vegetables and a tart port-wine reduction. The trio of flavors crowned the scallops, while the remaining sauces were mopped up with the complimentary basket of freshly baked bread.

The entrees brought the same problems as the appetizers: Ingredients were top-quality, but not always combined as advertised.

The jerked chicken was hugely disappointing. "Jerk" refers to both a seasoning mix and method of cooking, neither of which was used in any significant measure for this dish. The seasoning is a mix of allspice, warm flavors like clove and cinnamon, and most importantly backed up by the almighty scotch bonnet pepper, one of the hottest chilies in the world. Combine that with a charcoal blast, and you have the blackened, spicy chicken that is a celebrated and awesome hallmark of Caribbean cuisine. At Artisan, the chicken leg and attached breast is oven-baked and coated with a brown syrupy sauce that was all sweet with zero spice. Fried plantains were an interesting side, but only served to highlight the blandness of the entire dish, which the tomato "salsa" was too weak to combat.

Pumpkin risotto with Parmesan and arugula was well-executed, but, so what? Pumpkin is a nice enough gourd, but not strong enough to hold up a dish on its own. It made for an interesting flavor, and there's no doubt the kitchen uses fresh vegetables for every step of every dish. But it would have made a better side or bed for another component. The arugula garnish was unimaginative and the grated Parmesan decent but unremarkable.

Artisan offers two hamburgers, which may seem a bit of a nonsequitur for a fine-dining menu. But here it makes sense, following the lead of Banditos, where a sizeable burger menu has attracted a solid following of fans over the past several years. Artisan's classic and hickory burgers are priced at 190 Kč and 210 Kč, respectively, the same as Banditos'. It's nice to see the owner didn't hike the prices for essentially the same product.

But the only way hickory seemed to be involved in the Artisan hickory burger was as a selling point on the menu. The patty tasted like it had been cooked on a wood-burning grill, and the bacon, though good, didn't stand out as hickory-smoked, either. Beyond semantics, the patty wasn't cooked rare, as I'd ordered, but medium. The ground meat was nevertheless juicy and full-bodied, clearly of a good quality. Real cheddar cheese was a treat, but not entirely melted. The side, sweet potato shoestring fries, seemed promising on the menu but was an overcooked letdown on the plate. The mistake might have been a one-off, but it was nevertheless unforgivable.

Throughout our meals, wait staff were focused and polite. Courses were delivered so that each diner received his or her plate at the same time, an important though often neglected detail. A mistake on one of the bills was caught and corrected by the server almost immediately, with profuse apologies.

Overall, Artisan has taken care with nearly all of the important details, from ingredients to setting to service. The disconnect noted between menu and dishes isn't so great that it can't be modified. When and if it is, Artisan will be a very good restaurant.

Claire Compton can be reached at
ccompton@praguepost.com