Adventurous alfresco

There can be moments sitting outside at Restaurace Vozovna Stromovka that verge on chaos. All the background noises rise to the fore, the laughter of children playing turns into ambiguous screams and the techno blasting from the Výstaviště fair grounds seems particularly loud and unbearable. The dog trembling at your tableside for scraps puts its paws on your knee and starts whimpering, while the waitress asks if you can spare a light for that man over there. You've also just realized your food isn't particularly good, and you exchange a long look with that dog, whose owners are nowhere to be seen.

But there are also serene moments, when the sunlight dapples through the treetops just so, and the low chatter of families and roller-bladers is an almost idyllic summer backdrop for appetizers and excellent house-made iced tea, brimming with fresh fruit.

In general, the pleasant moments outweigh the chaotic. Still, it's best to approach Vozovna Stromovka more as a stop in the park than a destination in and of itself. As it's owned by the Belgian restaurant Les Moules, a selling point for its menu could be the 400-gram portion of Danish mussels in white-wine sauce for 189 Kč. But inasmuch as that was out of stock on a recent visit, it's not a dependable enticement.

The same goes for the chili-marinade pork ribs, the grilled Munich sausages and any of the items with smoked salmon, which were also unavailable. Granted, that could have been a fluke of a busy weekday, or perhaps some items are only stocked on weekends. But it considerably narrowed the already-slim offerings, and what items were left ranged from decent to bland to downright quixotic.

The starters/beer snacks, along with the baked potatoes with various toppings, are a good bet for a quick bite for less than 100 Kč. Fried toast with fish spread was surprisingly tasty: a homemade spread with lots of chunks of smoked fish and hints of cheese, with a good crunch from the bread. And a cheese plate, although oddly priced 20 Kč higher than the more substantial topinky, presented slices of smoked sheep's cheese and camembert lightly grilled to the brink of crisp and melting, but still firm. Two discs of Olomouc cheese were tough and satisfying, and mildly aromatic, with slivers of red bell pepper to garnish the cutting board.

The service may be friendly, but the staff seems constantly overwhelmed. Bread had to be ordered separately as an afterthought for the cheese plate. And once my dining companion and I were served our mains and reached for forks, we realized they were dirty. When this was pointed out to the waitress, she just smiled and shrugged and brought us more cutlery, all in her own sweet time.

Meanwhile, I watched my friend tuck into the chicken wings while I stared at my salad Lesieur, which ultimately was not worth the wait. Being named after a French oils company was the only noteworthy characteristic of a mound of iceberg lettuce, dressed with red onion shavings, overripe tomato wedges and hard-boiled egg, drizzled with what may have been the namesake oil but tasted of little but sugar.

The chicken wings were better than the salad, but that's not saying much. They looked the part, with chopped chives and a glistening, golden glaze, but proved sickly sweet and debilitatingly sticky. The accompanying garlic bread, at least, was quite good - soaked through evenly with garlic and oil, and slightly fried for extra crunch.

Another oddity was the tortilla with chorizo, rucola and cheddar. While the menu warns that you'll have to "Fold it yourself!," it was difficult to do so. A plate-size tortilla is covered with unmelted, grated cheddar and slices of chorizo, and topped with a mound of rucola. The tortilla is too crisp to roll up, but too unstable to bear the toppings in pizza-like bites. All the ingredients tasted good, but were bland in combination, and would have benefited from some sort of sauce to bind them.

The one memorable dish out of those sampled was the pljeskavica, a Balkan-style beef patty. Herbed thoroughly, the generous portion was tender and stood well on its own, and was even better dipped into the accompanying ajvar, a Balkan red pepper paste. This dish also came with the winning garlic bread, and, at 119 Kč, was a good deal.

Sadly, true to its parent restaurant, Vozovna Stromovka's Czech beer choice is Staropramen, with Hoegaarden also on tap and other Belgian beers in bottles. At least the Staropramen is cold, and there's a takeaway window. The white wine by the glass - Edelzwicker-Meyer Fonne, from Alsace - is very drinkable, perfectly light and fruity. For nonalcoholic drinks, the iced tea is highly recommended: a half-liter jug of freshly brewed, sweet and cool green tea with mint leaves and strawberries, for 35 Kč.

Even though moments at Vozovna Stromovka may be no walk in the park, it's an alternative to grungy beer gardens, with a budget-conscious menu and casual garden etiquette catering to families, dog-owners and passers-by.

Fiona Gaze can be reached at
fgaze@praguepost.com