The menu is written in a slightly confusing mélange of French and Czech, and runs the usual Gallic gauntlet of meat, fish and poultry dishes (vegetarians aren’t catered for well here). I also spotted quiche, omelette and eggs Benedict on the menu, which I made a mental note of for potential new brunch spots. Speaking French (reasonably well) and Czech (ahem, not so well), I asked our francophone waiter to talk us through some of the menu items we couldn’t quite decipher for ourselves, which he did very comprehensibly. I for one was just grateful that I now knew not to order the tucek šneků...

To start with, we ordered the Hortala red wine from the Languedoc region, priced at 355kč, and a bottle of sparkling Badoit mineral water (also French) at 95kč. I normally prefer New World wines to French, but this one was very drinkable. As I recall, only French wines were featured on the menu.

Of the two, I think Mr K made the better choice. His duck was tender on the inside with a crispy skin, and came in a sweet (but not cloying or sickly) sauce. My rabbit was also nice and generously portioned (on reflection that must have been one gigantic rabbit), being served in a hearty gravy and with the meat melting off the bone. I don’t get the chance to eat rabbit often, so this made for a welcome change.

The mains came with a side selection of carrots, asparagus and mashed potato, collectively priced at 85kč. From my point of view, the carrots and asparagus were slightly underdone, but that is perhaps only because I was raised in that renowned nation of culinary barbares (namely the United Kingdom), where we tend to boil our sprouts etc to within an inch of their lives before consuming. I have to say I loved the mashed potato though, which had a really nice garlicky taste to them with just a hint of sautéed bacon and onion.

Finally, Mr K rounded off with a pleasant café au lait at 45kč.

Luckily the sweetness of the prosecco still outweighs the sourness of certain members of the staff though, and so weather permitting, we will definitely be heading back for our personal little summer-time indulgence for the next few weeks and months to come… :-))

After initial reconnaissance of all the stalls and the calming influence of alcohol to temper initial over-excitement, it was finally time to get down to the serious business of extended degustation.

First stop was the Hergetová Cihelna stand, where Mr K and I shared a mini Cihelna burger with duck foie gras, home-made fries and truffle mayonnaise, priced at 5 grands.

This was a big favourite with both of us, made as it was with lovely medium-rare beef that left delicious juices running down your fingers. Would have preferred some good old fashioned mustard and ketchup to the truffle mayonnaise though, which I have to say didn't quite convince me, but Mr K by contrast professed to rather like.

Next stop on the tour was the Rybí Trh stand, where we shared a dish of black tiger prawns with piquant sauce and spicy cous-cous. I seriously loved the light barbeque tinge to their large fresh, juicy prawns, and could have easily put away another round right there and then.

From Rybí Trh, we then moved onto the Kempinski Hybernská stand, where we were both bowled over by their grilled flank steak on sweet batata potato purée with creamy white asparagus and pumpkin oil (5 grands). Suffice to say, it tasted as good as it looked.

Less successful here, however, was the Kempinski's rendition of scallops ceviche on vegetable brunoise salad with mascarpone and sorrel (5 grands). The scallops in our opinion were slightly on the bland side, while the brunoise salad didn't taste all that much different from your bog-standard Albert potato salad. In short, not all that impressive really.

Mr K also particularly liked the trainset here.

the Norwegian salmon tartar with marinated fennel and herb baguette from Rybí Trh (3 grands);

the basil panna cotta with marinated stawberries, also from Como (2 grands);

the Thai chicken salad from the Buddha Bar stall (4 grands);

the sashimi pizza with slices of tuna, wasabi cream and scallions from Hergetová Cihelna (3 grands);

the teriyaki salmon with wasabi potato purée and enoki mushrooms, also from Hergetová Cihelna (3 grands);

and last but not least, the sushi platters from Sakura (2 - 3 grand a plate),

and the oysters (my personal pet hate) from Nowado.

As predicted, the staff were immediately thrown into (admittedly rather charming) confusion when "that weird girl who always comes in on her own and only orders tea" for the first time actually professed a desire to order solid food and non-chai based beverages.

As Mr K never tires of repeating: "a day without wine is a day without a smile" (which rather makes alcohol dependency sound pretty twee and jolly, doesn't it?), so as usual I went ahead and ordered myself a nice glass of white to start off the meal. This particular glass, however, most definitely did not bring a smile to my face today though, coming as it did with an eye-watering 110kč price tag for a measly 0,15 glass, and not even particularly good quality wine at that. Apparently Chanchala only stocks Indian wines (of which this was actually the cheapest), which is all very well from a culinary standpoint, but quite frankly for that price I would rather have three glasses of bog-standard Czech Müller Thurgau and at least get tipsy off the back off it...

Unsurprisingly considering, for my next drink I instead plumped for a sweet lassi, which was actually pretty refreshing and nice (not too thick or sickly like some Indian restaurants make them), as well as a comparative steal at "just" 75kč per 0,2 glass.

Luckily my narkiness at being shafted on the wine abated somewhat, however, when the food itself arrived - a masala dhosa stuffed with potato, peas, onions and raisins (197kč). Being ravenous to the point of wanting to gnaw off my own arm already when I arrived, I pretty much polished this off in just a few frantic bites (in fact it took all my self-control just to pause to take the picture first...). However, despite it being something of a "blink and you miss it" affair in terms of meal duration, I have to say that the dhosa nevertheless was actually really pretty damn tasty. In fact I would even go as far to say that this rendition was just as good as any dhosa I'd had before in India, being generously stuffed full of tasty spiced vegetables and accompanied by a truly delicious dhal, some light mango yogurt sauce, and a kind of cardamon / coconut mix on the side. Either way, it definitely brought back warm memories of my halcyon Indian days at any rate... :-))

I did toy with the idea of ordering a pot of my beloved masala chai (pictured below) afterwards to round off the meal, but didn't have my bank manager's number to hand to take out an overdraft, and besides was already pretty happily replete as it was.

All in all the bill came to a fairly hefty 382kč, which did strike me as distinctly over-priced for what in production terms essentially didn't amount to much more than an over-sized pancake, a glass of milk and a dribble of subcontinental wine, and that all dished up in a bog-standard shopping mall restaurant to boot. On the other hand, I really did enjoy the dhosa and the lassi, which in themselves actually weren't all that overly expensive, so judging by food alone (and - like I say - I'm only going on this one meal myself) I would still definitely recommend at least giving the place a go.

So all in all a short but sweet dining experience, but one with a nasty sting in the tail when it came to the exorbitant cost of the wine. On reflection, in future I think I will probably just stick to tea at Chanchala from now on, or failing that (in true Great British pre-curry tradition) simply get tanked up down the local before I go the next time!! ;-))

Thirdly, I must confess that I have literally no idea if what I so ravenously put away tonight was in any way authentic Ethiopian or not, having chickened out of my intended Cairo to Cape Town overland trip back in 2006 due to the ongoing Sudanese conflict, bypassing the Sudan and with it unfortunately also Ethiopia as well to instead travel the safer, more beaten backpacker track from Kenya to the Cape instead.

And fourthly and finally, I am literally kicking myself for having missed out on one of the undoubtedly interesting special African nights held occasionally at the Ethiopia Café by a matter of just two days. As much as I like my usual Beyenetu Addis platter, I’d also have loved to have sampled the likes of ‘Cameroonian chicken in a sauce of exotic spices and served with peanut butter, manioc, sweet potatoes and manioc leaves pond’ or ‘malamba mushrooms with mashed beans and fufu’ (as described on the website), but from now on will definitely try and stay abreast of the Ethiopia’s special nights and be sure to head on down / report back in future.

So much for regrets in this case then, but for now back to the all-important subject of the food itself, which in this case consisted of Ethiopian Key Wot (beef stew cooked in Berbere sauce), Doro Wat (chicken slow cooked in Berbere sauce and served with hard-boiled egg and cottage cheese), Ater Keke Wot (split pea dhal), Messer Wot (red lentil sauce), and Atkilt Alicha (vegetable curry). The sheer fact that I a) ate the whole bloody thing and b) was already a repeat customer pre-blog clearly indicates that I have no complaints as regards quality of the food, but must say that I have always much preferred the two tasty meat curries to the three comparatively bland vegetable dishes. But then again when it comes to Ethiopia, like I say, not having ever actually been there in person, I can't honestly claim to know my arse from my elbow in any culinary respect here.

As for the restaurant itself, on this occasion for the first time weather permitted me to sit outside (though did manage to grab a quickie photo of the interior for the sake of review as well).