Cesta časem: Atmosphere for all seasons

Cesta časem has several things going for it, none of which is the food.

The pubby restaurant stands like a beacon in an otherwise drab neighborhood of student-housing towers among the Czech Technical University, with a large, multileveled front patio of shaded seating and a warm, cozy interior. Bric-a-brac lines the walls, wooden tables fill every available corner, and welcoming leather sofas sit next to a pretty fireplace.

On two recent weekday visits, the restaurant was comfortably full, with a mix of people stopping in for a drink or for a meal. It's rare to find a place straddling the seasons so well, with obviously a lot of thought having gone into both the indoor and outdoor environments.

The food, however, has an element of emboldened awkwardness akin to that of the cheesy Czech pop tunes blaring through the speakers. While perfectly competent with the basics, the kitchen tries to ham it up for no apparent reason, throwing incongruous items together, seemingly in the hopes that some combination will work.

Prices, likewise, were slightly extravagant for some items, and it seems numbers were chosen at random. A starter of fried ham rolls, for example, was 75 Kč for two small pieces. Rolled pieces of processed ham, stuffed with a pungent horseradish sauce, were deep-fried in a batter flecked with sesame seeds. While it didn't taste "bad" by any means, it was certainly strange; the sesame batter carrying a sweetness that would have been better offset by a crispy, vegetal filling, perhaps with a soy-sauce or ginger component. Instead, the horseradish, heated in the core to a scalding temperature, became too rich, and the plain ham did little to meet the aspirations of the plate.

It was an odd combination, and unfortunately the deplorable Krušovice was the only regular beer on hand to wash it down (although Cesta časem does occasionally pour special beers, like Velké Březno's green Easter beer, which was quite tasty). Likewise, only one white wine was available by the glass, a slightly bitter Chardonnay, which seemed rough for 55 Kč.

Onion rings were clearly the frozen variety, but were crispy and tasty, and went well with an accompanying spicy-sweet chili sauce. But it was a pretty measly portion of just five rings; a few more would have better justified the price of 59 Kč and made it a decent snack.

The mains sampled also failed to impress. While perfectly edible, they were definitely not worth the walk on their own. The chicken schnitzel, had it been served by itself, would have been fine; the meat was juicy and, for once, hadn't been hammered flat. The batter was thick and tasted fresh, with nice bubbles crusting the outside. But a heavy slathering of cheap blue cheese covered in cranberry goo was too much. Surprisingly, it didn't taste as bad as it looked - the berry and cheese almost seemed to cancel each other out in their bizarreness - but it wasn't very good. Boiled potatoes, ordered separately for a side, were nice and simple, large and buttery, with a sprinkling of chives.

Cesta časem's version of svíčkova is simply called "baked beef in cranberry sauce," perhaps to avoid a commitment to using the prized sirloin cut. It was a thoroughly disappointing take on the classic, the bland, lukewarm sauce having already formed a glutinous skin upon arrival.

Several items with pesto, oddly, fared slightly better. A generous bowl of grilled vegetables - eggplant, zucchini, red and green peppers and red onion - had been tossed with a light, green pesto and topped with a heaping of fresh Parmesan shavings. The veggies were grilled to perfection, with caramelized skins.  

A pasta dish was also quite satisfying, if utterly forgettable. Generic spaghetti, chicken chunks and fresh rucola were mixed in a decent portion with the same pesto and topped with the same Parmesan - so much of it that each forkful got a chunk of the good cheese.

Desserts continued the mediocre-if-not-offensive trend. Honey cake was just all right, slightly below-par with most restaurants' offerings of the traditional medovník. This one seemed simultaneously a bit too dry and a bit too heavy on the cream layers, resulting in something passable but again, for too high a price. The pancake with forest fruit was expensive and pretty dire, a small, sad-looking crepe topped with previously frozen raspberries and blueberries.

Cesta časem is an oddity. Were the prices lower and the drink pickings not so slim, it would be a great a pub for any time of the year. And if it stuck to the basics in the kitchen, it could be a decent restaurant, too.

Fiona Gaze can be reached at
fgaze@praguepost.com