A visit to newly-opened French brasserie La Gare yesterday marked my first foray into “formal” restaurant reviewing, and bloody hell is it tougher than it looks. In reality it’s actually not all that easy trying to balance discretely taking photos (without looking to the restaurant staff like some retard photo-obsessed tourist / Health & Safety department spy) with jotting down every single item you ordered / its price / what it tasted like to boot, rather than simply wolfing it down unreflected upon as usual, all the while trying to put up with Mr K spouting glib platitudes like, “Oh, the presentation is nice, sweetie, you could put that in”, and still retaining my cool on top of it all too (a task which on this occasion I unfortunately spectacularly failed to achieve). Suffice to say, I have a new-found respect for Brewsta, that’s for sure.

Occupying the long empty spot just off Namesti Republiky where Patriot X used to be, La Gare has (according to the waiter) only been open one week, and aims to dish up a variety of authentic Gallic cuisine cooked and served by mainly native French / French-speaking staff. It also has a small cheese and charcuterie shop in the side-section where, as I recall, Patriot X used to serve ice-cream. I was initially a bit confused as to why the place was called La Gare (train station) when their logo was clearly that of a rooster, until Mr K observantly pointed out their iconic train station clock at one side of the restaurant interior, which incidentally we both felt was very warm and inviting.

A basket of freshly baked French baguette and salted butter was also brought to our table. I am not a fan of this kind of dry, chewy style bread (even when that’s how it’s supposed to be), but Mr K enjoyed it. This entailed a couvert charge of 35kč.

As a starter we shared the shrimp salad á la papa Bocuse (175kč). This came with six large, fresh shrimps on a bed of lettuce and citrus fruits. We both really enjoyed the shrimps, and to my surprise even the grapefruit (not normally my fruit of choice) was likewise quite sweet and not too overpowering here. For two people to share it was an ideal portion size – for one it may have been a little much.

As a main, Mr K went for the magret de canard au miel et quatre épices (195kč), while I opted for the rabbit cooked in red wine (155kč).

La Gare does not have a dessert menu as such, but rather the waiter brings a selection to you on a plate and talks you through each one. We went for the one at the bottom of the picture (65kč), which in the absence of any concrete menu description I will simply term choc-chocaty-choc-choc-fudgy-marzipan-truffle-delight. If you couldn’t already tell from the description, we loved it... :-))

All in all, we couldn’t really fault La Gare, which we felt offered up well-cooked, nicely presented (my concession here to Mr K – sorry we fell out) food at reasonable prices, with service / timing / ambience all pretty much spot on as well. It’s only a week in, but if La Gare continues to keep their game up to this standard, Monsieur K and I will definitely be coming back for more...