Eyes on the pies

A word of advice to Prague's abundance of lackluster restaurant kitchens: If you're going to prepare dishes using subpar ingredients, at least learn how to properly disguise them.

Unfortunately, Pizzeria Amfora is just one example of the many local eateries whose so-called cuisine - in this case, Italian - is comparable to meals served at your local school or hospital cafeteria. In no case is that more apparent than with the risotto Verdi, a dish sampled during a weekday lunchtime visit. Billed as a mix of rice, chicken, vegetables, mushrooms and cream, the dish doesn't divert from its description. What the menu fails to mention, however, is that the vegetables in question are the dreaded tricolor assortment of peas, corn and mechanically diced carrots that many of us were bribed to eat, if not downright force-fed, as children. It's safe to assume that the chicken strips, pan-fried to the point of being rubbery, also originated in a supermarket freezer not far from the veggies.      

Perhaps such offenses - the first among many - would be forgivable if Pizzeria Amfora were the only restaurant of its kind in the city center. There's no doubt the restaurant is very popular, at least among area businesspeople who fill the rustic cellar space and its adjacent patio almost daily, proving the simple, tried-and-true advantage of a good location. Amfora seems to have solid word of mouth, too, having been personally recommended by several fellow foodies.

However, given that few international cuisines have infiltrated the local market as much as Italian has, Amfora's popularity seems inexplicable, especially with the myriad number of other nearby, fairly priced eateries specializing in pasta and brick oven-style pizza, such as Pizzeria Rugantino and the popular Coloseum and Palatino chains.

The visibly overflowing patio and provincial ambience aside, just how seriously Amfora takes its food is questionable in everything from simple starters to more complex pastas. Dishes were, at their best, average - and at their worst, downright blah.

While even the most disappointing establishments still turn out a decent starter or two, Amfora's tomato soup is simply ghastly. Though it's billed as being served with cream, the soup's watery consistency again hearkens back to school cafeteria days, seemingly on par with Campbell's or any other store-bought brand. Worse yet was the cringe-inducing addition of overcooked spaghetti noodles to the broth, not noted on the menu (at least on the English version) and making the soup impossible to eat with simply a spoon. Similarly humdrum was the bruschetta with salmon. Single pieces of smoked lox laid out on a tiny, bagel-like piece of bread with a few drops of olive oil seemed more like scraps from a local Kosher deli than a legitimate starter.

Though colorfully presented, pastas and salads were also uneven. Compared to the risotto Verdi, the tortellini alla Bolognese was an improvement, if a bit boring. The small cheese-stuffed, ring-shaped pasta shells came covered in a meaty sauce that was quite flavorful but not outstanding or particularly unique. Between the chicken and the Greek salads, the latter was the vastly superior of the two - a decent mix of bell peppers, tomatoes, olives, onions and a pleasant amount of feta. The taste could be improved with a bit more dressing, a problem which, fortunately, the kitchen solves by bringing along small bottles of olive oil and vinegar. "Fried chicken strips with a side of fresh vegetables" would've been a more appropriate description for the chicken salad. Though the strips and their side of ranch-like dressing were fine, the relatively small size of the dish makes it seem better-suited as a starter than a main course.

It wasn't until I sampled the pizzas that I finally reached a few optimistic highs. Amfora's versions are more akin to the authentic Italian style (crispy, thin crusted, individual-sized pies) than the popular New York or deep-dish Chicago versions. The restaurant's namesake pizza is topped with grilled chicken strips and mushrooms, as well as a pleasant three-cheese mix: mozzarella, eidam and Parmesan. Less successful, though still decent, is the pizza Roma, topped with mozzarella, broccoli and strips of bacon. Keeping the pie in the oven for a bit longer would have improved its quality, as both the crust and the bacon strips could be a bit crispier.

While the service staff seemed eager to please on my first weekend meal, that enthusiasm seem to dwindle over the course of the other two visits - much like my interest in the food.

If for some reason you're pressed to try Pizzeria Amfora, stick with the pizza. Though better pies are available at many places throughout the city, it's best to settle for - as the adage says -- something that is still good, even when it's bad. For anything else in the Italian department, just keep walking for an additional five minutes. You'll be sure to encounter something comparable, and vastly superior, along the way.    

Curtis Wong can be reached at
cwong@praguepost.com